She is stealing from the rent-paying merchants
Picture it, the Mayfair Antique Market is on, $5,000 paintings are being sold, the Grove is finally making a comeback. The Arts Festival is around the corner and everything is abuzz. Up drives this roach coach, it parks in a "no parking" zone and the lady gets out and starts selling.
The Grove now looks like a construction zone. The glamour is gone -- right in front of the Antique Market.
Not only that, business for all the merchants who sell food and drink are gone. The Bookstore lost business in it's cafe, the gym did not sell any water, the vendors who pay to sell food at the arts festival lost money, all to this roach coach lady, who does this on a daily basis.
She also parks in front of the Kwik Stop and Focaccia, after her stop at Mayfair, and she takes business from them -- drinks, breakfast and lunch. The vendors at the Antique Market who order from Basil, Focaccia, Jaguar and the pizza places, didn't have to. They got food and drinks from her. So there went the business that the Antique Market was supposed to bring to town.
So to all the merchants who are having a hard time paying your rent this month. This is one major cause.
And to all of you who have received parking tickets for parking right where she parks, in the "no parking" zones, feel good about the fact that she parks for free and drives off with hundreds of dollars in her pockets that could go to rent and insurance-paying merchants.
And to the few staffers from the NET office who give business to this lady, you should be ashamed of yourselves for taking money from the people who pay your salary -- the merchants.
posted by Tom Falco at 11:00 AM
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43 Comments:
Yeah, let's go ahead and name names in regard to who from the NET office was actually supporting this illegal operation (which it no doubt is). I'd like to have that information and be able to confront those that we pay, who hassle our businesses and then support this mess on wheels.
Don't half ass it, call 'em out.
Grape, you're down town all day, just about 24/7 and knows when a leaf blows across the street, point us in the right direction. Talk with Sarnoff, or a police officer or net or code enforcement; someone and tell us activist how to address this problem. Where does she park and at what times so we can be there and call an officer or code enforcement. This kind of activity really does harm our Grove merchants. Sounds like this has been going on for some time now. Again, what do you suggest our plan of attack should be? I'll be the first one there.
I called the police, there was a huge scene there and as usual, I ended up being the bad guy.
Everyone told me to mind my own business. But for the meantime the police told her to go away. She'll be back, the merchants in question don't seem to want to fight her off and the police don't really care either.
Okay, so the Grape says the police told her to go away. Inherent in this fact must be she is in violation of some law, rule or ordinance. She also seems to have a schedule. I'm also slightly ashamed doing this because this person is just trying to make a living, but to the disadvantage of our merchants resulting is some degree of harm to our community merchants----so----merchants be on the look out when she tours her normal haunts, call the police officers on duty, have their cell numbers available and put the heat on until she never returns and/or gets a very expensive ticket or citation.
She's a menace, she goes from block to block scooping up business illegally.
That Guy, The Grape can't name names just like that as he has a legal precedent responsibility to obtain the facts from both sides and to not do so would absolutely subject himself, his home property and the Coconut Grove Grape Vine to endless civil law suits and presto-------No Grape!
Anon 12:01 pm - I asked him to post who he saw, that is paid by public funds, making such purchases. This subjects him to no legal liability. Truth is an absolute defense to libel, so no, he does not risk anything. What other facts do you want him to gather? If you see person A do something, you can say you saw it. There is no need for further investigation, he'd be reporting what he saw.
Not to be mean about it, but if you are ignorant of the law, don't try to base an argument on it. Thanks.
Guys, shut up, I am not gonna name names. I have to live here and be in the NET office often. They know who they are, you don't need to know who they are.
Let it be. Leave any and all businesses alone. Just let the roach coach lady make a buck, there is obviously a market for the garbage she sells, just make sure she pays for parking and taxes like everyone else.
This last comment makes the most sense. I only get involved because at merchants meetings and other meetings, people tell me to do more than just take picture and blog it. So this time I did.
Next time I won't. If the biz owners don't care enough to fight it, I won't either.
This is what I like about the Grove Grapevine; open, pure, honest, frank community discussion. I see some wisdom come through us talking about the roach coach. All of this diversity in our little part of the world------Good luck President Obama.
how do you know there are roaches in this so-called 'roach coach'?
she is only 'stealing' business if she offers a cheaper alternative to the local storefronts. the customer decides who wins, not the merchants.
that's called capitalism. only the strong, and smart, survive.
Anon 12.42, thanks and also respectfully, no, the Grape must defer to a higher authority being a publication of any sorts and has an inherent obligation to obtain both sides of the story, not being a tabloid. Additionally, truth is not the ultimate defense as the law clearly states in Florida that a person not in "public light" has a large degree of expectation to privacy, including the truth if the truth exposed is exposed with intent to malice and/or cause harm.
Otherwise, a jury or the judge decides, not you or I, so to some degree we are both right and also equally wrong. And the Grape is right to say "shut up Guys" or perhaps just don't print our comments.
Roach is just an expression, probably translated to mean food not subject to code enforcement inspections or lack of sanitary controls as in the recent Peanut recall or as in do you really think they throw that stuff away when it gets old. In all Grove restaurants, for example they cannot use sodium bisufites to keep lettuce looking fresh, must keep the frig at given temperatures, pay rent, employees and insurance, water & electrical-----further, I sell art much more cheaply on the street in the Grove due to the extreme high overhead of Grove Galleries and when I offered up 4% of my sales to the galleries they still were pissed. Yet, I never got mad or angry, but these food wagons simply are UNFAIR competition----period!
Tell the restaraunts and the locals to lower there prices then and then mayby the low income construction workers can afford it
People, please, enough with the nonsense. The NET office and others there were not construction workers. The Bookstore, Gym and other locations sell water for the same price she does.
The Kwik Stop sells soda for 49 cents a can, I doubt she is cheaper and the new Cuban Restaurant in the old Somoto location has prices that match Sergio's and La Carreta for fresh, health-inspected food. Not bug encrusted pans that she serves out of.
If you see her again, look in the pans she serves the food out of.
She belongs away from the main business district and in construction zones. Period.
It's simply ILLEGAL to stay there, a SORE SIGHT in my neighborhood, and unfair to those of us who happen to pay TAXES and abide by the Law.
Of course, our Cocoanut Grove so called "representatives" at City Hall, guys like Sarnoff, they could NOT care less about stuff like this or the little thieve gangs, which affect our Village.
It's a cultural thing they brought from their country. Same as these high fences, never saw them before in the Grove until the influx of south americans. In their country they have kidnappers. Have you'll not noticed other changes in our community that directly relates to the mores they bring with them..
I have traveled to South America many times. I respect the working people and the issues they must deal with. However - private security armed with guns is a standard presence at commercial
locations. Sounds like what our own BID is going to have to do.
I see a Latin thread of morality
and ethics weaving thru our system.
I love the Latins, I moved here knowing this. I am taking Spanish lessons. But lets not be ignorant
of the fact that our Miami culture has taken on that of Bogata!
I can hear the horn from her truck 20 stories up in the sky. That has to be also checked out by the police. Next time I hear that horn I will call the police at there special tele # 305 579 6111. I use this same number for noise complaints on the roof top club at Mayfair. Every weekend.
OMG, I cannot believe how many of you are insisting the Grape name names, but cannot post your own name.
Man, this thread not only reeks of McCarthyism, but of elitism and xenophobia as well.
And seriously, if you really think somebody is going to bypass lunch at Focaccia or Basil for a papa rellena from el lonchero, that's not saying much for those two restaurants.
Except you werent there Carlos and don't didn't see it. The antique dealers order from the local restaurants, many didn't that day because of the roach coach.
One person shown in the photo said to me, "now I don't have to go to Los Ranchos for lunch, as I had planned." So Los Ranchos lost biz that day. Multiply that daily by all the customers she steals.
Practically all of the Sony office buys from her in the morning, bypassing local places, even Starbucks.
She's above the Law. What can you do, besides tell her that her truck is frekin' ugly in my streets, and unfair to those abide by the rules. Can't wait to see her again, just to call hell pretty names again, right in her face, in whatver language she understands, until the COPS re-establish some order and enforce the LAW in our Village.
I don't understand how you expect to dictate to people how to spend their money.
So what if you name the people who were buying lunch off her. They're not breaking any law.
Is there a requirement in their contract that states they need to spend their dollars on overpriced restaurants?
Do you really think their bosses are going to care if they spend a few bucks on a soggy Cuban sandwich from the roach coach?
And you're talking about the "glamour" being gone because of the roach coach?
That's the main problem with the Grove right now. That it wants to establish a sense of glamour.
Obviously, nobody remembers the Grove from the 1970s.
And the commenter who talks about it being "a cultural thing they brought from their country"?
Do you also have one of those bumper stickers that ask the last American leaving Miami to bring the flag?
I thought that ended in the 1980s.
And the guy who says "our Miami culture has taken on that of Bogata!"
Our Miami culture?
And you moved down here from somewhere else?
Get the fuck out of here, dude.
Oh but she is breaking the law and that is why the police sent her away with a written warning and told her not to return.
But now you want to crack down on her customers?
This is nothing but a strong-armed tactic to force people to spend their money in the Grove's restaurants.
No one is cracking down on her customers. In fact, we asked her to simply park around the block on Florida Avenue where she can still be seen and heard. She said no.
Carlos, et. all, it's not McCarthyism to enforce laws, nor is it elitism to not allow truck food sales in a district such as the grove.
To the person responding to my discussion of libel and naming names: you are just dead wrong, that is not a question of fact (for a jury) but rather a question of application of the law, for the judge to rule on. It's the type of thing that you would see in a motion for summary judgment or directed verdict. Truth is an absolute defense to libel, and no, no one is required to get both sides of a story by law (that's just good journalism). If you see something, you can publish what you saw. I understand our blogger not wanting to out his acquaintances whom he has to deal with regularly, but that is a VERY slippery slope. Some can be called out for anything- Sarnoff (who I don't like), and others whose jobs are enforcement of our laws and regulations can flagrantly violate them without having their names named.
I'm not trying to start a whole thing, but that's the kind of practice that reeks of classic Miami political BS. Protect those that do you favors, expose the enemy only.
Geez Grape, this post has sure brought out the comments. Maybe you should post something about Sarnoff driving the roach coach and dropping off kids handing out flyers for the Coconut Grove Baseball Team who have been promised a couple of games in Marlins Stadium. That oughta do it.
If there is a law that doesnt allow these mobile food trucks to solicit business in a business district then the police should warn or ticket and take steps to remove the violator from the area. Thats simple.
On the other hand, if there is no law, or if your just speaking of customers' personal preference, then this person is doing nothing but providing a service that people obviously want. You cant dictate how people spend their money any more than you can dictate where they are going to eat everyday. Its impossible to eat at the same restaurant every day. It just gets too boring.
If the restaurant owners want to complain about this person "stealing" their business, they really need to take a good, hard look at the food and service that they provide and think about why customers arent choosing them instead. Its far easier to whine than it is to compete to win.
Anon @ 7:37p - I got a good laugh outta that. Thanks
Funny you talk about getting tickets... About 1 week ago, I went out with my husband and 2 little girls to Cocowalk to see "Coraline", once the movie was over we decided to go to Jaguar for dinner, then to Yogurt Bella for dessert. We were about to leave but a belt caught my attention at Coco and Palenke and of course you know the rest. To make a long story short, when we got to the car (we were parked right in front of Ann Taylor) our meter had expired, by 15 minutes, and yes, we had a ticket!
Truth does not decide libel, the judge or jury does based upon the circumstances. Precedent law decides the rest. I never stated a writer has to get both sides, rather, I said a Judge would favor the news media who took the time to obtain both versions, rather than just one side as in favorites. Dan Rather published/spoke what he thought he saw/heard and he was disgraced. Summary Judgment you say is someone hoping they can catch a Judge off-balance who's law clerks are less than hopeful, which is why DNA today is releasing so many poor folks from having served collectively 20,000 years behind bars and for what----you are so smug and omnipotent in your fixed/firm opinion of law when in fact we have so many more people locked in cages and for what----nothing more or less than being human. Are you a member of NWO?
There is no case of libel if CGG posts the names of the people ordering from the lunch truck.
That is just merely an observation.
Man, this is one of the overblown threads I've ever seen.
When the Grape states shame on net employees for purchasing from a mobile van I think the Grape means the net is the official office complex of Miami, Dade, Florida where permits and licenses to do business in Miami, Dade are issued and they should have known this mobile food vendor was not licensed to conduct business in the Grove village. Yet this same office, thus code enforcement do on occasion give numerous Grove business a hard time, but participate in an illegal food service business. Anon's then suggested that the Grape name the offenders and for what purpose?
Absolutely nothing would be gained? Anon's, go ask the two employees if it was them and if they say yes, then list their names and yours in a Grape comment. The Grape must remain neutral and have the trust of everyone to get us as much truth as possible so WE all can respond to reality. Do not attack the messenger.
Everything is overblown, yet piece by piece, layer by layer, nuance by nuance or as anon 11:04 said, "this is one of the overblown threads I've ever seen", just the tip of an iceberg in reality and all of a sudden two more eateries or the local 5 & 10 go out of business and next month one more and so forth and so on, then the artist departed, the stores close their doors and even the mobile lunch wagon will have to go elsewhere to find customers.
The Grape simply stated a fact and look at the comments.
I suggest every restaurant build their own roach coach and drive around try selling food and drinks. Hell, they could even drive to South Beach and South Miami to steal some of their customers. (This just caught my eyes, the municipalities with some level of success have a South in their name in South Florida, perhaps we should change the name to South Grove, or South Coconut or Coconut South)
i come here once in a long while and honestly i am really happy for people like whant to change the world but i dont know why they are always the poors or middle class. Rich people are so busy enjoying life to spent time changing the world (unless they want a tax credit ) LOL
I live in Los Angeles where there are blogs devoted to rating the roach coaches! Your restaurants need to wise up and start providing things the roach coaches can't compete with! The only reason they are losing business is because they weren't providing what the customer wanted in the first place. Our restaurants do perfectly fine even competing with the travelling kitchens!
One day that lunch truck owner is going to make so much money selling her dollar sandwiches and her dollar bottle of waters along with her 50 cent croquetas that she will soon be able to set up shop in a Cocowalk restaurant.
Is the Tu Tu Tango's space still available?
And once there, life will be good to her. She could hire little Haitian men to stand in the bathrooms collecting tips from the customers.
And she can create Cuban Martinis for the trendy crowd while their cars are getting ticketed.
And just when everything is going good, business couldn't be better, she hears a dreaded horn blast from the past. She looks down from her perch and sees the lunch truck on the street below.
And then she notices groups of her customers are running down stairs to order from him.
It was cheaper, they they told her, and not as pretentious.
Before she knew it, she was losing money after each lunch when the roach coach would arrive.
She was going to tell the new roach coach driver something but then realized it was her cousin, somebody from the old country smuggling in their Latin ways into Miami's Anglo minority communities.
And at this point, she did know who she was anymore. A lowly street vendor or a respectable shop owner.
But when she saw the can of Pony Malta in the icebox of the lunch truck, she suddenly remembered her childhood days sipping Pony Malta from school down in Colombia.
And she came up with a plan to sell those same bottles of Pony Malta to rich people for five times the cover price.
And that is when she was welcomed into the Grove as one of them.
The last 4 comments and all of Jobie's comments make absolutely no sense. I am now dumber having read them. do you people ever read what you write?
Jobie made one comment and four others dumbed you down. How about this; for every attorney that wins, one has to lose, so the percentage of losers in this field is 50%. I'm an attorney and Jobie was correct to say noone knows the outcome of criminal or civil litigation(s) as there are so, so many factors. If you have an inside track here, take the bar, enter the trade and you'll make a billion dollars annually.
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