The Place - not to be

I should have known better - I have lived in Miami Beach for a while.

I wanted to eat a burger, so did my wife. We decided to go to Ocean Drive, name to News Cafe, where we have enjoyed quite a few meals.

On the way, I saw a burger that looked very nice, at a place called - you guessed it - The Place. At 720 Ocean Drive.

The rest of the food looked wonderful, but I really wanted a burger, so did my wife. The price was 13 bucks and change. I ordered a lemonade and she ordered a diet coke.

The food was good. Good ingredients, nicely cooked, good presentation etc.

The big surprise was the bill. The drinks - served a single time, with no alcohol, cost a whopping US$12.00!. Yes, you read it, 12 freaking bucks for what amounts to sweetened water!

I suppose that if The Place,  at 720 Ocean Drive, needs a slogan it should be

"HOME OF THE 12 DOLLAR COKE"

First and last time I go there.

CrossfitA1A

How about Miami Beach's elderly,  small children, and small animals...There is a gym on 71s Street, near Collins Avenue, called CrossFit A1A which uses the sidewalks as its private race track. Part of the training, I suppose, is racing around the block once.

This is another accident waiting to happen. These people run, sometimes carrying weights, with no regard whatsoever for the people who are walking on the street. At the corner of Harding and Seventy First, they race very close to the wall when making the turn (see the picture below, taken from their own site!), and I have nearly been hit a few times. Some of these dudes are huge, and getting hit by one of them at full speed, carrying weight, is similar to being run over by a small truck!

Additional trouble is, there is a store at that corner, and I can surely envision another elderly lady carrying groceries being stampeded by people who care much for their bodies, little for anything (or anybody) else.

The restaurants at Collins Avenue, which, by the way, pay an arm and a leg for rental, must also love the sweaty, high speed people almost crashing into their patrons.

I could understand if this were a neighborhood without parks, or proper venues to practice sport. But the fact is, one short block away from the gym, there is a wonderfully wide  promenade built for running, which could be used by these folks without endangering the lives of old folks, small children or just regular adults.

Will anything be done? I don't think so. I have written the gym about, got a nice reply, that said the issue would be discussed during a meeting. The problem stopped for a few days, now it seems to have blossomed. I wonder who will be responsible for an accident, if it happens on the sidewalk.

PICTURE FROM THE GYM'S SITE

Incidentally, the same gym parks a car, with plentiful of identification that parks for hours on end, in an area clearly marked "Unloading area - Tow away zone". Guess what" It never gets towed, and never gets a ticket. The gym has been written about it, same spiel, nice reply, stopped for a while, and the car can be found parked there illegally, for hours. 

Strange things happen in Miami Beach.