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Viewing Vizcaya: Intolerance (1916)


Film/Film Festival
Viewing Vizcaya: Intolerance (1916)
2/17/2010
http://www.vizcayamuseum.org
This screening series will explore both modern day films that have a fun connection to Vizcaya as well as historical silent films that Mr. Deering and his guests might have viewed in their time. In silent film director D. W. Griffith's most ambitious undertaking, humanity's intolerance and its terrible effects are explored in four parallel stories set respectively in the modern era, early Jerusalem, 1572 Paris and ancient Babylon. This epic piece of cinematic history stars Lillian Gish, a contemporary of Mr. Deering's and an extended house guest at Vizcaya. Cost: $15. Running Time: 72 minutes, Rated PG. 7 p.m.

Address:

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
3251 S. Miami Ave.
Miami, FL 33129

Coconut Grove
305/250-9133

DNE Program I: Dance Now! at the BASS Museum


DNE Program I: Dance Now! at the BASS Museum
2/20/2010
http://www.dancenowmiami.org
Dance Now! celebrates its 10th anniversary with a multidisciplinary performance migrating through the museum. The afternoon of site specific world premiers will be based on the three current exhibits: The Jumex Collection, based in Mexico City, the largest private collection of international contemporary art in Latin America, Graffitti artist Dzine's site-specific project comprising wallpaper, objects and sound socially energizing the café and other areas of the museum, and selections from the permanent collection of 16th-19th century work. Shows at 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Address:

Bass Museum of Art
2121 Park Ave.
Miami Beach, FL 33139

Miami Beach - Art Deco District/South Beach
305/673-7530

Dance : Compañía María Pagés


Compañía María Pagés
2/18/2010
http://www.arshtcenter.org
Winner of the National Dance Award, Spain's highest honor for dance, María Pagés has lead the way in the development of modern flamenco. With an ensemble of outstanding dancers and musicians, Compañía María Pagés is today among the most highly sought-after flamenco companies in Europe. Part of Flamenco Festival 2010. 8 p.m.
Address:

Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
1300 Biscayne Blvd.
Miami, FL 33132

Downtown Miami Area
305/949-6722

Dance : Compañía Rocio Molina


Dance
Compañía Rocio Molina
2/17/2010
http://www.arshtcenter.org
Rocío Molina mesmerized festival audiences two years ago with her blazing performance in "Mujeres". Winner of the Best Dancer Award at the Flamenco Bienal of Seville, Molina returns with her company for the Miami premiere of her new show Oro Viejo (Ancient Gold), an intense evening of Flamenco that wowed audiences throughout Spain. Part of Flamenco Festival 2010. 8 p.m. Address:

Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
1300 Biscayne Blvd.
Miami, FL 33132

Downtown Miami Area
305/949-6722




South Miami Rotary Art Festival


South Miami Rotary Art Festival
from 2/27/2010 to 2/28/2010
http://www.southmiamiartfest.org
Art show featuring more than 150 artists from around the country, multinational food court, live music, and Children's Alley. A family-friendly free outdoor event; Metrorail-accessible, easy parking. Address:

along Sunset Dr (SW 72 St) between US1 & Red Rd (SW 57 Ave

South Miami, FL 33143

South Miami Area
305/769-5977

ArtSouth of Homestead: Haitian Art Exhibit


ArtSouth of Homestead: Haitian Art Exhibit
from 2/13/2010 to 3/6/2010
http://www.artsouthhomestead.org
An exhibition of artwork from Haitian artisit to raise funds for the relief efforts in Haiti. Gallery tours, open studios, music & refreshments. Free and open to the public. Opening reception: Saturday, February 13, 2010 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Address:

ArtSouth of Homestead
240 N. Krome Ave.
Homestead, FL 33030

Homestead/Florida City Area
305/247-9406

Found Love/Found Junk : Pablo Cano



 http://www.bacfl.org/events.html


Found Object / Found Love
30 Years of Art with Pablo Cano 1980–2010

Opening Reception, Friday February 12th, 2010 7-10PM

The Bakehouse Art Complex is pleased to bring Pablo Cano back to Wynwood with Found Object Found Love: 30 Years of Art with Pablo Cano. The Bakehouse Art Complex will host an opening reception for Found Object  Found Love on Friday, February 12th, 2010 from 7-10pm. The exhibition will continue through Monday, March 1st.  Co-Curated by Anthony Ardavin & Lauren Wagner, this celebratory thirtieth year of art will take a look back at the early work of Cano and follow him on his artful journey beginning in Baltimore and ending back here in his beloved Miami. Found Object
Found Love
will feature unique never-before shown oil paintings, figurative sculptures, ceramics
and of course, his notable marionettes. Ambient acoustic finger style guitar by Peter Betan.

Exhibtiion on view until March 1st 2010

Saturday, February 13th, 2010: 2pm
DOG, a Special Performance


To accompany the exhibition, Pablo Cano presents his latest performance piece “DOG, A Shadow Puppet Play”. He has collaborated with master puppeteer Jim Hammond in its writing and production. It is a story about a Dog who pursues a “red squeaky ball” through famous paintings and sculptures in art history. The ball is used as a metaphor for each of our simplest pursuits of happiness. Using miniature style of overhead projector shadow puppetry that Jim has used in commissions by New World Symphony and The Museum of Art - Fort Lauderdale, Pablo and Jim have developed a surreal non-linear world that explores scale and two dimensional details. Keeping true with his use of found materials for his artwork, Pablo created each shadow puppet from plastic BEWARE OF THE DOG signs. “DOG” brings together art education, music and entertainment to young and old alike.

“DOG” will be performing Saturday, February 13th at the Bakehouse Art Complex in the Project room at 2 pm and will be open to the public.

Tickets are $15.00 for Adults, $10.00 for Members, Children under 13 no charge.
Address:

Bakehouse Art Complex
561 NW 32nd St.
Miami, FL 33127

Miami Design District
305/576-2828

Yayoi Kusama : Art Festival/Art Show










Yayoi Kusama at Fairchild




Art Festival/Art Show

from 12/5/2009 to 5/30/2010
http://www.fairchildgarden.org

Yayoi Kusama

Fairchild is proud to display sculptures from the aclaimed Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama for the 2010 art season.
View photos or video on the exhibit or vistit the garden to see Kusama's Flowers that Bloom at Midnight which are on display in the Amphitheater and consist of vividly painted, giant cast flowers measuring between five and sixteen feet in height. Several of Kusama's playful Pumpkins are also on display. The multi-part floating work Guidepost to the New Space, a series of rounded “humps” in fire-engine red with white polka dots, is being displayed in Pandanus Lake.  Kusama’s artificial garden unfolds in all its psychedelic glory, against the garden's backdrop of stately palms and fabulous flowers.
A map of the artwork and the full Art at Fairchild program are available online or during your visit.
All sculptures in the exhibition are on loan from Gagosian Gallery.

About the Artist
 
Yayoi Kusama is one of the world’s leading artists and a living legend of the international art avant-garde. Flamboyant yet profound, her oeuvre encompasses unique masterpieces in painting, sculpture, and installation, as well as mass production and popular culture. Kusama also produces playful sculpture on a monumental scale. Her first large-scale sculpture appeared in 1994, a huge, vivid yellow pumpkin covered with an optical spot pattern, which was installed at the end of a jetty on the island of Naoshima in the Seto Sea, Japan. She has since completed several major sculptural commissions—ensembles of huge, brightly hued, triffid-like plants and flowers—for public institutions in Japan and abroad including The Visionary Flowers (2002), Matsumoto City Museum of Art, Nagano, Japan; Tulipes de Shangri-La (2003), Eurolille, Lille, France; Tsumari in Bloom (2003) Matsudai-machi Higashikubiki-gun, Niigata, Japan; and The Hymn of Life: Tulips (2007), Beverly Hills City Council, Los Angeles.
Address:

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
10901 Old Cutler Rd.
Coral Gables, FL 33156

Coral Gables
305/667-1651










Coconut Grove Arts Festival 2010

 

Coconut Grove Arts Festival 2010


Miami Cost of Living & Wages

 

We all know that a dollar earned in Miami is worth more than a dollar earned in New York but less than a dollar earned in Sioux Falls, SD. Do you know exactly how far your money goes? In this article, we take a look at income and the cost of living in Miami.

Let's start with income. How much do you make relative to your neighbors? Of course, the true results will vary by ZIP code. Undoubtedly, incomes are higher in Coral Gables than Overtown. Here are the inflation-adjusted (in 2003 dollars) numbers from the U.S. Census:
  • 2006 Income: $67,574 (average), $47,509 (median)
  • 2007 Income: $65,261 (average), $45,241 (median)
  • 2008 Income: $68,361 (average), $48,809 (median)
  • 2009 Income: $71,924 (average), $56,089 (median)
So, what's that really worth? Let's assume you make the 2009 average of $71,924 in Miami. Here are the amounts (according to the Homefair.com salary comparison calculator) you'd need to make in other cities to achieve the same standard of living:
  • Phoenix $59,519
  • Indianapolis $60,070
  • Atlanta $64,830
  • Orlando $65,306
  • Miami $71,924
  • Seattle $74,320
  • Boston $83,192
  • Chicago $86,966
  • San Francisco $109,464
  • New York $116,204
Finally, let's take a look at average wages for the top 20 professions in Miami. They appear in the table at the bottom of this page.

Average Hourly Wages by Occupation (sorted by job popularity)

Job Mean Wage Median Wage
Retail Salespersons $11.55 $9.95
Office Clerks, General $11.01 $10.35
Cashiers $8.17 $7.63
Laborers $9.24 $8.53
Registered Nurses $27.91 $27.74
Janitors and Cleaners $8.60 $8.15
Sales Representatives $22.09 $17.25
Stock Clerks $9.86 $9.18
Security Guards $9.41 $9.08
Customer Service Representatives $13.71 $12.81
Waiters and Waitresses $8.07 $6.93
Food Preparation Workers $6.97 $6.67
Bookkeeping Clerks $14.69 $13.73
Secretaries $12.67 $12.39
Executive Secretaries $17.48 $16.71
Receptionists $9.87 $9.73
Packers and Packagers $8.14 $6.84
Elementary School Teachers $23.42 $21.07
Office Managers $22.49 $21.13
Accountants and Auditors $30.40 $26.05


Miami Entrepreneurs : William D. Pawley

 

William D. Pawley (1896–1977) was a U.S. Ambassador, a noted American Businessman and associated with The Flying Tigers American Volunteer Group (AVG) during WWII.


William Douglas Pawley was born in Florence, South Carolina, on 7th September, 1896. His father was a wealthy businessman based in Cuba and Pawley attended private schools in both Havana and Santiago. He later returned to the United States where he studied at the Gordon Military Academy in Georgia.

In 1925 Pawley began work as an estate agent in Miami. Two years later he began working for the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. In 1928 Pawley returned to Cuba to become president of the Nacional Cubana de Aviacion Curtiss. He held this post until the company was sold to Pan American Airways in 1932.

Pawley now became president of the Intercontinent Corporation based in New York. The following year he moved to China where he became president of the China National Aviation Corporation. Over the next five years he built three aircraft factories for the Chinese government of Chiang Kai-shek.

Pawley also formed a business relationship with Tommy Corcoran. In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had asked Corcoran to establish a private corporation to provide assistance to the nationalist government in China. Roosevelt even supplied the name of the proposed company, China Defense Supplies. He also suggested that his uncle, Frederick Delano, should be co-chairman of the company. Chiang nominated his former finance minister, Tse-ven Soong, as the other co-chairman.

For reasons of secrecy, Corcoran took no title other than outside counsel for China Defense Supplies. William S. Youngman was his frontman in China. Corcoran's friend, Whitey Willauer, was moved to the Foreign Economic Administration, where he supervised the sending of supplies to China. In this way Corcoran was able to create an Asian Lend-Lease program.

Pawley also worked closely with Claire Lee Chennault, who had been working as a military adviser to Chiang Kai-shek since 1937. Chennault told Tommy Corcoran that if he was given the resources, he could maintain an air force within China that could carry out raids against the Japanese. Corcoran returned to the United States and managed to persuade Franklin D. Roosevelt to approve the creation of the American Volunteer Group.

William Pawley became involved and he arranged for one hundred P-40 fighters, built by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, that had been intended for Britain, to be redirected to Chennault in China. Pawley also arranged for the P-40 to be assembled in Rangoon. It was Tommy Corcoran's son David who suggested that the American Volunteer Group should be called the Flying Tigers. Chennault liked the idea and asked his friend, Walt Disney, to design a tiger emblem for the planes.

On 13th April, 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a secret executive order authorizing the American Volunteer Group to recruit reserve officers from the army, navy and marines. Pawley suggested that the men should be recruited as "flying instructors".

In July, 1941, ten pilots and 150 mechanics were supplied with fake passports and sailed from San Francisco for Rangoon. When they arrived they were told that they were really involved in a secret war against Japan. To compensate for the risks involved, the pilots were to be paid $600 a month ($675 for a patrol leader). In addition, they were to receive $500 for every enemy plane they shot down.

The Flying Tigers were extremely effective in their raids on Japanese positions and helped to slow down attempts to close the Burma Road, a key supply route to China. In seven months of fighting, the Flying Tigers destroyed 296 planes at a loss of 24 men (14 while flying and 10 on the ground).

In 1944 Pawley became president of the Industan Aircraft Manufacturing Company in Bangalore, India. Pawley was responsible for building India's first ammonium-sulfate plant in Trannvancore.

After the war Pawley became a diplomat. In 1945 Harry S. Truman appointed Pawley as U.S. Ambassador to Peru. Soon afterwards left-wing newspapers in Lima began to claim that Pawley was making "lucrative deals" for himself in Peru. This involved transporting unspecified goods in and out of Peru.

In 1948 Pawley became Ambassador to Brazil. During this time he became a FBI informant. He passed information to J. Edgar Hoover claiming that Spruille Braden, the Ambassador to Argentina was under the control of communist advisers such as Gustavo Duran and George Michanowsky. In a document dated the 7th September, 1948, Pawley suggested that Braden was attempting to expose "non-existant and imagery Nazis in Latin America" as a cover for his communist sympathies. Pawley also claimed that William A. Wieland, who worked as a press officer for the embassy in Brazil, held "anti-capitalist" views.

Pawley continued to be involved in various business projects. He was a close friend of President Rafael Trujillo and together with George Smathers, had invested in the bauxite industry in the Dominican Republic. He was also extremely friendly with Fulgencio Batista and in 1948 he established Autobuses Modernos in Cuba. A company he later sold to Batista.

On 7th November, 1949, Pawley sent a memorandum to the State Department suggesting that a small group of Americans should be sent to Formosa in order to help protect the government of Chiang Kai-shek. Pawley claimed that Dean Acheson rejected the idea after consulting with advisers such as Owen Lattimore, John C. Vincent and John Davis. In February, 1951 Pawley became special assistant to Acheson. Later that year he held a similar post under Robert A. Lovett. However, he discovered that the State Department considered him to be a reactionary and he was denied access to secret documents concerning Latin America.

Pawley was an active member of the Republican Party. A close friend of both President Dwight Eisenhower and CIA director Allen W. Dulles, he took part in a policy that later become known as Executive Action (a plan to remove unfriendly foreign leaders from power). Pawley played a role Operation Success, a CIA plot to overthrow the Guatemalan government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 after he introduced land reforms and nationalized the United Fruit Company.

John Foster Dulles decided that he “needed a civilian adviser to the State Department team to help expediate Operation Success". Dulles selected William Pawley. In his book Peddling Influence (2005), David McKean argues that Pawley's most important qualification for the job was his “long association with right-wing Latin America dictators.”

Gaeton Fonzi points out in his book, The Last Investigation: "Pawley had also owned major sugar interests in Cuba, as well as Havana's bus, trolley and gas systems and he was close to both pre-Castro Cuban rulers, President Carlos Prio and General Fulgencio Batista. (Pawley was one of the dispossessed American investors in Cuba who early tried to convince Eisenhower that Castro was a Communist and urged him to arm the exiles in Miami.)"

In March 1958, President Dwight Eisenhower, disillusioned with Batista's government, insisted he held elections. This he did, but the people showed their unhappiness with his government by refusing to vote. Over 75 per cent of the voters in the capital Havana boycotted the polls. In some areas, such as Santiago, it was as high as 98 per cent.

Some members of the State Department came to the conclusion that it would be in America's best long-term interest in Cuba to be seen as opposing Batista. William A. Wieland, Director of the Caribbean and Central American Affairs, was against America providing support for the Cuban dictator. As the U.S. Ambassador of Cuba, Earl E. T. Smith was later to tell a Senate Committee: "He (Wieland) believed that it would be in the best interest of Cuba and the best interest of the world in general when Batista was removed from office."

Wieland was not the only one who took that view. According to Pawley and Smith, Roy R. Rubottom, Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs, John L. Topping, Chief of the Political Section and the Chief of the CIA Section, held similar opinions. Pawley and Smith also identified Herbert L. Matthews of the New York Times as being an important figure in providing support for the idea of regime change in Cuba. Smith pointed out that "Matthews wrote three articles on Fidel Castro, which appeared on the front page of the New York Times, in which he eulogized Fidel Castro and portrayed him as a political Robin Hood."

On 9th December, 1958, Pawley had a meeting with Fulgencio Batista. Pawley told Batista that he was losing the support of the American government. Pawley suggested that the Cuban dictator should resign and allow an anti-Castro and anti-Batista caretaker junta to take over. Batista rejected the idea and on 14th December, William A. Wieland, speaking for the State Department instructed Earl E. T. Smith, to inform Batista that he no longer had the support of the US government and that he should leave Cuba at once. On 1st January, 1959, Batista fled to the Dominican Republic.

Pawley later told a Senate Committee on Latin American Affairs: "I believe that the deliberate overthrow of Batista by Wieland and Matthews, assisted by Rubottom, is almost as great a tragedy as the surrendering of China to the Communists by a similar group of Department of State officials fifteen or sixteen years ago and we will not see the end in cost of American lives and American recourses for these tragic errors."

After Batista was overthrown by Fidel Castro, Pawley pressurized President Dwight Eisenhower to provide military and financial help to anti-Castro Cubans based in the United States. Recently released FBI files suggest he worked closely with Manuel Artime in efforts to overthrow Castro.

In the winter of 1962 Eddie Bayo claimed that two officers in the Red Army based in Cuba wanted to defect to the United States. Bayo added that these men wanted to pass on details about atomic warheads and missiles that were still in Cuba despite the agreement that followed the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Bayo had originally fought with Fidel Castro against Fulgencio Batista. He disagreed with Castro's policies after he gained power and moved to Miami and helped establish Alpha 66. His story was eventually taken up by several members of the anti-Castro community including Gerry P. Hemming, John Martino, Felipe Vidal Santiago and Frank Sturgis. Pawley became convinced that it was vitally important to help get these Soviet officers out of Cuba. To help this happen he communicated with James Eastland, the chairman of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, about this story.

Pawley also contacted Ted Shackley, head of the CIA's JM WAVE station in Miami. Shackley decided to help Pawley organize what became known as Operation Tilt. He also assigned William (Rip) Robertson, a fellow member of the CIA in Miami, to help with the operation. David Sanchez Morales, another CIA agent, also became involved in this attempt to bring out these two Soviet officers.

In June, 1963, a small group, including Pawley, Eddie Bayo, William (Rip) Robertson, John Martino, and Richard Billings, a journalist working for Life Magazine, secretly arrived in Cuba. They were unsuccessful in their attempts to find these Soviet officers and they were forced to return to Miami. Bayo remained behind and it was rumored that he had been captured and executed. However, his death was never reported in the Cuban press.

William Pawley died of gunshot wounds in January, 1977. Officially it was suicide but some researchers believe it was connected to the investigations being carried out by the House Select Committee on Assassinations. However, a relative Cash Pawley, has argued: "Bill Pawley had acquired a severe case of Shingles years earlier, which had progressed across his entire body (even the soles of his feet). He had been unable to lay down, stand or become comfortable in any position. The pain was excruciating, and there was no modern medicine(s) for a cure or even proper pain management at the time. Therefore, Mr. Pawley suffered day in and day out, until he just could not do it anymore. This was the reason for his suicide."

WMPD Community Service



West Miami Police Department Community Activities

The West Miami Police Department has Sponsored a Day at the Recreation Center each year during the summer since 2005.  during this event our kids are taught bike safety, fire safety, they learn how some of the fire department equipment works, police k-9 and other police department and fire department related things.

Each year since 2007  a "BIKE RODEO" has been  held to teach our youth about bicycle safety.  a competition is held and several bikes are raffled to the winning participants.

Kids learned Bike and Fire Safety and plans are underway to keep both activities as an annual event!





Miami's Top Restaurant

A vacation wonderland, by necessity, demands terrific cuisine, and Miami is well-equipped to deliver a culinary rainbow. Just-caught seafood promises a welcome taste of the sky-blue sea, thanks to broiled snapper, stone crab, fried grouper and conch fritters. Similarly pervasive in Miami restaurants are the many variations of Latin American cuisine: ubiquitous Cuban eateries, enticing Argentinean spots, and fascinating establishments like Sushi Samba Dromo, which finds parallels in Peruvian, Brazilian and Japanese cuisines. A hometown invention, colorfully dubbed Floribbean fare, marries local ingredients to Caribbean sensibilities, grounding them in Continental technique. It's a movement prevalent in restaurants across Miami, even when menus aren't explicitly devoted to the idea. 

Of course, dining in Miami can be remarkable, although it may come at a price in exceptional mainstays like Chef Allen's and Mark's South Beach restaurant. Lest all hope for affordability be lost, know that South Florida shelters a clutch of budget-friendly eateries, which shirk neither ambience nor excellence. Among them are South Beach's no-frills La Sandwicherie and Pilar Restaurant, a Miami mainstay run by Scott Fredel Culinary Institute chef, licensed boat captain and competitive fisherman, to boot. Wherever your Miami dining experience may take you, be prepared to come away with a renewed appreciation for well-prepared cuisine.

Although it is tough, we have to name The Palm as the Best Restaurant in Miami.

An outpost of the popular New York City original, The Palm is one of the best Miami restaurants for steaks and seafood. Offering great American dining in Miami, The Palm serves fresh seafood, tender steaks and expertly prepared Italian specialties. Portions are large, and the walls of this Miami steakhouse are covered with caricatures of famous faces. The relaxed, unassuming atmosphere and great food make The Palm restaurant on Bay Harbor Island a great choice for a hearty meal.

Miami's Top Real Estate Agent

Meet Audrey Ross  

of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell, Inc., Realtors ®


Woman At The Top opening her own real estate firm in Miami in 1984, Audrey Ross has established herself as one of the city's preeminent purveyors of luxury homes. years of dedication to her work and providing absolutely the best and most discreet service to the world's, movers and shakers who make up her clientele, she has become known to those in international real estate circles as "Miami's Woman at the Top."

 

 

 

 

It's The Ultimate Lifestyle

The elegant serenity of the coast and waterways. An international ambiance that adds pizzazz to the opulent neighborhoods. Picturesque views of beautiful sunsets and a manicured skyline. This is the Miami that Audrey Ross knows and loves.

The city has a pulse all its own... and the person keeping the closest tabs on its trends and transformations is Audrey. As a longtime resident of Coral Gables, she has watched over the bustling activity that has transformed Greater Miami from a world class beachside resort city to a dynamic international trade mecca.

The sun, surf, and rare wildlife of the Everglades and Biscayne national parks remain and are now complemented by great ethnic and cultural diversity, the world's largest port and the United States' busiest international airport.

A Visionary In Her Own Right

Audrey had the foresight to research this incredible growth as it was happening and learned what this influx of people would mean to both current residents and those relocating here.

Her clientele list is a veritable who's who of the movers and shakers of the world - Fortune 500 executives, film stars, international entertainment figures, sports celebrities and heads of foreign countries.

Audrey Has High Regard For Her Client's Privacy

Her uncompromised policy keeps her clients referring friends and colleagues to her. This unique service is what has led her to her success listing and selling many of the most significant estates in the history of Miami.

Audrey also recognizes the importance of widespread networking and using innovative marketing techniques in the sale or purchase of luxury real estate.

Through her company's prominent affiliation with Christie’s Great Estates and Who's Who in Luxury Real Estate, FIABCI, RELD, and Forbes.com, Christie’s Great Estates/EWM offers national and international exposure for estate listings.

The Ultimate Choice For The Ultimate Lifestyle

When you're buying or selling real estate, Audrey believes you should not settle for anything less than what exceeds even your expectations, and she goes to work to make this happen.

South Florida's Best Real Estate Connection To Luxury Property

With a career that has emphasized service sales and consulting and has ranged from heading a division of a major city school system and presiding as president of a national educational association to operating her own real estate company, Audrey Ross is the epitome of an individual who is dedicated to excellence.

Whether it be in achieving the the goals of her real estate clients or in achieving her public service life goals as a board member of one of her favorite organizations: Miami's public television station (WPBT) or The Miami Lighthouse for the Blind. Through her company, Esslinger Wooten Maxwell, Inc., Audrey Ross has not only marketed the cream of Miami's real estate properties, but has also negotiated the sales of Brickell Avenue's office towers.

Did you know?

Audrey Ross sold over $200 million in the year 2005.

Our largest sales volume year was 2005, like most others in real estate, when we sold over $200 million. We have on a number of years, sold more than $100 million, and this year, in the first quarter (in what many consider still a "down year"), we have booked and appear to be closing approximately $60 million.


 

Audrey Ross named REALTOR® of the Year in South Florida's BEST 2002 Competition

Audrey Ross was bestowed with the honor during the annual awards banquet held on April 13, 2002 at the Diplomat Hotel.


 

 

Audrey Ross was named the #1 Agent Company-Wide

Audrey is recognized for breaking all Esslinger Wooten Maxwell (EWM) sales records, selling $63 million in a single week. Named #1 Agent for the 950 agent firm of EWM from 2000 to 2005.

 

 

Our Company

Our “firm” is composed of two joint venture partners (Audrey Ross and Ana Collongette).  We have been in business since 1984 under the name of Ross and Associates, Inc. and then as a part of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell, Inc. Realtors - however, our website www.miamirealestate.com has been in existence since approximately 1995 under the same name and always representing the BRAND OF AUDREY ROSS, LUXURY REAL ESTATE.  Many years ago, we elected to brand the name of the main “rainmaker” for the company/firm/team, and that has been Audrey Ross.  Since that time, we have as a team participated in “brand management” which we now understand is a new profession /career, by answering our phones “Audrey Ross’s office”, heading all of our advertising in that manner and generally bringing all of the business under the one name. 

In South Florida, it appears that we have been successful, because  everyone owning any property over a million dollars, will generally recognize the name and associate it with luxury real estate whenever luxury property is discussed. Our largest sales volume year was 2005, like most others in real estate, when we sold over $200 million. We have on a number of years, sold more than $100 million, and this year, in the first quarter (in what many consider  still a “down year”), we have booked and appear to be closing  approximately $60 million. 

Our firm can best be described as a luxury real estate firm catering to high net worth individuals in a private atmosphere. As a note on the last part of that statement, Audrey Ross has been, since she sold her company (Ross and Associates) to EWM in 2000, the top volume producer for EWM for the ensuing  SIX YEARS RUNNING – 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005. In 2006 she persuaded EWM to ELIMINATE her name from the lineup of agents and not have her in the competition for “Top Producer” ... the Audrey Ross team wanted to provide a sense of 'private brokerage' to the top 100 of their very substantial clients and develop that clientele... much as the private equity firms, most notable being  KKR in NYC and The Blackstone Group… have done.