{"id":224030,"date":"2026-04-08T22:40:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T22:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/224030\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T22:40:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T22:40:23","slug":"whats-in-a-name-in-miami-everything-and-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/224030\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s in a Name? In Miami, Everything and Nothing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Hard Rock (photo by Carl Rachelson)<\/p>\n

These turbulent times have me thinking about Tolstoy. Not the sweeping battlefields of War and Peace, but his searing parable How Much Land Does a Man Need? \u2014 a story about ambition, appetite, and the human tendency to want just a little more, even when \u201cmore\u201d is the thing that ruins us.<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s why I\u2019ve been thinking about names and how easily they change. Marilyn Monroe, Mickey Mantle, John Wayne, Freddie Mercury, Elton John, John Legend \u2014 reinvention is practically an American pastime. And Miami, of course, has turned renaming into a competitive sport.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve lived through The Bakery Centre, American Airlines Arena, the BankUnited Center, the Jackie Gleason, and Hard Rock Stadium \u2014 formerly Joe Robbie Stadium, Pro Player Park, Pro Player Stadium, Dolphin Stadium, Land Shark Stadium, and Sun Life Stadium. Around here, naming rights aren\u2019t civic identity; they\u2019re a revolving handout.<\/p>\n

The Dalai Lama said things change. True enough \u2014 sometimes for the better, sometimes not. \u201cDevelopment\u201d and \u201cgentrification\u201d now function as synonyms, depending on who\u2019s holding the microphone or at the meeting. One person\u2019s progress is another\u2019s eviction notice. Who cares?<\/p>\n

Even geography is up for grabs. The Gulf of Mexico has been rechristened the \u201cGulf of America.\u201d Denali reverted to Mount McKinley. Fort Liberty went back to Fort Bragg, and Fort Moore to Fort Benning. The Kennedy Center is now \u201cThe Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.\u201d Palm Beach International Airport is being renamed \u201cDonald J. Trump International Airport.\u201d All courtesy of Executive Order 14172, \u201cRestoring Names That Honor American Greatness.\u201d Please release me. Let me go.<\/p>\n

\"\"Gulf of America (free to share and use)<\/p>\n

I do not approve. I prefer the Department of Defense to the Department of War,\u00a0 and I find no joy when some joke that the next iteration will be the Department of War Crimes.<\/p>\n

Shakespeare wrote that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. The opposite is also true: selfishness by any other name still destroys.<\/p>\n

Like every other fool, I\u2019m online far too much \u2014 a captive audience to billionaire algorithms. When I scroll through developers\u2019 renderings of South Miami, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Edgewater, Wynwood, Little Haiti, MiMo, Brickell, and the rest, I can\u2019t help but pray. God help us to avoid turning everything into Ocean Drive. But ambitious people tend to believe that God helps those who help themselves. So they help themselves.<\/p>\n

I do not want Gordon Gekko as our next mayor. There is something deeply unattractive about greed \u2014 not the quiet desire to improve one\u2019s life, but the loud, performative selfishness that has infected a small but visible slice of our population. Many of us were raised to believe in the common good. I wasn\u2019t a Boy Scout, but I still remember the basic values that make societies livable: ethics, morals, decency, generosity.<\/p>\n

We are not better without a public sector. Public schools are noble, even when flawed. Public parks are beloved. Public works are imperative. Public housing is needed. Public hospitals save lives, even if they resemble The Pitt. Roads, highways, and bike paths matter \u2013 even if they take years and test patience.<\/p>\n

\"\"How Much Land (free to share and use)<\/p>\n

The real problem isn\u2019t the institutions. It\u2019s the people who run them \u2014 their greed, their carelessness, their dishonesty. Corruption erodes public trust, but make no mistake: greed is the accelerant. I\u2019m not perfect, but I\u2019m not greedy. Like most parents, I taught my children in the Publix checkout line to share their chocolate or gum. So it\u2019s especially galling to watch grandiose houses, redevelopment schemes, and hyper\u2011gentrification sold to us as \u201cbenefits to the public,\u201d or freedom.<\/p>\n

Tolstoy asked how much land a man needs. Miami keeps answering: more. Always more. And somehow, never enough.\u00a0 But there comes a point when \u201cmore\u201d stops being ambition and becomes erasure \u2014 of community, of memory, of the public good. If we don\u2019t draw a line, someone else will draw it for us, and they\u2019ll draw it around everything they want to take.<\/p>\n


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