All that's wrong with the Grove

There is so much wrong with the Grove's business community and I saw one glowing and embarrassing thing last night. Where? At the Downtown Miami/Brickell Chamber of Commerce event, which was held at the Epic Hotel.

Why was it embarrassing? Because I counted four Coconut Grove Chamber members there, including myself and the friend I attended with. There may have been more, but I think I would have seen them because I was there all night.

Now you may ask, why the Grove Chamber members should be at the Downtown Miami/Brickell event. Because the two chambers have a partnership and for the past few months, the Downtown/Brickell Chamber has brought hundreds of people to Coconut Grove once a month for Coconut Grove's Chamber events. Before they got involved, the Grove Chamber networkers consisted of about 20 of us twiddling our thumbs and staring at each other. But Evelio Medina and his downtown group joined forces with the Grove and the networkers became nice social functions with hundreds of new faces coming to Coconut Grove to mix and mingle, to spend money and discuss and exchange business.

The least the Grove Chamber members could have done last night is to return the favor. I did. I did not feel like traipsing downtown on a Wednesday night during rush hour, but when Evelio personally invited me last week at the Grove function, I knew right away that the favor should be reciprocated. Sadly, only four of us felt that was the way to behave. If nothing else, it should have been to thank the larger Chamber for bringing so much life (and people) to Coconut Grove and to Coconut Grove's Chamber.

And therein lies the rub. It's all about me, me, me in Coconut Grove and it's selfish. And when you are selfish, you get nothing in return. So while downtown Miami and Brickell are thriving in glowing glass buildings on the river, the Grove group missed it all. Oh there was a BID event last night, I knew nothing about it, because I wasn't invited, but I am sure it was the same 20 people in the Grove, staring at each other trying to figure out how to drum up business, when all they had to do was drive three miles north and meet 600 new faces and businesses, like I did. Alas, there were no Grove ambassadors there, and I don't mean the ones that stand in the middle of town directing tourists.

I have more connections and friends now from that couple of hours downtown last night than I ever would have gotten at last night's event in the Grove. I think I got my name and photos in a half dozen Miami magazines and websites and I made so many invaluable business and friend connections simply because I felt it was the right thing to return the favor of simply attending. I handed out invites to the Mad Hatter Arts Festival, too, and so many people were happy to hear about this event.

I think the answer to getting more business in the Grove is to actually leave 33133 once in a while and promote the Grove -- face to face -- with people who don't even know the Grove exists. I plan on doing it more often. It felt good to get out of my cage.