1675-3 Senator HotelMinim
MON OCT 17 1988 ED: FINAL
SECTION: LIVING TODAY PAGE: 1C LENGTH: 20 . 11" MEDIUM
ILLUST: photo: Sue COBB, Saundra SANTIGO
SOURCE: FRED TASKER Herald Columnist
DATELINE:
MEMO:
A BATTLE LOST,
DECO FANS VOW
TO WIN WAR
The Senator Hotel dies. But a bigger battle looms. Miami Beach City
Commissioner Abe Resnick, who won the enmity of Art Deco fans by razing the
New Yorker Hotel in 1980 , is negotiating a plan that threatens two more Art
Deco treasures -- the Saint Moritz and Royal Palm hotels.
"Over our dead bodies, " vows Nancy Liebman, acting director of the Miami
Design Preservation League.
Resnick, who never built on the New Yorker site, says he now is
negotiating with a trustee to sell that lot and the Sands Hotel to the north
to an anonymous group of out-of-state investors. He says they also want to buy
the entire oceanfront block to the south -- from 16th Street to 15th Street --
and raze the Saint Moritz, Royal Palm and Shorecrest hotels to make room for a
1, 200-room resort hotel.
But Liebman points out that the buildings south of 16th street are in
the city' s new Art Deco preservation district. To demolish, developers need
the OK of the Historic Preservation Board or of five of the city' s seven
commissioners.
"The Senator can't happen again, " Liebman says.
* Sue Cobb called me at 10 :47 Sunday night, by satellite from her camp
at 17 , 000 feet up the side of Mount Everest. She didn't make it to the top.
"I 've just come down from 24 , 000 feet. We just ran out of time and physical
capability. " After more than a month above 17 , 000 feet, with temperatures down
to 45 below and 100-mile-per-hour winds, Cobb had lost 25 pounds and was
suffering from hypothermia. She isn't sure if she ' ll try again. But she says:
"The view was fantastic. I 'm kind of proud of it. "
* Where there ' s fire, there ' s smoke. And not just your run-of-the-
mill smoke. Miami firefighters last week had to quell a fire in a big
container at the Miami Police Department' s property room. When they opened the
container, smoke poured from several burning boxes of marijuana and other
narcotics that had been seized as evidence. "No evidence was lost, " says
police spokeswoman Stephanie Gibbs. Yeah, but did they have to treat any
firefighters for voluntary smoke inhalation? "Nope, " says fire spokeswoman
Christie Hickman. "But the guys were very happy that day. "
* Who sez we got no culture? Do you realize the original Raggedy Ann
and Andy dolls live in a glass case at the Coral Gables Public Library? Yep.
They were handmade in about 1915 by Alice Benton Gruelle for her son, Johnny,
who wrote the original children' s story. She moved here and donated the dolls
to the library in 1930 . Unfortunately, the dolls are getting rather, well,
raggedy. They need cleaning, reweaving and a new, humidity-controlled glass
case. So Ruth Shack' s Dade Foundation is seeking $5, 000 in donations. Call her
at 371-2711 .
* Remember I told you Friday how easy it is to confuse the names of
lawyers Mark and Gary Marks? It confused me, too. In fact, Mark is the father
and Gary is the son.
* Sorry to give you two Jeb Bush items in a week, but you should know
this: When Bush' s campaign duties for daddy are done, he will move back into
an office in Armando Codina' s Museum Tower. It ' s a nice office -- square on
one end and elegantly curved on the other. They' re calling it the "Semi- Oval
a AM
Office. "
* "Gridlock, " Time magazine ' s big cover story on how commuters can't
get there anymore, calls Dade' s Metrorail "a $1- billion study in poor
planning. " Hmmph! Poor operation might be more like it.
* When Saundra Santiago signed up to do Evita at the Hirschfeld
Theatre through Nov. 12 , she didn't expect the Hollywood writers ' strike to
end so soon. Now she has to juggle Evita rehearsals with Miami Vice tapings.
One day last week, she practiced Evita until 6 p.m. , worked on the Vice set
until midnight and then flew to New York for Vice first thing next morning.
She says it saves her money -- otherwise she 'd be shopping.
* The Grateful Dead, no strangers to psychedelic introspection in the
1960s, must have cleaned up their act. Before performing at the Miami Arena on
Friday, they had Coconut Grove ' s Oak Feed Store send over a batch of organic
carrots, several kinds of fruit juices and a blend of Chinese tonic herbs
called Dragon Brew. "It ' s for longevity, " says Harold Spewak of Oak Feed.
What, they want to stay dead?
* Oh, and Spewak says the Dead order thrilled Oak Feed owner Sandy
Pukel. "He ' s an ex-hippie. He had a speaking part in the movie Woodstock. He
was the naked guy shaving. " Yeah, but how much does that narrow it down?
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