CENTRAL DE ABASTOS

MARKET IN OAXACA CITY, MEXICO

The enormous main market, nearly 1km west of the Zócalo, is a hive of activity all week.

Saturday the biggest day. 

You can find almost anything here.

And it's easy to get lost among the household goods, artesanías and overwhelming quantities of fruit, vegetables, sugarcane, maize and other produce grown from the coast to the mountaintops.

--Lonely Planet

MERCADO 20 DE NOVIEMBRE

OAXACA, MEXICO

Looking for cheap street food? 

Look no further. 

Dozens of good, clean comedores (food stalls) fill the entrails of this large market where wait staff will thrust menus to within an inch of your nose as you stroll past.

The biggest treat for carnivores is the hugely popular Pasillo de Carnes Asadas (Grilled Meat Passage) on the east side, where a dozen stands specialize in grilling tasajo (beef) or cecina enchilada (slices of chili-coated pork) over hot coals.

--Lonely Planet

MERCADO BENITO JUAREZ

OAXACA, MEXICO

This daily indoor market, a block south of the Zócalo, peddles a mix of flowers, hats, shoes, cheap clothes and jewelry, baskets, leather belts and bags, fancy knives, mezcal, herbs (medicinal and culinary), spices, meat, cheese, ready-made mole, fruit, vegetables, grasshoppers and almost every other food a Oaxacan could need – a fascinating browse.

--Lonely Planet

CULINARY CAPITAL OF MEXICO

OAXACA, MEXICO

Mexico boasts some of the best regional cuisine in the western world.

Oaxaca is our favorite of all the wonderful regions.

It's known as the land of seven moles.

Each mole is unique, multilayered and savory.

CULTURAL COLOSSUS

OAXACA, MEXICO

A cultural colossus fit to rival anywhere in Latin America for history, gastronomy and colorful manifestations of indigenous culture, Oaxaca is a complex but intensely attractive city whose majestic churches and refined plazas have deservedly earned it a Unesco World Heritage badge.

Lovers of culture come here to indulge in the Mexico of Zapotec and colonial legend. 

Flowing through handsome yet tranquil streets, life pulsates with an unadulterated regional flavor. 

-- Lonely Planet

ORNATE CHURCHES

OAXACA IS A CITY IN CENTRAL MEXICO 

It’s known for its colonial buildings, many of which are made from green volcanic stone. 

The central Zócalo square features the Palacio de Gobierno, with colorful murals depicting regional history. 

Alameda de León square faces the ornate facade of the Catedral de Oaxaca.

THANKS SANTA, FOR 155,000 READERS...

...AND A GREAT 2017

Today, we passed 155,000 unique visitors to this blog.

We have made more than 1,700 original posts.

We have shared more than 1,000 original images from all over the world.

Our blog items had a word count above 120,000 -- enough to fill at least two large books.

We are thankful for a great 2017, including:

January -- I learned that PlusUrbia Design would be honored in May with the American Planning Association's  Economic Development Planning Gold Standard for the Wynwood Neighborhood Revitalization District.

February -- We celebrated Valentine's Day with our beautiful Siamese cat Honeybear.

March -- I learned that PlusUrbia Design would be honored in September with the American Planning Association Florida's Award of Merit in Neighborhood Planning for the Hialeah Transit Oriented Development.

April -- I went on a writing assignment to New Orleans and made friends with some jazz musicians.

May -- I observed Ramazan in Istanbul and made friends with legendary Armenian-Turkish photographer Ara Guler.

June -- Heidi Johnson-Wright was one of the very few non licensed architects to make a major presentation at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) National Conference in Orlando.

August -- I drew an assignment to co-author a major feature article on for Planning Magazine on Inclusive Mobility.

September -- We survived Hurricane Irma, only losing a fence along with some other outside damage.

October -- I went on a photo assignment to Oaxaca, Mexico and stayed through Dia de los Muertos.

November -- Heidi Johnson-Wright won the Pen 2 Paper writing contest for Crip Cargo.

December -- PlusUrbia Design moved to its new Coral Way studio office, after years in the Grove produced 10 awards and proclamations in the span of three years and the firm worked on key plans for Little Havana, Coconut Grove, El Portal, 395 and the SMART Plan of Miami-Dade County.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS...FROM PLUS URBIA DESIGN

WE HAVE MOVED TO THE HISTORIC CORAL WAY CORRIDOR

We're still in the heart of Miami on a main bus line.

Minutes from Brickell, Downtown, Little Havana, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables and the Health District -- we're on the edge of the picturesque Shenandoah neighborhood...where our founders live in a beautifully restored house.

Our Communications Leader and his wife also life in Shenandoah in a nearly century-old Spanish Mission style home lovingly preserved and updated for wheelchair access.

PLUS URBIA DESIGN

RECOGNIZED BY UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
FOR AN OUTSTANDING YEAR OF PROJECTS

Miami-based, PlusUrbia Design, comprised almost entirely of U-SOA Alums,” has enjoyed an historic year. 

Juan Mullerat and Megan McLaughlin -- Directors of PlusUrbia Design and U-SoA professor team teaching a studio on resiliency and transportation solutions – have led their Miami-based urban design studio to multiple major awards this year. 

They have also lectured on Resiliency, Transit Oriented Development and Complete Districts while leading several major, context-sensitive master planning efforts.

PlusUrbia Design, an urban and architectural design atelier, features U-SoA graduates Maria Bendfeldt, Manuel de Lemos, Bo Li, Sofia Villanueva, Mullerat and McLaughlin on its design team. 

To read the recent highlights of the Miami-based studio, click on the link:

https://plusurbia.com/u-soa-now/

OPEN AIR GRAND OPERA PERFORMANCE

OAXACA, MEXICO: TEMPLO SANTO DOMINGO

The acoustics were amazing.

The conductor was energetic. 

GRAND OPERA PERFORMANCE OPEN AIR

Dia de los Muertos weeklong celebration featured a free performance in the cool night air in front of the historic Santo Domingo temple and cultural center.

Oaxaca has some of the best cultural programs in Mexico.

CATRINA THEATER SPECTACLE

TEATRO BENITO JUAREZ, OAXACA, MEXICO

Catrina at Teatro Benito Juarez:  100 artists together, including the The Young Traditional Folk group of Oaxaca, The Orchester of UABJO, actress Wagive Jimenez Turcatt and Romina Ruiz.

CATRINA THEATER SPECTACLE

TEATRO BENITO JUAREZ, OAXACA, MEXICO

Catrina at Teatro Benito Juarez: 100 artists together, including the voice of Alexander Robles, the dance theater Metamorphis and Chorus of the City of Oaxaca.

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

XOXOCOTLAN, MEXICO

There are many other cemeteries to visit in the villages around Oaxaca. 

Different villages celebrate on different nights, and some cemeteries are only open during the day, but may still be worth a visit to see how the graves are decorated.

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

XOXOCOTLAN, MEXICO

At Xoxocotlan Panteon Viejo, you will find quiet spaces where family members remember their loved ones. 

There are many photo opportunities here, but try to be discreet, and ask for permission to take photos.

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

XOXOCOTLAN, MEXICO

There are two cememteries, in Xoxocotlan, the Panteon Viejo (old cemetery) and the Panteon Nuevo (new cemetery).

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

XOXOCOTLAN, MEXICO

The village of Xoxocotlan, commonly called Xoxo (pronounced "ho-ho"), which is now encompassed by the urban sprawl of Oaxaca city, is a good place to visit on the night of October 31st. 

MITLA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE

OAXACA STATE, MEXICO

Mitla was still occupied and functioning as the main religious center when the Spanish arrived in the 1520s. 

The high priest, called the Uija-tào, resided at Mitla, and the Spanish likened him to the pope. 

Nobles buried at Mitla were destined to become “cloud people” who would intercede on behalf of the population below.

At that time the urban center covered an area of 1 to 2 square kilometres.

--Wiki

MITLA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE

OAXACA STATE, MEXICO

Mitla itself was inhabited at least since the 100-650 CE and perhaps from as early as 900 BCE.

It began as a fortified village on the outer edge of the valley and later became the main religious center for the area. 

The Mixtecs took control of the area around 1000 CE, although the area remained populated by the Zapotec. 

The city reached its height and largest size between 750 and 1521 with both Zapotec and Mixtec influences in its architecture during that time. 

Mitla is one of the pre-Columbian sites that represent the Mesoamerican belief that death was the most consequential part of life after birth. 

It was built as a gateway between the world of the living and the world of the dead. 

--Wikipedia

MITLA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE

OAXACA STATE, MEXICO

Mitla is one of many well-preserved archeological sites of the Oaxaca Valley, where the dry climate has conserved sites as old as 10,000 years. 

This valley was settled by the Zapotecs who over the centuries developed a hierarchical society governed by kings and nobles.

While the valley was relatively isolated, the Zapotecs did have contacts with other Mesoamerican peoples. 

By the time the Spanish arrived, the Zapotec state had a population of over 500,000, sophisticated construction techniques, two calendar systems and agriculture using irrigation and terraces in the mountains to grow food for a mostly urban population.

--Wikipedia

MITLA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE

OAXACA STATE, MEXICO

Mitla is the second most important archeological site in the state of Oaxaca, and the most important of the Zapotec culture.

The site is located 44 km from the city of Oaxaca in the upper end of the Tlacolula Valley, one of the three that form the Central Valleys Region of the state.

The archeological site is within the modern municipality of San Pablo Villa de Mitla. 

While Monte Alban was most important as the political center, Mitla was the main religious center. 

The name Mitla is derived from the Nahuatl name Mictlan, which was the place of the dead or underworld. 

What makes Mitla unique among Mesoamerican sites is the elaborate and intricate mosaic fretwork and geometric designs that cover tombs, panels, friezes and even entire walls. 

These mosaics are made with small, finely cut and polished stone pieces which have been fitted together without the use of mortar. No other site in Mexico has this.

--Wiki

FLAWED LOGIC

FROM A SUPPORTER OF A DEEPLY FLAWED PRESIDENT

I wrote last weekend about my challenging an acquaintance to explain if he regretted voting for Trump.

I usually don't do these kinds of things.

I'm not a "I told you so," scorekeeping, gotcha kinda guy.

But I am watching an insane person and his right wing sycophants destroying good things that took decades to build in the nation I have lived in for more than half a century.

They big ah-ha ammunition my former friend came up with.

That he did us all a big favor because Trump, while a little Twitter rant addicted and not quite a statesman, is not Hillary Clinton.

That's it.

Pure and simple.

She would have been the devil.

And that's all my acquaintance needed to tell me.

Like I would smack my hand upside my head and totally get it.

That's right, it is perfectly logical to prop up Trump's rating by creating a mythological narrative for what the Hillary Clinton presidency would be like.

What a mind meld miracle, I thought.

This puts a whole new light on everything.

Fire the Dolphins coach because he had a cocaine addict right hand man on his coaching staff.

Hell no, if it been the coach behind door #2, the assistant coach would have been a mad sniper picking off people from the top of a college tower....so by this new Trumpian tribal logic, the bad guy is the good guy...simply because a presumed, never to play out in reality, path taken by the runner up would most certainly be much, much worse than the reality being crapped out by Trump today.

Wow, who knew this bit of mind trickery would work out so air tight logically.

In this mode, my former friend, who is Jewish, should build a monument to Hitler.

(are you crazy Steve, I hear you asking?  are you a neo Nazi nutcase?)

Nope, I say.

I'm simply applying the new -- Trump is good for America because Hillary would have been the Devil -- logic to world history.

You see, Hitler and his Nazis that killed and tortured -- Jews, disabled people, gay people, mentally ill people, etc -- did everybody a big favor.

The other potential leader of Nazi Germany, hiding behind door #2, would have slaughtered 60 million.

So by comparison, we should rewrite the history books and crown Hitler the king of humanitarians of the first half of the 20th century.

But why stop there.

If the Trump supporter logic is spot-on, then we need to do a whole lot of re-framing of history, simply because the Hillary of the time....clearly would have been much worse if they grasped the reins of power.

Jerry Sandusky?  Swing open the prison doors and let him run a Boy Scout Troop.  Yeah, he used his power to rape, molest and destroy little boys put in his care....but hey, the runner up "Hillary" coach behind door #2 would have victimized 10 times more boys than Sandusky.

Sandusky, in an exemplary showing of restraint, only robbed the innocence of a dozen or so.   Better build a statue of him on the Penn State campus -- because he saved more than 100 boys from falling prey to that Door #2 predator that he admirably took the place of.

There's more.

John Wayne Gacy.  A monster. The Trump school of faulty logic thinks not.

He strangled his sex torture victims before stowing them under his house.

The evil, "Hillary" hiding behind Door #2 clown-cloaked killer would have buried the boys alive.

See, by comparison, Gacy's damn near a stand up guy.

I mean, when you find out someone's kidnapped, raped, tortured, killed and buried your son.....wouldn't you feel so much better knowing that the bizarro world, Hillary-esque, lying in wait behind door #2 predator didn't get the chance to do terrible things to your boy before burying him alive.

See, Trump supports aren't crazy.

It all makes perfect. Sense.

Just trot out some insane, never will be realized terror scenario of what Evil Hillary (and is she so evil because she's progressive, or because she's a woman.  We all know their role is to take a grab by the P---y, not to perpetuate the old white male indignity of first living under and African American president, then living under a woman in the White House) and Trump looks like the second coming.

Yep, that's it.

I know see the light of day.

In fact, I'm going to catch the next flight to Ohio to thank the insane, cruel, hateful boss that treated my wife like dirt when she was working her tail off in one of her first jobs out of school.

Why, under the prism of this new Trump supporter enlightenment, I now see that the boss was a stand up person.  A true mentor and humanitarian.

I mean, they didn't toss my wife out of her wheelchair.

They didn't toss acid in her eyes.

But surely, the #2 candidate, the monster who they were blocking because they got the job, would have beaten my wife to death and hidden here where I could never find her.

Yep, sure hope that old Bastard is still alive.

Gotta fly up and thank them for being an a-hole, yes, but not nearly as bad as the Hillary that could have wrecked everything, if given the chance.

MONTE ALBAN

OAXACA, MEXICO

The etymology of Monte Alban's present-day name is unclear.

Tentative suggestions regarding its origin range from a presumed corruption of a native Zapotec name to a colonial-era reference to a Spanish soldier by the name Montalbán or to the Alban Hills of Italy. 

The ancient Zapotec name of the city is not known, as abandonment occurred centuries before the writing of the earliest available sources.

MONTE ALBAN

OAXACA, MEXICO

Besides being one of the earliest cities of Mesoamerica, Monte Albán's importance stems also from its role as the pre-eminent Zapotec socio-political and economic center for close to a thousand years.

Founded around 500 BC, the city had lost its political pre-eminence by the end of the Late Classic (ca. AD 500-750) and soon thereafter was largely abandoned. 

Small-scale reoccupation, opportunistic reutilization of earlier structures and tombs, and ritual visitations marked the archaeological history of the site into the Colonial period.

--Wikipedia

MONTE ALBAN

OAXACA, MEXICO

The partially excavated civic-ceremonial center of the Monte Albán site is situated atop an artificially-leveled ridge, which with an elevation of about 1,940 meters above sea level rises some 400 meters from the valley floor, in an easily defensible location. 

In addition to the monumental core, the site is characterized by several hundred artificial terraces, and a dozen clusters of mounded architecture covering the entire ridgeline and surrounding flanks. 

The archaeological ruins on the nearby Atzompa and El Gallo hills to the north are traditionally considered to be an integral part of the ancient city as well.

--Wiki

MONTE ALBAN

OAXACA, MEXICO

Monte Alban is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site in the Santa Cruz Xoxocotlan municipality in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.

The site is located on a low mountainous range rising above the plain in the central section of the Valley of Oaxaca.

--Wikipedia

MIAMI HIGHRISE EXHIBITION

PLUSURBIA DESIGN IS HAPPY TO BE 

INCLUDED AMONG THE EXHIBITORS

Make time to visit the Miami Highrise Exhibition at MCAD in Downtown Miami, open every work day from 10am to 5pm.

Arquitectonica, Ateliers Jean Nouvel, BIG, Patrick Blanc, Brillhart Architecture, Moshe Cosicher, De la Guardia Victoria Architects & Urbanists, Duany Plater Zyberk, Fons Design and Architecture, Foster+Partners, Herzog & de Meuron, Jaime Correa & Associates, JLH Architect, Khoury Levit Fong, Ruediger Lainer, Monad Studio, NBBJ, OMA, Oppenheim Architecture+Design, Perkins+Will. Plusurbia Design, Raymond Jungles Inc., Renzo Piano Building Workshop, R&R Studios, Shulman+Associates, Sieger Suarez Architects, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, Trelles Cabarrocas Architects, Triptyque Architecture, Zaha Hadid Architects.

https://plusurbia.com/miami-highrise-exhibition/

miamihighrise.org

MEXICO HISTORY LESSON

WHITE EUROPEANS RAPED, MURDERED

& STOLE FROM NATIVE PEOPLE

They needed a wall to protect them from us.

#ImpeachTrump

PLEASE STOP THE TRUMP INSANITY

Maybe it was the tax plan aimed at only benefiting the super rich.

Maybe it was reading about GOP plan to stack Federal courts far and wide, so their unconstitutional laws will never be repealed.

Maybe it was the endless manipulation of access to affordable healthcare, starving off the so-called Obamacare.

Maybe it was the indignity of having a POTUS get into name-calling Twitter rants that would be shameful behavior by a petulant 12 year old, not a 70-something supposed leader of the free world.

Something broke the camel's back and I approached an acquaintance -- who once was a free thinker -- who voted for Trump in a fury of repeating silly soundbites and hateful rhetoric.

This person once could be moved by facts and evidence, not bullying and B.S.

So I asked them, what exactly has their (not my) president done to move the Country forward?

They stumbled around, mentioned getting rid of special interests (I guess they no longer have to lobby, since they have their own fox guarding the henhouse vampires directing regulatory agencies and holding cabinet level positions.)

He said government is getting smaller (not sure how that adds up, with more than a trillion in deficit being racked up, just so folks worth hundreds of millions can pay tiny tax bills like they were $50K gross income households).

I finally said, you know you made a mistake. I should be putting you on the spot, but can you just say this guy is a disaster.

Well, backed into a corner, my friend had renewed confidence. Old KKK-loving #45 might not be setting the world on fire, but he's better than her.

Oh, so Trump is our savior because Clinton would have been much, much worse.  Oh, I get it now.

I get it that some kind of Tribal loyalty rules over any sense of reason, logic, truth, facts, etc.

More on this Hillary would have been worse flawed logic next Sunday.

NOTE TO MY HOSTS

IN OAXACA, MEXICO

Unlike piece of crap USA POTUS, 

I do not think all of you are thieves, rapists, murderers and worst.

#TrumpIsAMoron

CHATTING WITH A TAXI DRIVER

IN OAXACA MEXICO

Told him now I know the shame of living in a nation that elected a hateful, moronic, evil and dangerous dolt.

#TrumpIsAMoron

USED TO FEEL PROUD

BEING FROM NATION OF FREEDOM, 

DEMOCRACY, COMPASSION & LIBERTY

Now I feel ashamed being from US of Trump.

#TrumpIsAMoron

WHEN I EXPLAINED TO EVERYONE THAT LISTENED TO ME IN MEXICO THAT I HATE TRUMP...

... DID THEY BELIEVE ME OR THINK I WAS PANDERING?

#TrumpResign

TRUMP SUPPORTER FRACTURED LOGIC

STILL SUPPORTING A RUTHLESS DICTATOR

Not all Trump supporters are rednecks living in a burned out old school bus in coal country....still seething that a black man not only dared to be president, but generally accomplished a helluva lot considering the economy was in free fall when he was sworn in and the right wing Senate and House did everything it could to include his human-based agenda.

I happen to know a highly-educated couple who were fairly liberal Democrats when we met them in early 2001.

Both are professionals.

One is a double minority -- Hispanic and Jewish.

One has fought a litany of health issues that would seem to make them want to favor access to affordable health insurance.

They were big Hillary supporters the first time she ran, when Obama eventually won the nomination.

Somehow -- maybe there is poison in the water where they live in Broward County -- they shifted into being Trump supporters.

Even though Trump's power base is white supremacists. Even though his moral guidance was an anti-semite Breitbart alum.

Even though Trump made fun of a disabled reporter.

Even though Trump said Mexicans are filthy murderers and rapists...and while the Hispanic person in the husband wife-team isn't from Mexico, you would think he would take offense at a President denigrating any minority group.

They unapologetically supported the great myth that is Trump....that the Donald would somehow drain the swamp, rather than fill it with greedy one percenters who are taking away health care, tax deductions for medical care, parkland and every essential a middle class or working poor person needs to survive.

Most of their clients are progressive Democrats.  I have been so bitter about the election, I have thought about "outing" the couple to their clients.

I wonder if those folks suffering under an insane, ruthless POTUS would be so quick to pay their public and private sector dollars for the professional services of a couple who like race-baiting maniacs in the White House.

So far, I have not outed them.

I ran into a mutual friend the other day.

She mentioned that the couple is hurt that I have not socialized with them...face-to-face or on social media, for more than a year now.

I said I cannot sit down to pasta and wine and renew a friendship with people who support a bloodthirsty, would be dictator. I live in Little Havana. More than half of my neighbors -- Cuban, Central American, South American -- have fled a dictatorship.

They have had relatives imprisoned, castrated, tortured, ruined -- simply for trying to be free thinkers under extreme right and extreme left regimes.

Sorry, but I cannot force a smile and think of the old days, with people who willfully ignore the evil of #45.

#TRUMPPENCEMUSTGO

USED TO BE PROUD TO SAY I WAS FROM USA

WHILE TRAVELING ABROAD

Now ashamed of my nation and heartless, brainless #45

#TrumpPenceMustGo

(photo is of good, loving family in Mexico...not the kind of picture idiot racist Trump paints)

TOMAS TRUMPS...TRUMP

HOW DO YOU LOOK A MEXICAN FRIEND IN THE EYE WHEN THE LEADER OF YOUR NATION HAS BRANDED HIS PEOPLE AS THE SCUM OF THE EARTH?

I am talking to my friend Tomas.

One of 10 children, he left his Zapotec village for Oaxaca City at age 15.

He worked 7 days per week.

Drove a cab.

Took a year of nightly English classes and became a tri-lingual tour guide.

His oldest son is an architect, his oldest daughter a lawyer.

The next youngest is a school teacher and the baby of the family is finishing a masters and is contemplating doctoral work in human rights.

And I am faced with telling him that though our household didn't vote for him, I have blood family and neighbors that elected a president that has branded Mexicans rapists, thieves, murderers and lazy.

Tomas still works 7 days a week and feels guilty if only works half a day on Sunday.

He is industrious, warm, good humored and positive.

And I have to somehow explain that we have more than 3 years under an idiot despot that rules by fear, anger, ignorance and worse.

45 had everything handed to him by daddy.

And if he really had grown the family fortune, it is through deceit, treachery, litigation, strategic bankruptcy, government subsidy and even other kind of underhanded dealing known to man.

I don't know about you, but I'd choose, in a heartbeat, to have Tomas running our nation.

While the Russian puppet, stole the election, mentally unfit, halfwit, treasonous Trump rots in jail.

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS, 7 MOLES

ANCIENT RUINS, RICH CULTURE

 So sad to explain to Oaxacans that USA has idiot POTUS.

 #TrumpBaitAndSwitch

SPANIARDS RAN ROUGHSHOD

OVER INDIGENOUS PEOPLE FOR CENTURIES

Must Trump’s vision white western European only U.S. still mistreat Mexico?

#TrumpBaitAndSwitch

WHAT I AM THANKFUL FOR

DIVERSITY...AND UNDERSTANDING THAT DISABILITY 
IS THE MOST NORMAL THING ON THE PLANET

This little girl was about the only one not in costume at the Escuela Primera Benito Juarez costume and altar contest in Oaxaca, Mexico.

I was walking by and she grabbed my arm to point out her dressed up siblings.

I took their fotos and introduced myself and asked If I could take hers.

She shook me off 3 times and said she's fea.  I said well I'm gordo, so we're a team. 

She relented and I took her foto. She clearly has some kind of syndrome that impacts her eyes and possibly gives her a learning disability.

She wanted to see her foto, so I showed it on the screen along with her family's shots that I took.

I stuck my hand out and said Esteban, mucho gusto.  And she thrust her hand out to shake mine and introduced herself as Yu.

I apologized for my poor Spanish and she said she didn't mind.  Then she hugged me with all her might.

Thank goodness the kids had to que for a parade.

Because I had to run to the corner of the decorated school yard and weep for joy.

Perhaps some see Yu as disabled, as different as not “normal.”

But to me, she is most soulful and beautiful creature on earth.

2 WEEKS IN OAXACA MEXICO

MAYBE WE DO NEED A WALL

To protect its great culture from our western influence, not us from them.

 #TrumpBaitAndSwitch

PLEASE URGE YOUR REGISTERED VOTER FRIENDS

TO VOTE TODAY FOR ALFIE LEON FOR MIAMI CITY COMMISSION DISTRICT 3

Miami is at a crossroads.

It is a wonderful international city with millions of things to do.

But it also is a place where wages are not keeping up with the cost of living.

It is a place where the concentration on developing high end homes for the super wealthy has meant virtually no workforce housing has been built.

Miami cannot be a place simply for the haves, with the majority being have nots that struggle to keep their family out of bankruptcy while serving the every need of the haves.

District 3 is one of the last places in the City that has a mix of affordable, workforce and medium income housing.

It is located close to most of the major job centers -- the airport, seaport, Brickell, CBD, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables and Health District/Civic center.

But Little Havana also faces development pressures that could make it more expensive.

It also could see mom and pop, authentic businesses driven out by faceless chains.

The District needs a person of honor, integrity and vision.

Alfie Leon is that man.

His opponent, unfortunately, has a history of loose cannon, vindictive and divisive behavior.

We wholeheartedly endorse Alfie Leon.

URBAN DESIGN STUDIO FOCUSES ON RESILIENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY IN MIAMI

At the University of Miami School of Architecture

Juan Mullerat and Megan McLaughlin are teaching a studio to introduce architecture students to urban design at the University of Miami School of Architecture this semester. 

While it is not their first time teaching at UM, it is a first teaching a studio that centers around resilience and transportation solutions in Miami, more specifically on the re-emerging Little River neighborhood in Northeast Miami. 

Juan and Megan’s team teaching effort in helping to prepare future architects to find solutions to the imminent problems Miami faces matches their commitment to community shown continuously through their firm’s projects.

https://plusurbia.com/urban-design-studio-focuses-on-resiliency-and-sustainability-in-miami/

Let's Not Forget Miami Candidate Joe Carollo's Domestic Violence Arrest

STORY COURTESY OF THE MIAMI NEW TIMES

Joe Carollo was arrested in 2001 for hitting his wife so hard he left a golf-ball-size welt on her head.

One of the then Miami mayor's young daughters called 911 and begged, “Help, my dad is hurting my mom! Please come now, please!” as a woman’s screams were heard in the background.

Now, "Crazy Joe" Carollo — one of Miami's most infamous political characters who has somehow kept his political career alive for decades despite acting like a Trumpian lunatic long before the Orange One ever entered politics — is back. 

He's preparing for a runoff election Tuesday, November 21, against challenger Alfonso "Alfie" Leon for Miami's District 3 city commission seat.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/miami-candidate-joe-carollo-once-arrested-for-domestic-violence-9839236

EARLY VOTING TODAY AND SUNDAY

VOTE ALFIE LEON FOR MIAMI COMMISSIONER DISTRICT 3

The Miami Herald enthusiastically endorses Alfie Leon over his troublesome, meddlesome, not fit for office opponent.

Here's an excerpt of the newspaper's endorsement:

“The most impressive District 3 candidate is Leon, 32, and an attorney who has proven to be a hard-working campaigner in the district.

 He worked for departing Commissioner Frank Carollo as a legislative aide and chief policy adviser. But for a few blips, his boss indeed was concerned with constituent service and, more impressive, took on the issue of youth crime. So Leon clearly knows the issues and what the job entails.

“Leon’s earnest, people-centric views are refreshing: ‘I decided to run because we need public servants and not politicians. We need people who are beholden only to their neighbors and will act towards bettering these neighborhoods,’ ” Leon told the Board.

“Leon pointed to a unique problem in the district: unfettered dumping on the streets, which give the district an unkempt and uninviting look. Residents deserve better.

“Leon also considers such issues — trash, traffic, the cost of living, crime — to be the district’s main issues. We think he can do something about cleaning up the district — literally.”

MIAMI-DADE TPO SMART PLAN

East-West Corridor Study Advisory Committee Meeting

Proud PlusUrbia Design is part of the Atkins Team applying Smart Growth, Transit-Oriented Development, premium transit and livability to promote proper density, more affordable housing and multimodal mobility to keep up with growth in Miami-Dade County.

https://plusurbia.com/miami-dade-tpos-smart-plan/

http://mdtpo.org/smartplan-land-use-planning-visioning.asp