Official uVu Blog

3 Minutes with Juliet Eilperin

uVu begins a new feature, 3 Minutes With, and we kick it off with one of our favorite pundits.

Long time viewers of Washington Week will remember Juliet Eilperin as a frequent guest on that program, but her work for the Washington Post on the environmental beat opened the door on a chance to write a book on sharks.  "Demon Fish" is the result and we had a chance to sit down with Ms. Eilperin before she spoke at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art.

 

Two from Cultural Plaza

Two new exhibitions opened recently, making a trip to downtown Miami a must this summer.

HistoryMiami launched the First 100 Years of Aviation earlier this month and MAM opened an exhibition of conceptual art by Rivane Neuenschwander, called A Day Like Any Other.  Here is some video of both.

 

Earth Day 2011

The Children’s Services Council of Broward held its 2^nd Earth day celebration on Saturday, April 30. The goal of the celebration is to help the community to understand the values of recycling and sustainability. 

 

 

Down Where the Tradewinds Play

SUBTROPICAL CITIES 2011: Subtropical Urbanism Beyond Climate Change is an international conference co-hosted by Florida Atlantic University and the Queensland University of Technology in Australia. The biennial collaborative event comes to the United States for the first time as experts in various disciplines and academia convene at FAU’s downtown campus in Fort Lauderdale, Florida March 8-11, 2011.

This is very exciting as it is the first time the international event will be held in the United States.  Hundreds of leading experts from around the globe will convene in downtown Fort Lauderdale to discuss the latest developments and the future of sub-tropical design and environmental sustainability. We invite you to attend the conference as a media guest or perhaps you would like to speak with one of the experts in advance.

Experts available for you to speak with include conference co-chairs Anthony Abbate AIA LEED AP, Florida Atlantic University, Broward Community Design Collaborative and Rosemary Kennedy, Queensland University of Technology Centre for Subtropical Design or any of the distinguished keynote speakers.

Key themes include: subtropical cities in the urban age, sustainable practices and decision making for resilient cities and adaptation to climate change. http://www.subtropicalcities2011.com

 

 

Rosemary Kennedy - Subtropical Cities 2011

Antony Abbate - Subtropical Cities 2011

Circling History

Miami Circle Park, designated a National Historic Landmark to preserve a 2,000 year old archaeological find, is located at the mouth of the Miami River and Biscayne Bay.

 

Miami Today Profile - Christopher Scraba

In his first weekend as head of the Coast Guard’s Sector Miami, Capt. Christopher Scraba dealt with 33 cases in South Florida waters, 17 law enforcement and 16 pollution incidents.

But when he took over in late June, predecessors and superiors told him Miami is a “dynamic” sector and to expect to regularly deal with drug traffickers, immigrants looking to come to the US and pollution issues.

His responsibility includes nearly 200 miles of South Florida shoreline and 2,500 nautical square miles of the Atlantic. Under his command are four stations stretching from Miami Beach to Fort Pierce. Thousands of volunteers and Coast Guard rank and file and millions of dollars worth of ships and resources are at his disposal.

His missions are “maritime safety, maritime security and what we call maritime pollution response and prevention.” And though one might expect the Coast Guard in Miami to have been intimately involved in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response, Capt. Scraba said it was important to not lose focus on one of the biggest, longest-standing threats to South Florida: hurricanes.

“Forty percent of the gasoline for Florida, oil, fuel, gas comes in through Port Everglades, 45% comes into Tampa/St. Petersburg. Those two ports are extremely critical to the environmental and economic livelihood of Florida,” he pointed out. “What keeps me up at night is the potential for a hurricane and closing down a port. My job is to try to open up this port and get the maritime transportation system back up and running as soon as possible.”

Capt. Scraba discussed his job in Miami, the Coast Guard’s collaboration with the Bahamian government and the hundreds of millions worth of new ships the Coast Guard is to receive in coming months in its Miami Beach facilities with Miami Today staff writer Zachary S. Fagenson.

Seagrass Awareness

March is “Seagrass Awareness Month” in Miami-Dade County and the video is a proclamation reading by Commissioner Carlos Gimenez at Matheson Hammock Park in Miami on Monday, 3/1, of this week. The attendees at the event are introduced by Pamela Sweeney, Manager of the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve, who also receives the proclamation from the commissioner.

Hitachi Dancer

11th Annual Everglades Day Festival Saturday, February 6, 2010

Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee - National Wildlife Refuge

Arts in the Everglades - Promoting awareness, appreciation, and an understanding of the Everglades.

Changing Seas: Behind-the-Scenes

The crew of Changing Seas, a twelve-part public television series produced by WPBT2 in Miami, Florida, went out to sea on Dec 8th, 2009 to shoot underwater scenes of seagrasses. uVu followed Senior Producer Mark Baker, and videographer Jeremy Nicholson. An interview was conducted with Marine Biologist from University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences.

Afterwards, the crew met with Pamela Sweeney, Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserves Manager, Jenny Baez, Environmental Specialist II and BJ Fisher, Park Services Specialist.

DawnTown 2009: Metromover

The DawnTown 2009: Metromover award ceremony was held on Friday, December 4 at Marquis, the new residential and hotel tower located at 1100 Biscayne Boulevard.

The ceremony including:

    * Welcome remarks by Bernardo Fort-Brescia, founder of Arquitectonica and designer of Marquis.
    * Announcement of winning designs by members of the jury, followed by brief videos from each winner.
    * Keynote speach by Adriaan Geuze — world-famous landscape architect and founder of West 8, which designed of Governors Island in NYC, Toronto’s Central Waterfront, and the Parque Lineal del Rio Manzaneres in Madrid.

Watch the entire ceremony here