It's the end of an era: The Miami Herald is shuttering its bureau in Fort Lauderdale, where the newspaper has had a presence for the last four decades. The bureau, which is located at 1520 East Sunrise Boulevard, will close on Friday.
[UPDATE: Apparently, the bureau is moving to another office a bit south, near the courthouse. Sorry for the confusion.]
Here's an internal Herald email (and invitation) being sent around to current and former staffers:
GOODBYE SUNRISE:This is the bureau that brought you the Beer-on-Sunday rule, sex and drugs on the rooftop, the February 1975 Playboy centerfold/reporter, the three-breasted mutant Martian hooker-turned reporter, the Tom O'Hara jelly donut meltdown, Ronnie Greene, the great savior of muscovy ducks, the Friday Night Club, Dirty Naked Guy, The Lunch Nazi, the Cindy Goodman Chocolate Drawer, death-defying-donut runs, anthrax, Lisa Arthur-stuck-in-the-elevator, and clandestine rooftop Air and Sea Show viewings.
The heralded Lauderdale bureau opened in 1967 -- the same year hippies took over San Francisco during the the Summer of Love, the Herald launched Tropic magazine, and Gene Miller won a Pulitzer Prize for proving the innocence of two convicts in Miami and New Orleans murder cases. The office has since survived the Pillars of Excellence, The Kids and Guns project, David Kidwell in a jail jumpsuit, the invasion of the sports guys, the jock itch outbreak, the Alamo Man and Blue Skies. It even launched a few modest careers -- the names Anders Gyllenhaal, Heath Meriweather and Tom O'Hara come immediately to mind.
On Aug. 30, the Herald will close the Sunrise office -- allegedly forever -- after 32 years.
Ah, the good old days....
So, to celebrate its colorful history, we will have one last soiree on Sunrise Thursday, Aug. 28 at 7:30 p.m. We'll have donuts, of course, pizza, of ourse, and other treats that we won't mention in an email the bosses can read. Everyone is welcome, even if you were not committed, er, assigned, there in the past. We plan to complete the evening with a quick hop to Kim's Alley Bar, our favorite local dive.
There are a few people whose email addresses we don't have handy. And, if we've left anyone out that you'd like to invite, please forward this email. To everyone except Fred Grimm. We don't want to further encourage his delinquency.
