The Pokemon Go phenomenon has reached a fever pitch across the United States.
And locally in South Florida, the app has forced thousands of people to explore their community while also inadvertently causing some pretty funny scenes.
One of those funny scenes happened on the campus of Florida International University.
On Sunday night, scores of FIU students rushed to a single point on campus all in the hopes of catching an elusive Pokemon inside of Green Library.
Eddy Madero, a marketing student at FIU captured the scene on his phone and narrated it pretty well.
“All for a fucking Squirtle,” Madero said in the video.
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We’ve reached out to talk to Madero and we’ll update this story.
Do you have a funny Pokemon Go story or experience? Contact us at [email protected]
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
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Miami’s Shame: Little Farm Trailer Park Sinks Into Slum As Chinese Land Owners Ignore Resident’s Plight
The closest that most of the world has come to the Little Farm was during the pilot episode of HBO’s original series Ballers.
In the show, retired NFL player Charles Greane works as a salesman at the very real Tropical Chevrolet car dealership (8800 Biscayne Blvd) before Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson swoops in to convince him to get back on the field.
But three blocks away at the Little Farm trailer park in El Portal (8500 Biscayne Blvd), the HBO cameras wouldn’t dream of going. No luxury to be found there. Just unspeakable despair.
There, one of Miami’s former great working class neighborhoods has been turned into a slum by years of bad landlords and poor governmental oversight.
Photo Credit: Rich Robinson/ RISE NEWS.
The Little Farm is not talked about much- mostly because few people seem to know about it and even fewer care.
There’s lots of poor people in Miami and the area’s middle class is somewhat used to the idea that poverty is close to home.
Homeless men and women are a ubiquitous site at most I-95 off ramps in the area, meaning that it is near impossible to avoid the thought of abject poverty on your daily commute.
And yet, we ignore it and go home to our comfortable lives filled with Netflix and minor inconveniences.
But the Little Farm is different.
Empty trailer at the Little Farm in El Portal. Photo Credit: Rich Robinson/ RISE NEWS.
I’ve lived six minutes away my entire life and didn’t know about it until a few months ago when one of our reporters wrote about it.
And even then, I didn’t fully comprehend what was happening there until I got off my ass and drove into the development last week.
“They Didn’t Tell Us Nothing”
Clairmise Blanc is fed up.
A youthful looking Haitian woman in her early 70’s, Blanc is the defacto point person for outsiders to the Little Farm. She also lives right next to a burnt out trailer that stinks to high heavens.
“My husband died on April 22, 2011 and left me here alone,” Blanc said to me, causing me to pause and offer my condolences. “I’d like to live here. But there’s no future in this. Everything is down, especially at the nighttime. Too many people are drug addicts here. I don’t like it no more. I’ve tried to find other places to go.”
Clairmise Blanc. Photo Credit: Rich Robinson/ RISE NEWS.
Born in Haiti, she moved to the United States in 1981 and has lived at the Little Farm for eight years. She owns her own trailer, but it is poor shape, with holes in the windows and a sagging look to it. She also pays $450 a month for the trailer to sit on her small plot.
At one time, hundreds of trailers dotted the 17 acre property, but after a Chinese company bought the property last year, people started getting evicted. Then came the buy out offers– $2,000 to up and leave.
If you didn’t take the deal, it wouldn’t matter much because you had to leave under the terms of a deal the Village of El Portal signed with the Chinese company- Wealthy Delight.
From a Miami New Times report on Little Farm a few months ago:
“One day last February, everything changed. Little Farm was sold for $14.25 million, and Wealthy Delight, a company based in Coral Gables but whose owners are difficult to trace, took over. Soon it became clear the Village of El Portal had agreed to forgive more than $8 million in liens on the site if the new owners paid $575,000 and razed the mobile home park.”
Many people took the buy outs and soon their trailers were razed.
A lot where a trailer once stood. Photo Credit: Rich Robinson/ RISE NEWS.
Legal action has delayed the complete eviction of the remaining residents at Little Farm, but only around 40 people remain according to Blanc. And they will all certainty will be pushed out in the coming months.
“They didn’t tell us nothing,” Blanc said. “They’ve tried to push us away. It’s not fair.”
The Fire
According to multiple witnesses, a fire broke out in a Little Farm trailer on the evening of February 19th.
“It was a mother, son and a daughter was living in there,” Blanc said.
While no one was hurt, the fire was intense and devastating.
The family living there had to move- one less eviction for Wealthy Delight to conduct.
Blanc’s trailer sits less than 15 feet away from the burnt out trailer. Nearly two months after the blaze, little has been cleaned up and the smell is starting to become unbearable for the remaining residents in the area.
Photo Credit: Rich Robinson/ RISE NEWS.
Photo Credit: Rich Robinson/ RISE NEWS.
Photo Credit: Rich Robinson/ RISE NEWS.
“I’m tired of that smell, it just stinks,” Blanc said. “I want them to clean this thing. It is a mess. People can’t live like this.”
I start to cough after the breeze picks up and I notice how disgusting the burnt out remnants really are.
“That’s the office right there,” Blanc said while pointing towards the land lord management building across the road.
The view of the burnt out trailer from Blanc’s trailer. Photo Credit: Rich Robinson/ RISE NEWS.
The view of the burnt out trailer (behind the trees) from the porch of the land lord management building. Photo Credit: Rich Robinson/ RISE NEWS.
The burnt out unit is directly in front of the office, which means that the land lord would have to see it everyday as they arrive for work.
“They don’t care,” Blanc said of Wealthy Delight. “You think if they cared, they would have cleaned it a long time ago. But it’s been two months now. If they cared, they would have cleaned it because people are living here.
I ask her if she thinks the trailer hasn’t been cleaned up as a way to get her to move.
She demurs and says that in order for her to leave they are going to have to fork out more money.
El Portal Village Manager Jason Walker told RISE NEWS that he had not been aware of the fire but that it was the landlord’s responsibility to clean it up.
A representative for Wealthy Delight refused to answer questions on the phone and asked for questions via email, which they have also not answered.
Have a tip? Email us at [email protected]
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us
All Photo Credits: Rich Robinson/RISE NEWS.
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Groups Organize To Shift More Political Power To Miami’s Black And Brown Communities
What’s New With This Story:
-A gathering of political activist groups gathered at Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens to discuss ways in which more power could be shifted to black and brown communities.
-The conversation was heavily dominated by the issue of policing.
-Florida has never had an African-American Governor or Senator.
Watch More: Did this South Florida Entrepreneur Just Invent The Next Tofu?
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Personal Drama Splits North Miami Night Market Into Two Different Organizations
What’s New With This Story:
-The NoMi Night Market has split into two separate market operations after the co-founders split after a personal squabble.
-The newly named Urban Habitat Night Market [led by Howard Tonkin] will continue to take place Friday nights at a property located near the intersection of NE 123rd St and NE 13th Ave
-The NoMi Night Market [led by Laura Hill] vows to relaunch in the future, but is currently looking to secure a permanent space.
-Hill and Tonkin had worked together to bring North Miami’s first night market into being and it opened to a nice amount of support from the community on Nov. 3.
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Personal differences have split a promising North Miami happening into two, only a few days after it officially started.
The NoMi Night Market is now the Urban Habitat Night Market or just a night market that happens at Urban Habitat, depending on who you ask.
And the NoMi Night Market is not dead, just looking to continue on at a different venue, depending on who you ask.
So yeah.
RISE NEWS attended the first weekly NoMi Night Market when it debuted on Nov. 3.
There were around 10 vendors and a smattering of local residents who popped in to sample various organic and sustainable products.
We even did a video on the opening:
But in the days following that opening, the co-founders split into two competing organizations.
As a result, North Miami may end up with two separate night markets.
What caused the split is based on who you believe.
Laura Hill and Howard Tonkin were the co-founders.
Hill is a North Miami activist and organizer, and Tonkin runs Urban Habitat, a sustainable landscaping business.
They both agree that they worked together to launch a night market at Tonkin’s new Urban Habitat property in North Miami.
But that’s about all they seem to agree on.
The biggest sticking point?
Just who came up with the idea in the first place.
Tonkin told RISE NEWS that the night market has been a dream of his for years, dating back to his time in Australia when he would visit the Mindil Beach night market.
He said that he’s wanted to bring the concept to Miami for years and that it is part of his overall long-term strategy for Urban Habitat.
“It’s my dream to bring people into my market,” Tonkin said. “It’s exciting to bring people into the market at night. That’s when the plants come alive.”
But Hill said that she came up with the idea.
“I’ve been around [Tonkin] for four years and I haven’t really heard him talk about the night market,” Hill said. “NoMi Night Market was the market we were bringing to that space. I brought the market together. Everything.”
What actually tore them apart is unclear as they each have wildly different versions.
“His vision and his methods made it clear to me that we had to rethink the market,” Hill said of Tonkin. “I’ve spent hundreds and hundreds of hours putting the thing together. He’s very upset with me because I decided to part ways. Our philosophies of running a business are just different.”
Tonkin said that he felt that Hill was trying to “sabotage my business and take the idea and run with it on [her] own.”
No matter what caused the split, it could actually end up benefiting North Miami in the long run.
Now, the city and surrounding communities will have two night markets to choose from.
The Urban Habitat Night Market will take place every Friday near the intersection of NE 123rd St and NE 13th Ave.
The NoMi Night Market is looking to secure a space but plans to open in the near future.
RISE NEWS is South Florida’s digital news magazine. Follow us on Facebook to make sure you never miss a story!
Have a news tip about this topic or something completely different? Send it on in to [email protected]
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