Coconut Grove Spotlight

09/09/2025

Each weekday at 7:45 a.m. as the gates swing open – just as they have for more than 100 years – Dania Garcia takes her place at the entrance to Center Grove’s Coconut Grove Elementary School.

Outside, a stream of kids and parents arrive through all manner of transport – scooter, skateboard, golf cart, bicycle, automobile, and on foot. Garcia, the school’s newest principal, greets them with a smile.

“I feel very, very fortunate and very lucky to have been selected to be here,” Garcia said.

Story by Jenny Jacoby.
Photos by Patrick Farrell

Read more at the link in bio.

05/09/2025

Families who live behind the playhouse are fighting to save their neighborhood from the commerce and congestion that could overwhelm their quiet corner of Coconut Grove once the playhouse is rebuilt and reopened to the public.

A group of playhouse neighbors came together this week to voice their concerns about the plans for the Coconut Grove Playhouse and the impact on their neighborhood.

29/08/2025

For years one of the most storied homesteads in Coconut Grove has remained for many shrouded in mystery as deep as the lush vegetation that frames its ornate red gate.  

Thousands of motorists drive past The Kampong sign on South Douglas Road each day, and many may well have wondered what happens on the property that runs from the roadway to Biscayne Bay. 

Plans to raise the profile of the historic house and grounds include hosting more community events – an upcoming Halloween party in October, for example – promoting lectures and art shows, holding plant sales and increasing the number of student groups who make use of the garden’s resources for research projects. 

“We are trying different things to attract a more diverse demographic,” said director Brian Sidoti.  “We are known as a hidden gem.  We want to be known as a gem.”

Read more at the link in bio.

29/08/2025

With AI brains, cartoonish looks and relentless energy, food delivery robots are zipping past pedestrians and turning heads in the Grove — and perhaps offering a glimpse of the future for takeout meals.

With AI brains, cartoonish looks and relentless energy, food delivery robots are zipping past pedestrians and turning heads in the Grove — and perhaps offering a glimpse of the future for takeout meals.

29/08/2025

A Sunny Isles teenager has been arrested and charged with causing the death this month of a 54-year-old bike rider on the Rickenbacker Causeway.

A Sunny Isles teenager has been arrested and charged with causing the death this month of a 54-year-old bike rider on the Rickenbacker Causeway.

20/08/2025

Read more at the link in bio.

20/08/2025

A 54-year-old man died from his injuries Friday evening after a bicycle accident on the Rickenbacker Causeway — the latest in a series of cyclist fatalities on the busy and popular roadway linking Coconut Grove and Key Biscayne.

It is the ninth fatal bike crash on the causeway in the past 19 years and the second major incident evolving a minor operating an electric vehicle in the Coconut Grove area in the past month.

According to police, Fabian Moses was riding in the eastbound bike lane at approximately 8:20 p.m. when he was struck from behind by a 14-year-old boy riding an electric dirt bike, or e-moto – a class of electric vehicle that is larger and more powerful than an e-bike. The boy was riding with a juvenile female on the back of his vehicle.

Read more at the link in bio.

20/08/2025

Bicyclist Killed on Causeway Raises Electric Vehicle Safety Concerns

A man was killed after a collision with a 14-year-old riding an e-bike on Rickenbacker Causeway, one of Miami’s heaviest—and most dangerous – cycling routes.

09/08/2025

When Natalie Morales teaches her weekly yoga classes in Coconut Grove, she defies the typical image of a yoga instructor.

She doesn’t arrive in activewear – she wears a breezy button-down instead – and she guides her class with equal parts of motivation and humor, teasing students for looking too serious between poses.

“It doesn’t matter what way you move,” she tells them. “As long as it’s special.”

(Patrick Farrell for the Spotlight)
Morales herself has taken that advice to heart, and the mantra she repeats during class – “do it your own way” – might just as well describe her teaching style, and her life.

Read more at the link in our bio.

06/08/2025

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens may be best known today for the palatial home where industrialist James Deering once spent his winters. The truth is, though, it took a village with a chicken house and a dairy barn back in the day to keep the estate humming.

The 12 original buildings that made up Vizcaya Village more than 100 years ago constituted a working farm, with gardens and greenhouses, garages and workshops, a dairy barn and a pump house that fed, fixed and watered the bayfront estate.

Five of those buildings – the chicken house, the dairy barn, the farmhouse, the stable and the wagon shed – are now the focus of a restoration effort that museum managers hope will make the historic property a community hub for Miami residents today.

“We’re hoping this will be a new era for Vizcaya,” says Vizcaya’s Director of Marketing and Communications Alejandra Serna.

Read more at the link in our bio.

05/08/2025

Paralyzed at 21, Harry Horgan turned heartbreak into hope—founding Shake-A-Leg Miami and changing thousands of lives in the process. Thirty-five years later, his mission still sails on.

Shake-A-Leg Miami – the brainchild of Harry Horgan – is in its 35th year, all of them here in Coconut Grove.

The organization has grown over the decades, partnering with the Overtown Youth Center; the United States Department of Veterans Affairs; and Miami Dade County Public Schools, among many others.

Read more at the link in our bio.
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25/07/2025

Volunteers at this month’s Derelict Trap Rodeo on Biscayne Bay removed 112 abandoned “ghost” traps from bay waters and another 782 pounds of marine debris.

The sun shimmered over calm waters as a small Florida International University research vessel zigzagged slowly across Biscayne Bay on a hot and humid Saturday morning.

Aboard the boat, a team from FIU’s Institute of Environment scanned the horizon in search of a telltale round bob of a buoy. They peered through the shallow water looking for box-like shadows resting on the seagrass below.

The FIU researchers were among a dozen boat teams and a large contingent of shoreline volunteers who participated in this month’s Derelict Trap Rodeo, a biannual environmental cleanup organized by Friends of Biscayne Bay (FOBB).

The goal was to remove derelict crab and lobster traps that continue to entrap and harm marine life long after they’ve been abandoned.

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published by on July 16. The Spotlight is re-publishing this story under a partnership agreement with WLRN.

Read more at the link in bio.

Story by Carla Mendez and Sofia Zarran