Some History of Miami: Carolina Florez - Caro The Tour Guide

SPEAKER_00 0:04

This is the Beyond the Story Podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now, Sebastian Bro. Carol, the tour guide, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Hello. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

The first in-person uh interview with the new set here at the podcast launch lab. Very exciting.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

I feel very special.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

You should. You should feel very, very special. I found you on the internets, which that used to be weird. It's like the norm now. And uh I was like, this girl's got it. Like, because there's so much noise and so much bullshit and just online that you've got to navigate through stuff that that that feeds us. And uh being a Miami guy, I wasn't born here, but I was raised here. So 305 till I die. Most of you don't even know what that means. But they're like, I know who Pitbull is. Uh so seeing your content, I was like, I really resonated with it because I'm a history buff and I also love Miami history uh a lot. So when I discovered you, I was like, this girl knows what's up. Well, as luck would have it, I'm giving a talk a couple weeks ago in downtown Miami, and I did a QA at the end, and there were some people from Miami Dade County there asking a question about content, and we're kind of boring with what we do. What should we do? And I was like, Do you follow the tour guide? And they're like, Yeah, we do. And then my videographer went to high school with her and his friends with her. It's like filling so again, alignment, people, alignment.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

So first of all, I love how you say you you related boring content to me, but it's true.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Well, when they said I was looking for the opposite, they were saying boring. What what what do we talk about when we're boring? I'm like, well, maybe mix it up a little bit and not talk about what's so boring, but talk about this the great city that we live in. So um, can you push those chords right behind the TV that are bugging me? There we go. Just yeah, there we go. The Miami, there we go, right on the side. Awesome. We don't cut that out. We're just brand new set here. No producer, too. So we're doing pretty well. Um you like my skateboards?

SPEAKER_01 2:20

I do. They're nice, they're very nice.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Yeah, I don't write them much anymore because I'm risk adverse at 44. But uh, you know, um I I do cruise on them. There's superb means of transportation. I I this thing took me all around Miami when I first moved back. I had a bus pass and a skateboard, which I tell that story a lot now. Humbled, humbled days. And uh it got me around Miami.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Sustainable ways, you know?

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Hey, there it is.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Sustainable forms of transportation. Yes, you know. Somebody called me broke and lazy for using like the train. I have a car. I'm like, I'm sorry for thinking about the community and not adding to the traffic.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

I saw your rant a little bit about that the other day. That was that was great.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

You will see me rant sometimes. I try not to over overdo it, but I will.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

No, we're not at all. We're just adjusting the sub it said as we go here, don't mind me, people. I thought we could have done this beforehand, but it's all good. Thank God for post. All right. So, how'd all this start? You're you're you're I thought maybe tour, like being a tour guide was one of the things that you did uh as as a content creator, but you're all in, all chip pushed to the middle of the table when it comes to tour guide. What what sparked all of this?

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Yeah, it's uh it's been a perfect storm of events. Um, and I do like to tell this story because it just kind of is a testament to following your heart, following your intuition, and uh just doing what you want to do. So I started tour guiding back when I was 19 and I was going to Miami Dade College. And if you've been to Miami Dade College, it's at least when I went, it wasn't like, you know, it was kind of depressing. Like so gray. There was no trees. People there are not enthusiastic to be there at all. So kind of a depressing environment. At least the Kendall campus was like Wolfson, I think, would be a different story.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

I broke my ankle there.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

He broke his ankle there. It's just not good.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Roller skating.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

That's probably why they don't allow skaters anymore. Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

But it's just kind of like a depressing environment. I was working in an office where I was the only employee and I telecommunicated with my boss, which now thinking about it is ridiculous. Why wasn't I also working from home? Why did I have to dress up and go to this office? Dumb. Um, but the point of the story is that I was alone every single day. And I'm a really extroverted person. So it really started to take a toll on me. And I was like getting severely depressed. So I was like, what can I do to change this up? I want to be outdoors. I want to be with people. And originally I thought, okay, I want to be a park ranger. Like I'm gonna look for a job as a park ranger in the Everglades. Uh turns out it's actually really hard to become a park ranger. Like you really have to know people in order to get into the industry and um, and I guess not be like 19 years old.

SPEAKER_03 5:05

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

So I didn't end up getting any park ranger jobs, getting even any sort of callback at all. Um and so then I went where I always found my jobs, which was on Craigslist at that time. And I saw an ad for um That's where I found my girlfriends. Oh.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

Random encounters, I think the category is. I'm kidding. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Were you at Publix yesterday on my god, the the letters to a stranger? Yes. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

Those are fun sort of Did you grab egos out of the freezer at Publix yesterday?

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Honestly, Craigslist is a very underrated website. I agree. Very underrated.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

I get all my videographers when I'm in other cities to speak, I go find videographers on Craigslist.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

It's the best, it's the best, like like internet diary directory.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

It's way better than Facebook Marketplace. Good lord.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Yeah, no, and for jobs, honestly, I never heard back from any job that I'd applied to on Indeed or like any other website. Wow. But I would always hear back from the people that I would contact on Craigslist. So it was very reliable at that time. And I found an ad to become a South Beach bike tour guide, no experience needed. Like, we'll train you and everything. And I was like, that sounds like fun. I'll be outdoors. I'm studying.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Be bore on a bike. Is that what happened? Or said it does it.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

It was more of a bike, um, but I start did more Segway tours than anything. Ah, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Mall cop.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Like a mall cop, yeah. I was mall copying around my page.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

But tourist, tourist, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Actually, mall cop two came out while I was working at the shop. And like they they rented our segues to do something, some sort of PR thing. Amazing. Yeah. So it was it was kind of funny. Um, but yeah, I just saw this ad and I was studying business at the time, so I figured tour guiding would also help me with the skill of public speaking, which is very important in in, you know, your business acumen and and also interpersonal relationships. So I saw a value to it other than the money, which is something that I always harp on when I, you know, my friends ask me for any sort of like business advice or life advice. Don't just do anything for the money, find a value or take a job that is gonna give you a skill.

SPEAKER_03 7:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

So that's what I saw with tour guiding. I thought, okay, cool. This is I could learn some skills, I could hone in and really, you know, hone in on these skills and make money to pay for college. Um, so I did that for a year at this particular shop. It was, I got paid horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible. I had to take on a second job, um, working at night at this language school in Miami Beach. And I was also still going to school during this entire time. So I did not have a life from 18 to 22 or 24. No, I graduated at 24. So I took a little bit longer because I was working, you know, having to pay for school and all that. Um, and and then yeah, that's where that started. After a year, I had saved up enough money. I had made I also earned a scholarship from FIU. So I was like, all right, I'm gonna quit and I'm just gonna focus on school for right now. And as I was talking to one of the ladies at the language school, she was like, Oh, send me your resume. Like, we're hiring at at this company that I work at. And um, and I was like, okay. And I ended up getting uh hired. And I was like, well, it's a it was a really good job opportunity too, because now I wasn't just working as a tour guide, I was also working in the back end, like in administrative work.

SPEAKER_03 8:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

And so half the time I'd be in the office doing sales and administrative work, and half the time I'd go off and do the tours. So very often, like I would be in the office and like selling people a tour, and then I'd show up on the bus and I'm like, okay, I'll send a tour guide. Full circle, baby. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

And that was really the best. I got so lucky with that job. It was a small company, literally, husband and wife like worked alongside with each other. They paid us really well, they paid everyone there really well. So the turnover was really low. Like everyone had stayed in that job, and we built a really nice crew. Um, and I loved it. So I stayed there for three years until I graduated. And I graduated from FIU December of 2019. So we all know what happens three months later.

SPEAKER_03 9:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

And that was definitely a blessing for me because, like I had just mentioned, I had been working and going to school full time all these years. Like I did not live that sort of college life. I did at one point um do a six-month study exchange in Denmark because I was about to graduate. So I was like, dang, like I all I do is wake up at five in the morning, go to work, go to school, come back at like midnight. I had no sort of life. I was a workaholic, just escaping life's problems. And so I was like, let me like do something. And that's just that's a whole other story. But that was that experience also shifted a lot of my mentality. It shifted a lot of the way that I trusted myself in the things that I could do because here I am, like this girl that comes from a low-income background. Like my parents both work at the DMV and they do not pay well at the DMV. I've had to be financially self-sufficient since I was 15, like pay for my own prompt, pay for my own grad bash, pay for my own band fees. Like I've had to figure it out from from a very young age, which is also the reason why I find myself to be so self-sufficient now. And so I'm I'm like, you know, that was great, great experience. Um, but here I was doing this six-month exchange, really like kind of out of the box and very risk risky. But I did save up a lot of money and I like you know, applied for a bunch of scholarships. I got that done. And from that experience, I realized like, wow, if I can do that, if I can go live abroad for six months, pay for it all myself and do this all by myself, I can do a lot more. So that experience definitely shaped my life. But anyway, um, back to after I graduate. So I graduate. I thought that was it for tourism. I even though I loved it. I even wrote a super sentimental post on like my Instagram, like me as a tour guide. And I was like, oh, I'm really gonna miss these days. Like I know this is gonna, this isn't gonna be forever, and I'm gonna have to find a big girl job. Like literally a paragraph where I was like mourning.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Like a whole paragraph.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Like a whole paragraph. Because I was just like, no, you know, I really it was genuinely a job that I very, very much enjoyed. Um and that I the fact that I was able to do it for four years at that point and never get bored was like that that was a big sign.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Um is that where you learned a lot of Miami history?

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Yeah, that's where I learned everything. That's where I learned everything. So the first thing I'm gonna do.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Did you get some books, start Googling shit, or like? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

I mean, I the first job they they taught me, they trained me to the city. Make friends with Dr. Paul.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Is that his name? Dr. Dr. George. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually don't know him very well, but oh yeah, he's he's the only, like when I think of Miami history at all, or tourists, like he's the only one I thought of. Then I and then I met you, and I'm like, okay, there's two now that actually know what's going on here.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Yeah, he is definitely the OG. Yeah, 100%. I'm definitely gonna be, you know, taking over and uh in the industry in that sense in the in the later years, but um, but he is the OG. Um, but yeah, like I really thought that that was it.

SPEAKER_03 12:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

And so then the pandemic hits and I am laid off. Obviously, there was no tourism happening at that point. And it was really, you know, for me, and I say this with so much gratitude and so much privilege, but I was a lucky one. I um was eligible for unemployment. So I got that like $800 a week unemployment, which was so nice, and didn't have to worry about money. That was the first time I'm in my life that I never had to worry about money like that. I could pay my rent. I even lived by myself at one point. I used to live with a roommate and then she left. And I was like, well, I could pay for it by myself, so I'll just stay by myself. Like it was so, so, so nice. And um, and yeah, but just so I'm inquiet and like I really can't stay still. So after like a month of doing nothing, I was like, okay, what am I gonna do with my time? Obviously, this is not like a two-week thing, like we all thought it was gonna be like, Oh yeah, we'll get over this in like a month or two, or maybe two weeks. Like sure. But, you know, once I started to realize that we're in this for a longer haul than I thought, I just started to think like, what can I do with my time? What do I know currently? And that's how I came up with the idea for Miami Mondays. So I came up with that idea on a Sunday, and then the very next day on Monday, I woke up, got dressed, ready, put on my makeup, got on my bike, rode it to Miami City Hall, and then like selfie style made a video about the history of Miami City Hall.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

And I released it that very same day. So, you know, I edited it, I found this like software called Movavi and I downloaded it. I paid for the licensing fee. I edited it right away. I released it, and then I was just like, okay, I'm gonna do this every single week, and I'm gonna make a two-minute video about a different landmark, something different historic, like history uh related to Miami, um, and call it Miami Mondays. And then that's where that started.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

How long you been doing it now?

SPEAKER_01 14:08

It's now been like three years, more than three years at this point. That was it was in May of 2020 when I started making the videos.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Wow, I love that. I love that. So you did something with being stock home because Zoom tours of Miami probably wouldn't have flown too well.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

No, and definitely like Airbnb tried to do that. It didn't it never panned out. Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

No, they did try to do the classes and whatnot. Yeah, yeah. I think I applied to like teach one. Yeah, never heard back from them. Now it all makes sense. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

It didn't really pan out with that.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

But um the Miami the Miami City Hall, it's funny that you bring that up. That's the old seaplane airport, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

It used to be now where was Pan Am at?

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Before they were at Miami Airport, where Miami International Airport will be.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Got it. And there's a building that's still there's that building's still there, right? And they want to tear it down, but some people want to keep it there.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

I'm actually not sure. I should find out. And before they were at that airport, they were in Key West.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Two separate things here, ladies and gentlemen. Seaplanes, Pan Am. Um, I just read something the other day. I don't know where, but uh, I guess there's a big group that wants to rehab the Pan Am building that's still at MIA that they want to tear down. So I want to get on uh they did like renderings. Yeah, they did they did renderings of uh of what Pan Am like stay strong after like you know all these years. I mean it's got a lot of history to it. But I remember they had a store in Kokawok.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Yeah, they did, they did. And and really Pan Am is what helped shape Miami or like set the tone for Miami being an international city because they were the first airline to charter international flights. So it was seaplanes to Cuba, and that's where they would fly out from Dinner Key. But like that set the tone for what we are now a very international city. So Pan Am is definitely we should definitely preserve that. Yeah, why should I see that article?

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Yeah, I 100% gonna do that. Um, I always I I don't know if it was is it Dr. Paul, Dr. George? What's it?

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Paul George, I think.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Paul George, yeah. Okay, so it was kind of both, kind of both right there. I I man, I feel like I mangle this story every time, um, but I'm sure that you know it. So um the the normal cast of early day characters of Miami were Mary Brickle, Julia Tuttle, Henry Flaggler. There was probably a couple other people in the mix there. But um Flagler's Orange Grove froze over. And was it Julia Tuttle? Or Mary Brickle said, Hey, why don't you come on down here and we'll do a little swaparooney?

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Yeah, so I actually went to a nerd night the other day at this Gaia, which was a lot of fun. And that sounds fantastic. It was amazing, it was fantastic, and it was focused on Henry Flagler, and it was more about like the dirty history because this man was incredibly rich. If you ever go to his house, um, Whitehall in West Palm Beach, it's now the Henry Flagler Museum. Um it's an incredible, huge structure. And for somebody to have something that big in the early 1900s, like you really had to do some shady shit in order to get there and like stomp over some toes. So it was talking more about like the dirty history of Henry Flagler, which was really, really enlightening. And I loved it so much because we only hear like the positivity of it all, but there's definitely a lot of dirty things that he did. And they mentioned that, you know, and I've been telling this story for years about Julia Tuttle Tuttle sending him a basket of oranges, and that's what showed him that Miami was all good. Yeah, apparently that never happened. Apparently that never happened. History Miami, they're they they're the ones who said it. Like the archivists of the History Miami Museum like said that, and I was just like shook. I mean, my world shattered. I thought, what? I've been spewing lies all these easy.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

I've been part of a conspiracy of oranges. So uh no, I it was my understanding that his orange grove froze over, and Julie Tuttle's like, hey, why don't you head south? Oranges won't freeze over down here. Um and you know, I'll give you the land, but you gotta extend the railroad down to Key West.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Yes, that's correct.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

That is correct, but the the basket of oranges, I guess, was not a real thing.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

My my buddy, uh, I first heard that at a BNI meeting, actually. Um, my buddy Will Dukes told that story, but he talks about we've all heard about extending the olive branch, but she extended the orange bush branch. Uh, and that was the first time that I had heard that story.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

But and also the Mary Brickle, obviously, her vision was what Brickle is this to this day, which is like an urban working, like I do wonder if Brickle is the vision that she had, because back when they lived here and owned most of the land, it was mansions that were in front of the bay, okay, not skyscrapers, not buildings. These were residential, uh not residential, residential mansions. Like really, really nice huge houses that are no longer there, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

So I just Brickle Drive.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Uh yes, exactly, exactly. More like that. Um, but she did uh envision Brickle being like a a big hub, that's for sure. So that's why she built the roads. So she was responsible for that neighborhood in particular.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Which another fun fact about that, if you look at a map of the roads, all the streets are diagonal.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Exactly. They tilted it to the natural axis, and that's why it's called the roads, because streets go from east to west, and so there's no streets in the roads since they tilted it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

I love that neighborhood a lot. I I when I first moved back, I left Miami for a little while. I recommend doing that because then you appreciate it when you come back.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

So much, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

So much so. So I left 2000 to 2009 or 2008, came back in 2008, and I lived in Brickle, and Brickle was a ghost town then. Um, but my daughter went to school at Southside and we lived in the view right there. And then when we moved out of the view, I'm like, oh, the roads is nice, but I got like six bucks to my name. So I'd always learned a great hack. Live next to the neighborhood that you want to live in. So I lived at the end of 20th Road for about seven years. I kind of came back to life in that little Little Havana uh entrepreneur den, I called it, but um fond memories. I I passed by there often. But the roads is a great neighborhood, but Little Havana is outstanding as well.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

It is, yeah, it really, really is. The Rhodes is like my dream neighborhood.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Oh, it totally is.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

She made it very pedestrian friendly. She put a lot of like everything was really intentional because she wanted it to feel like a suburb right next to the city. So like people can work in Brickle and then like live and have that life in in Records. That's exactly what it feels like. And it is, yeah, so quiet. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

Well, Shannon Doe has started to, you know, poor man's roads used to be, not anymore. Like there's no, I live close to right around the corner here of to um Coral Gate, another great community. Um, which kind of, you know, there's only one entrance, two entrances in and out of the whole neighborhood, but it reminds me of the roads. It goes coral way to 8th Street and then 32nd Avenue to 37th Avenue. There's a gigantic wall around it, like a whole gate. But it's like it's an escape from like the the the madness of my the the business of Miami. But um Shenandoah, how did Shenandoah come about? Was that after the roads, obviously?

SPEAKER_01 21:14

Or yeah, that was the working class neighborhood, and it was more of a Jewish community. That's why it was called Shenandoah. That's a Jewish word, I don't know what it means. Probably should. Figure out. Yeah, what does Shenandoah mean? Uh my Jewish followers, please help me out. Um but yeah, it was more of a Jewish working class community um that eventually the Cubans took over in the 60s, and uh that's where it became Little Havana. And there's still like a small part that is still called Shenandoah, but it used to all be Shenandoah. Like Little Havana all used to be Shenandoah.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Was that I I believe I did a walking tour one time in Little Havana, and that there that White House was the first mayor of Miami's house. It's off of fourteenth or fifteenth, right off of Eighth Street. Old house. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

I actually don't know.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

I think it would it would have been. I think again, I'm just rehashing some h some of my highlights in my mind that come out of I have so many history questions about Miami on here. Um what's your favorite part of Miami?

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Oh, that's a very difficult question because I feel like every neighborhood has like something that I really like about it. Like I like how Miami Beach has preserved so much history and it's the the neighborhood that has preserved the most history, and it's a testament to how historic preservation can lead to long-term financial benefits because the tourists only come here for South Beach. Sure. They like to feel like they're in this cartoonish world and it's so different. It's you can't find that anywhere. You simply cannot just build that anymore. So I love that about that. It's changed a lot though. It's changed a lot. Um, but the MDPL, they work hard to keep the uh the history alive. So shout out to them. And um, I love like downtown because of the the collection of architecture, neoclassical architecture, French revival. Like it's so unique and um it's so so so cool. So I love downtown. And I think downtown is gonna be the number one neighborhood in very in a very few short years, like maybe five, ten years. It's gonna be the spot. It has everything. And it has parks, which a lot of neighborhoods don't have. Brickle has no parks and they deal with hoop problems all the time because dogs are shitting on the sidewalks, because there's no parks.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

There's one right next to the metro rail. They close it.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

What do you mean, the underline?

SPEAKER_00 23:34

No, there was one right behind the Brickle Metrorail station. There used to be with about the state. The Simpson park.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

That is, yes, that is a small little two-acre park. Okay, I was gonna say they can't still hard working hammock, and they close at like three and they're only open on like weekdays. It's weird.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

They have homeless people peeing in there when like during the day.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

So yeah, so it's it's not the it's not a great example of a park, really. Like brickle lights do not have public green spaces, which is you know, kind of a detriment to your quality of life. So brickle. Um so I think downtown.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Plus the flooding.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

And the and the flooding. The flooding's a little probably because it's all concrete and there's no, you know, grass to absorb water.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

And the traffic too. Yeah. That's a good time.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

That's why I scooter around.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

So every neighborhood has his little quirks that I love. Like Little Havana, I love that it's a lot of local owned businesses. All of it is locally owned and it's got that very, very local flavor.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

I hope it stays that way.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

And I hope it stays that way too.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Good Lord. Because I remember watching Winwood come to life. Yeah, you know. Yeah, that's what I would say. Ten years ago, Winwood was awesome. I miss Lester's coffee shop, was the best. Let's just change something. I mean, I don't even go anymore because it feels like the new South Beach. There's tour buses everywhere, which is great. Love the tourists.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

They uh they fuel our economy down here, but it's it's too many, but they fuel our economy, but there are a lot of national chains. So is it really our economy that we're doing?

SPEAKER_00 24:56

No, I'm talking about the people that come here. Yeah, no, not the big brands.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

No, I mean in Wynwood, because you see now like just kind of box brands there. Oh, uh, there's a footlocker.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Well, that's typical gentrification, though. Bring in local artists, come in, bring the neighborhood back. That's like step one of gentrification. And then as things go, prices go up and big brands come in and push out all the people that built the neighborhood, which kind of, well, it doesn't kind of it does, does suck.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Yeah, it definitely does. It definitely does.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

I was there for an event not too long ago on a Saturday night, and I was like, get me out of here.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

I do not go to Winwood anymore. No. After the pandemic, I'm good. After they started charging $12 to go into the Winwood walls, a disgrace. Like, do not get me started on after Tony Goldman died. It that's when things really started to go under. Um, I would say, because Tony Goldman, I think, had an idea, a better idea of like how the neighborhood should be, but his daughter is not his daughter, is obviously just you know profit-minded. Um, she actually just won an award, a visionary award, and I'm not they got that one wrong. Yeah, they definitely got that one wrong. I don't agree with that at all. Um, you know, it was like, oh, in visionary.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

It was funny that you mentioned that. I walked by there the other night. My buddy Peter Toon, the famous Peter Tooney is is in the Winwood walls, has been since God spoke to Moses. And uh I was like, let me swing by and see what he's up to. And I couldn't get in anywhere. I mean, I guess I could have just called him and been like, hey, I'm at the gate. How do I get in here? But used to be you can just walk right in there.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Yeah, yeah. It's it's just it's ridiculous. One of the only pedestrian areas, one of the only walkable areas of Winwood, and they close it off and charge not two dollars or something.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

Yeah, like a dollar maybe $12 for fucking what? Right. And does it benefit any of the artists that are in there? Probably not.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

No, no, no. Their excuse, which kind of makes sense, is that um they had tour guides just saying whatever, so they wanted to control like the information that was being spoken of, but that still doesn't make any sense because when you go in there, you're not getting a tour.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

So Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

It's still just walking around looking at the same walls, and I just I'm so against that. I'm I just cannot believe that they would do something so greedy and ridiculous. And for that reason, I just do not go to Winwood anymore. I never even recommended to my tourists. I'm like, there's better neighborhoods we can go to with better history that we can support better in you know businesses. Um, so yeah, don't even get me started on Winwood.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

Yeah, I feel the same.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

It's same thing with walk is no longer.

SPEAKER_00 27:20

I know I was about to say I did Artwalk in Artwalk used when when I started going to Winwood and when it was starting to come to life, Artwalk was dope. Like you could literally go from gallery to gallery with a glass of wine or a cocktail and like meet the artist and like get to like Morel uh Miguel Peretes was one of the first galleries that I went to. Uh, and he was a super famous artist back then. Uh, but that was one of the first few that we would go Saturday nights, and they would have a DJ and Heineken would sponsor it, but like on a very low-key like way, not like full-blown, it feels very, you know, big brandish.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

Yeah, and at that point there were enough galleries to do so. That's where that the arts district name, there was like about 70 galleries at its peak, and now there's only three left. So it's like, is it really an arts district anymore? No. Three, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

I think it's after Burrito sold out, it was all downhill from there.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

Yeah, I don't know. I think after Tony Goldman died, it was that makes sense now.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

I never really thought about, I never really thought about that, but um, Tony did have a lot to do with the the, you know, the the the like the up-and-coming rehab of what would become Winwood. I just remember the early days, like 2009, being able to drive through there, and I'm like, where is this? Like I grew up in Miami. He's like, this is Winwood, this has always been the art district, and then the Garment District, and right here. I'm like, I had no idea this was even here. He's like, because when we were growing up, you didn't really come over here. No, it wasn't like this part of town. Right. Yeah. Right. Um, there was a lot of cool parts around, not just on 2nd Avenue. Um, Jimmy's Kitchen was my favorite restaurant in Winwood, the best Mofongo on the planet. He moved to Atlanta. Jimmy, if you're listening, what up? Um, but again, got priced out. That was that's the you know, that's been the challenge with it. And then um Midtown seems to be something now. Like that took a minute, though, and it still is a little weird and like off. I think it's it's it's perfect for everybody that's migrated here and be like, this is fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

It's literally transplant city. Like, I met a lot of transplants that live in Midtown and they were like the first residents of their building. So, like for the transplants, Midtown was perfect. It's definitely like suburbia in one little spot. It's got all the you know basic brands that you know people want the Target and the Marshalls and the Dick's sporting goods, and like it's got all the basic stuff. Like Trader Joe's not too. Oh, Trader Joe's, I do love Trader Joe's. I'm not a big fan of like big box brand things. It's like, come on, you know, we should be supporting our local economy. But so Midtown is like, yeah, I guess there's something there.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Design district is just not my speed.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

I actually really like design districts.

SPEAKER_00 29:57

I do too. It's our Beverly Hills. It's it's it's very fancy.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

It's very fancy, but I do like the way that they have designed it, their intention behind everything, the artwork. So every year they have a commission and they um it's a c it's a competition amongst artists to create a public art installation, and it's highly competitive. Um, this past year was the first time that a Miami local, technically a Miami local, he's been here for 10 years, so we'll give it to him. Um, a Miami local won that um Jermaine Barnes.

SPEAKER_03 30:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:29

So he won the last commission and he redecorated the entire district using these pots and pans to resemble like Carnival, um, and these big chairs with these pool noodles like sticking out also to resemble like the costumes of Carnival. So like very much like tying into like um Miami culture and like more of like Miami black culture. So I thought that was really interesting and really cool. But they do this every year and they give opportunity to like artists to like come and do some really cool stuff. The art, some of them will become permanent, and with that, it's really nice. It's also one of the more walkable neighborhoods. It actually is it has walkability and is nice to walk around. All of the flora and fauna that they put in the neighborhood was um, it was um what's the word I'm looking for? Not commissioned, but a fairchild garden. They're the ones who did everything. So they put only native plants to help the bee and bird pollinator community.

SPEAKER_03 31:27

Love it.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

Um, and I love that. So I like their the intention that they put into it. It's and and Winwood and Design District grew up together, like they're kind of like twin sisters that were promises that were made to the art bossel community to convince them to come down here. And so they grew up around the same time, and they're just it's so funny to see how different they each are. And I think Design District is definitely a lot better. It has more intention, it has a little bit more heart and soul to it. I see Craig Robbins, the developer on Instagram, like he's always in the district, he's very involved. On the other hand, Jessica Goldman.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

Where are you at? Yeah, I don't know. Uh just north of there is another one of my favorite neighborhoods, Buena Vista.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

Ah, Upper Buena Vista is so nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

It is.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

I've been to that area, but I I don't frequent it too much.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

No, I don't either. I I don't either. I go to breath work up at uh what's the upper Buena Vista? Yeah. That that whole little looks like a little piece of Disney World out of nowhere.

SPEAKER_01 32:25

Yes, yes, so cute. So, so so cute.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

It really first time I went up, I'm like, where is this? But again, we're continuing to that that that area. I guess that was like the is that like the river district? No.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

The yeah, like Little River? Yeah, the Little River District.

SPEAKER_00 32:40

It's it's on up there. The Upper East Side. I go up there on Sun, that's like my Sunday morning jam sometimes. Um well, not quite all the way up there, but um MIMO, I guess it would be. Uh, to El Bagel, which is a legit bagel. I don't know if you had one familiar. I have not. Okay, so they were a food truck and then they did they're a permanent location now. It's all order online type deal. Like you order online, you pick it up, they got it all like streamlined. It's this new wave of ordering food on there.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

But so I should have told you, but I actually I only have until one.

SPEAKER_00 33:12

No, we're good. Okay, we're good. No, that's perfect. We have we have uh look at six minutes to spare. Normally it's a 20-minute conversation, but in-person is a little different. I had 500 history questions. So um, I'm gonna include all of her links. So even if you're not in Miami, you'll probably end up coming to Miami. So you want to make sure you follow her. Her content's great. You'll learn a little bit about Miami too. Um, so make sure you connect with her. Uh, what are you excited about? What's next?

SPEAKER_01 33:35

Um, I'm very, very excited about my upcoming partnership with the Department of Transportation with Miami Dade County. That's gonna be really exciting. Perfect. I'm very, yeah, I'm very like I had mentioned earlier, Denmark really shaped the way that I trusted the way that I did things and how I trusted myself to take risks. Like I know that I'll pull through and I'll know I'll get out there. But it also showed me a different quality of life and the way that we were all biking around. We all had access to easy, clean, great public transportation. Um, and how I felt in that space, I realized like, wow, this is so much better. Because I grew up in Kendall. And like I mentioned, also my parents worked at the DMV. They I got my driver's my lure's permit a week after turning 15 and my driver's license a week after 16. So I've been driving well over 10 years at this point, and it's just so exhausting. Like it really drains so much out of you. And and when I realized over there how much energy wasn't being drained, I realized wow, like I could be utilizing this energy on something else, on my health, on sure, you know, some so many other things. So that shaped a lot of my mentality. Um, so I'm gonna be working with them um to create more educational information. So I'm very excited about that. Um and just excited to continue improving Miami Mondays. It's that's definitely gonna, I'm gonna continue to do that. There's still so many things left to make. Like there's there, I'm definitely not running out of material at all. And I love to learn a lot of new things. It's helped me branch out in my knowledge um of Miami. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

How are the butterflies doing on your patio?

SPEAKER_01 35:15

They're doing good right now. I don't have any.

SPEAKER_00 35:18

She always creates content on her Instagram. It's not like I've been I'm like, what's she doing over there on her face? It's on Instagram on here, but like full blown, like from the beginning to like full-blown butterfly.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

I'm very active on my stories, very, very active. And I'm also very active with like my community. So, you know, if you message me, there is like a 90% chance that I will reply to you, whether it's today, whether it's three days from now. But I always try to get back to everyone and like have conversations. It, you know, you learn so many new things and you meet, I've met so many people, which has been really nice, but I'm very active on my stories. So I talk all about like my other hobbies, which are gardening, um, which, you know, I do Pilates, I'm in a run club, I'm a run captain for the run club.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

That's why I ran into you the other day.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. That was into you at the run.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

It was like all within 24 hours, too. That was I was like, hi. We had never met before. I'm like, hi. It was like seven o'clock in the morning. She was like, hey, super weird guy on the bridge saying what's up.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

I was just like, Do I know you? Because now I've gotten to that point where like people will say hi to me. They recognize me from Instagram, and I'm just like, oh, have I met you or do you just know me?

SPEAKER_00 36:26

I just flat out, I am like, where do we connect at? That's why I usually just I throw myself right into the box.

SPEAKER_01 36:30

I should probably I'm gonna use that from now on.

SPEAKER_00 36:32

Yeah, where do we connect at?

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

Carol, thanks so much for your time and for coming into the studio. Uh, I'm I'm a huge fan. I love what you're doing. I've been a creator for for a minute now. And when I see, when I discover new talent, it uh it's refreshing, especially when it has some substance to it. And it's something that we're deeply passionate about here in Miami. Uh, you gotta live here just to know it and get it, especially growing up here in Kendall.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

And you gotta get out of here to really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 36:57

Really, really did. You got that Latin love. There's just something about this city that is undeniable.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

So you taste coffee from outside of anywhere out here.

SPEAKER_00 37:06

Yeah, you're like, this must be espresso. Yeah. Absolutely. Carol, keep doing what you're doing and uh love your content. Uh and can't wait. I'm going on a tour next week, too. I can't wait. Locals only.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

Oh, yes, I'm also very excited to continue expanding that as well. So that is uh the only public tour that I do. I only do private tours. Um, but this one is on a double decker bus, a two-hour tour. So it is a tour. I'm giving a tour of the city, but there is trivia. You sign in on your phone, so it's scored on your phone, and then I have um grand prizes from Vizcaya and from Fairchild, and working on getting more prizes, so it's a lot of fun. And you get it's a chance also to meet local people that are interested in the same thing. You know, there are uh history people that enjoy history and people meet each other all the time, so it's a lot of fun. Might meet a wifey, hey. Might meet a wifey. You never know.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

You never know. Will there be mojitos involved?

SPEAKER_01 37:56

You can buy as many drinks as you want. Yeah. Social hour. Do we stop? Eat, drink. No stopping, but there's a social hour beforehand.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_01 38:04

And at that point, you can eat, drink. You know, everybody's coming from work, so it's like you can just go straight there and have your dinner and drink and meet people.

SPEAKER_00 38:11

I'm so excited, as Honey Boo Boo used to say. Carol, thanks again and keep rocking with you.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 38:18

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

See you guys soon.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story podcast. Be sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Be sure to appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, launchlab.com studios. We'll talk to you next time.