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Your weekly slice of island life.

2019-07-04

Hello Key Biscayne!

It’s 4th of July 🇺🇸, what are you doin’ reading this? It’s time to crack a breakfast beer 🍻 and get going. The parade starts at 11am with the jets flying from north to south, so get out there. 🛩

Though if you want to stick around, there’s some tidbits here for you in this issue of the Rag.

What's this parade then?

The Key Biscayne 4th of July Parade started way back in 1959 (60 years!). At the time, a few Key Biscayners (not key rats, as that term hadn’t been coined yet) decided they wanted to get together and celebrate.

Key Biscayne 4th of July Parade 1961The parade back in 1961

It started real small, with all the participants hailing from the Key and putting together their own floats and entries. From there it has only grown in size, but it’s still run by a group of dedicated volunteers.

The Islander has a great series of articles, tips, and conversations about the parade and festivities this week, if you want to dig a little deeper.

4th of July Tips

4th of July tips for your dog

A chat with the fireworks MC

A chat with the company that puts on the fireworks

What it’s like being the MC of the parade

Talking to the girl who sings the national anthem

He’s reason we get jets to flyover when other communities do not

There's some news too

Croc Talk There was going to be a picture in here with this story, but what’s the point? It’s all everyone was talking about this past weekend.

In case you missed it, a couple of crocodiles appeared on the beach on Sunday. One was pretty big. Then the whole town gathered real close to it to discuss how dangerous crocs could be. 🐊

(Key News)

Poop straw The Islander has an informative article explaining what’s happening with the water treatment plant on Virginia Key. Amongst other things, they are spending $2 billion on improvements in the next ten years. That money is to be used for resilience from the ocean and storms, and to stop pumping waste water into the ocean. Instead, they’re going to pump it 3000ft into the earth.

Curiously, moving the plant somewhere less vulnerable is not on the agenda.

(Islander News)

Don’t be the first to get caught The ban on texting and driving went into effect on Monday. The law itself has a lot of loopholes, allowing you to text while stopped, as well as just talk on the phone. A stricter version of the law applies around school and road-work zones, where merely holding the device will get you pulled over.

(TCPalm)

Calendar

Around Town

Last Week's Sales

Location SQFT Rooms Prev Price
OC Lake Villa II 404 2790 3/4 '02 $770k $1.6m
Ocean Village 309 1450 2/2 '06 $600k $463k
KC IV 419 1600 2/2 '12 $475k $630k

The elephant in the room 🐘

Hey, did something happen at a council meeting this week? It’s the 4th of July, no one is reading this far down. Stay tuned in the next one.

The end of it

Did you like this? If you did, please forward it to your friends and tell them to subscribe at The Tropical Rag.

Read past issues in the archive.

Questions, comments, tips, or to ride in the parade together 🧨, write to hi@tropicalrag.com.

Enjoy the holiday. See you next week!

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