"Many locals will flee," said the newspaper beforehand. "Some business owners blamed the police tactics for a precipitous drop in crowds and income this weekend," said the newspaper afterward. That's right: white people fled in droves in the face of the arrival of some 200,000 black people for Urban Beach Weekend in Miami Beach—and so the non-beach-side downtown was a ghost town. Like the far end of Lincoln Road Mall, with nobody on the street (and parking everywhere!).

In the saga of the Miami Beach cop shoot-out fiesta that took place on Memorial Day, during one of the country's biggest African-America party weekends, at which cops shot a driver they said had a gun, injuring bystanders and arresting witnesses: here is an eyewitness videotape that is really wild! I would describe the incidents in the last third of this tape as incredibly bad, what with the cops pointing guns and screaming at innocent eyewitnesses, and "incredibly bad" is really saying something, as the video begins with a full-on barrage of gunfire.

As we discussed last week, Miami Beach was paralyzed by fear and terror regarding the arrival of a couple hundred-thousand black people in town over Memorial Day Weekend. Well, they came, they went to Busta Rhymes' birthday party and only a few people were shot. By the police.

As near as anyone can tell, cops came up on a "stalled car" with guns out and shot up the car, claiming the driver had a gun. Twelve police officers likely shot four bystanders, definitely killed the driver and three officers were mildly injured.

They did not find a weapon in the car, however.

You may remember how last Memorial Day, Miami Beach police officers gunned down black tourists and seized the cellphones of anyone recording the cops in action. (Spoiler: the shot bystanders, ignored for a full year now, are suing!) Well, Urban Beach Weekend is back again this weekend, and the city is ready! They've installed a "one-time" DUI checkpoint, some watch towers, scanners that record everyone's license plates, some "light towers," some road blocks—and a whites-only bridge. Oops sorry, "residents-only" bridge. (Ahem: "tourists will be given the impression that they can’t get in.") Let's look at some notable quotables from the Herald today, which are likely [...]

Just can't let this one go! So while Miami Beach police finally found a gun in the car of a driver they shot early morning Monday, here's how witnesses of the shooting were treated this weekend while filming the incident on their phones: "Narces Benoit said a Miami Beach officer grabbed his cell phone, said 'You want to be [expletive] Paparazzi?' and stomped on his phone before placing him in handcuffs and shoving the crunched phone in Benoit’s back pocket. He said the couple joined other witnesses already in cuffs and being watched by officers." Don't you find that… unusual? (Meanwhile someone was shooting four bystanders [...]

Hakkasan is at last coming to New York! The fabled and expensive restaurant, often called the best Chinese restaurant in the world, is opening a fourth outpost in Hell's Kitchen. (And also a fifth and a sixth: Mumbai and Dubai. Genius? A naked pursuit of money? Fun? Shark-jumping? All of the above?) In any event, oh, what wonders you will see! Let me tell you about the Hakkasan experience. First, you should bring headset telephones, so that you may communicate with your tablemates in a manner other than "gestural." Also you should bring an inflated sense of self-regard and a small flashlight. (Also, sure, "hunger.")

But yes, [...]

The small-town mayoral campaign covered everywhere from Maxim to the Times has ended with the easy reelection of the incumbent and with unimpressive voter turnout. 72-year-old Miami Beach mayor Matti Bower received 59.4% of the vote for her final term, which represents all of 4,096 votes. (In total, 6,888 people voted; of those, comedian-and-reality-show-dude challenger Steve Berke received 1612, almost a quarter.) Berke's entry into the race, with the management of Roger Stone (yes, him) was intended to engage younger voters, to promote Miami Beach as a hip resort town and to rile up the city. Berke's latest strategies were pretty vicious: his literature touted [...]

As an update to our coverage of one of America's biggest African-American get-togethers, on Memorial Day weekend: about 60 hours after shooting the driver of a car early Monday morning, Miami Beach police found a gun in the car, as they promised they would. It was "out of plain sight," hence why it took them… more than… two days… to find it…. inside the car. “We were told he was seen with a firearm and, sure enough, there was a firearm in the car," said the chief of police. (That's a real quote!)

Miami Beach now, unexpectedly, has two of the most exciting buildings in the world. The first was a parking garage, by Herzog & de Meuron, which serves little public benefit except beauty. (Though it is a boon to the wedding and party industry, and it also serves much private benefit to its owner, and no doubt it will be converted entirely into rich people lofts in the future.) That the owner calls it a "civic space" is pretty ridiculous; his penthouse is on the roof of the building and the flat rate for parking is $15. But the new home of the New World Symphony, reviewed today [...]