Driving across the western reaches of Broward County along I-75, you probably wouldn’t notice the Florida headquarters office for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, whose agents are responsible for investigating everything from mail fraud and theft to child pornography and terrorism. Just off Miramar Parkway, the structure is off-white, with…
If the Rev. Avis Hill had any trepidation about standing in a synagogue to deliver a sermon on the evening of Friday, March 8, he didn’t show any sign of it. A short man wearing a blue sport coat and an American-flag tie, Hill exhibited a nuclear smile that radiated…
As Sgt. Scott Russell eases the police van into the parking lot of St. Andrews United Methodist Church, a ragtag throng quickly surrounds it. Each Thursday evening, the Fort Lauderdale church, just a half mile north of City Hall, serves a meatloaf dinner for the city’s poor and homeless. Many…
Four self-propelled harvesters clank their way through a sugar-cane field at the south edge of the tiny hamlet of Pahokee. The 20-acre stand abuts a finely coifed yard and tidy ranch-style house to the north. To the east lies State Highway 715; narrow canals and miles of cane border the…
Della Judd is a bundle of nervous energy, shifting from foot to foot on the sidewalk in front of her small house on 18th Street in West Palm Beach. It’s a chilly afternoon this day in early January, but her constant motion has less to do with the frigid air…
Walter Philbrick cues the music, a symphonic piece on CD that has the verve of John Philip Sousa meets John Williams. He dims the lights in the small workout gym and urges Nelson Ricardo, one of his employees, to take a position on a foot-high platform. The gym lies deep…
The second-story amphitheater of the Xchange swingers club in Hollywood was as busy as it was going to get just past 3 a.m. on a recent Sunday. The amphitheater is the club’s inner sanctum, a high-ceilinged room of subdued light and faux-Roman décor. There weren’t enough people for an all-out…
Delia Judd’s jaw visibly grinds as she stands before the Nuisance Abatement Board. The gaunt black woman gazes at the floor, shakes her head slowly, and shifts with agitation. Her face is obscured by wraparound sunglasses and a baseball cap pulled down over her forehead. A tangle of silver necklaces…
Although Americans will forever recall September 11 with dismay, anger, and sorrow, October 7 is the date fear hit home for David Pitchford. His only daughter, Katie Lee, turned four years old that day, and Pitchford, his wife, and several friends were celebrating at their home in Stuart. At noon,…
It’s high noon, and the TV-news folk are gathered across the street from the American Media, Inc. offices, which swarm with agents from the FBI and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in search of anthrax. More accurately the 40-or-so reporters, photographers, and cameramen assume agents are swarming inside the…
Dark-suited attorneys clog the antechamber to bankruptcy courtroom 308. Six days after the World Trade Center towers in New York City and the Pentagon in northern Virginia were attacked, a jittery mood permeates the third floor of the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale. Snippets of conversations about terrorism and imminent…
At 33 years old, Ivette Mendive had wearied of her job as a dental hygienist and craved a dramatic change in her life. So early this year the Coral Gables resident posted her résumé on the Monster.com job board, hoping to break into a more challenging field. Mendive had good…
Sistrunk is the historic hub of Broward County’s black population. Although the recent census found many of the neighborhood’s residents have moved west during the last decade, its main drag northwest of downtown Fort Lauderdale remains the area’s most visible symbol of African-American commerce. Named for James Franklin Sistrunk, one…
Seated in his office on the 46th floor of the Bank of America building in downtown Miami, developer R. Donahue Peebles looks quite relaxed. The lofty headquarters for Peebles Atlantic Development Corporation overlooks Biscayne Bay and Miami Beach, the site of Peebles’s crown jewel, the Royal Palm Crowne Plaza Resort,…
Cypress Bend is a bucolic setting for about 2000 condominium units. Most of the 100-or-so buildings range from five to nine stories, and a lane meanders around the giant splotch of central pond. Hardwood trees hang over the street, and flowers and hedges line many driveways. Located near the intersection…
From its exterior the International Museum of Cartoon Art in Boca Raton betrays little of the playfulness of the animated characters or daring of the sinewy superheroes found inside. The 52,000-square-foot building’s clock tower over its entrance is bereft of Mickey Mouse hands. The front colonnade screams for a row…
The incident was so bizarre it could have been a macabre April Fool Day’s prank. Shortly before dawn on April 1, 1998, Marie Bellabe, dressed in a bloody hospital gown, staggered down a Fort Lauderdale sidewalk. She wheeled along a urinary catheter and an oxygen tank, both connected to her…
As Brian Dodge and Mike Silver approached the entryway to Storm around 9 p.m., the sound of DJ-spun music pulsated into the street from the nightclub. The fledgling gay club — leasing space at Chili Pepper in downtown Fort Lauderdale on Sundays — was well into its second day of…
Stevie Steiner telephoned friends and family every few days after moving from rural New York to South Florida on January 3. The healthy, muscular 19-year-old was optimistic about his future in the Sunshine State. He liked to party but was not one to throw caution to the wind. He once…
Irving Reisfeld has that sound in his voice. Sitting at a small desk in a disheveled office, he has just reached a human on the phone after a lengthy time on hold. From his end the conversation sounds lopsided; Reisfeld’s words drip impatience and pick up velocity. He’s slipped into…
Norman Smith lives in a modest one-story home on an idyllic street canopied by trees and lined with shrubbery. Five years into a committed relationship, he and his partner gaze at each other with obvious affection. It’s a life for which the middle-aged Smith has worked hard: four years of…
