MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | ▼ DORAL BREAKING MOOS! DORAL’S BELOVED COW PASTURE TO BE REPLACED BY WAREHOUSES BY ALEX DELUCA W hile many people visit Doral for its sprawling golf courses and upscale food halls, there’s one longtime attraction that isn’t labeled on Google Maps: the “cow lot.” The sprawling, 175-acre green space — sit- uated on the corner of NW 107th Avenue and NW 41st Street — has long been a familiar landmark for Miami locals. Once owned by siblings Claudia Lemon Cook and Charles Buck Lemon and previously passed down through generations of the Lemon family, the land has been home to dozens of grazing (and occasionally mischievous) cows over the years. But as one social media user recently pointed out, the beloved bovines have sud- denly vanished. A photo posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) on August 23 shows bulldozers and other construction equipment in place of the grassy field where the cows used to roam. “I’m honestly sad that the Doral cow pas- ture is gone and they’re finally gonna develop the land after all these years,” user @major- douzie wrote on X. What happened to the cows? State records show that in January 2022, Claudia Lemon Cook relinquished control of Doral Farms LLC to Bridge Point Doral 2700 LLC, an affiliate of the Chicago-based real estate development firm Bridge Industrial Acquisition. In March 2022, Charles Buck Lemon died at age 68, according to an online obituary. In June 2022, three months after his death, Doral Farms LLC officially sold the cow pasture to Bridge Industrial Acquisition, Miami-Dade County property records show. While it’s unclear how much the develop- ment firm paid for the lot, the Lemon family previously asked for more than $300 million for the land. New Times was unable to reach Claudia Lemon Cook for comment about the sale. The city has said the grassy lot will make way for “Bridge Industrial’s newest state-of- the-art South Florida logistics park,” Bridge Point Doral. Photo renderings of the campus, which is set to comprise more than 2.6 million square feet, depict rows of sleek multistory indus- trial buildings, tidy landscaping (including ponds), and a considerable amount of asphalt. Although the project isn’t slated to be complete until next year, Google reviews have already begun pouring in for the center. Most of the 21 reviews for the center, which currently boasts a one-star rating, fea- ture complaints about the cows (which is to say the lack thereof). “Poor cows!!! Our last little bit of green in Doral gone!” one person wrote. “Miss the greenery and the cows,” another wrote. “I used to relish my drive as I passed the luscious green fields here, with luxurious cows roaming the meadows. There were beautiful sunrises with fog just above the grass in the mornings,” a third noted. They continued, “And now, I wonder what happened to those poor cows that once called this newly cemented field home...will we ever see them again or at least get a mural of the cows....” | RIPTIDE | GET MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY AT MIAMINEWTIMES.COM/NEWS A photo rendering of Bridge Point Doral shows rows of multistory industrial buildings with tidy landscaping, ponds, and plenty of asphalt. The Doral cow farm back in 2019. It will soon be replaced by warehouse development. Screenshot via Google Maps City of Doral photo ▼ UP IN THE AIR THIS JUST IN MIAMI SUMMERS ARE NOW THREE WEEKS LONGER BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN W ith Labor Day in the rearview mirror and the calendar motivating toward what most people call fall, one might be tempted to hope the scorching Miami summer is finally on the wane. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The unbearable heat typically continues until mid-October, according to New Times’ go-to me- teorologist Brian McNoldy, a senior search associ- ate at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Sciences. That is not great news for Miamians who’ve been grappling with unbearable temperatures since long before summer officially started. In May, the water temperature measured at Virginia Key off of Key Biscayne was hitting peak summer highs more common in July and August — all thanks to the record-breaking heat index, AKA, the “feels like temperature.” The heat index reached 112 degrees in May, nearly a month be- fore the June 20 summer solstice. From there on out, South Florida residents have been bombarded by (sometimes daily) heat advisories, warning that the feels-like tem- perature could hit or exceed 105 degrees and cause heat illness. Miami has been smashing re- cords left and right in the temperature and heat- index departments all summer long. McNoldy tells New Times the Magic City has already hit its highest temperature on August 2, heat index on August 8, and dew point on Au- gust 8. “But the decrease is painfully gradual after those dates,” McNoldy notes. Based on McNoldy’s tweeted chart (embedded below this paragraph) for Miami’s climatological peak heat index, temperature, and dew point from 1991 to 2020, the peak heat index begins to fall below 100 degrees at the beginning of September and reaches 95 degrees by October. The average daily high temperature, which peaked at 90 degrees in August, gradually decreases through September, eventually sinking to 85 degrees on October 19. McNoldy notes that, on average, the afternoon peak heat index has dropped to 90 degrees by Octo- ber 20. As far as lows, he adds, the average low heat index first falls to the 80-degree mark on September 24, and the average low temperature will likely first drop to 75 degrees around October 15. It wasn’t always this way. Spoiler alert: It’s getting — and feeling — hotter. The better to illustrate this development, McNoldy made New Times a chart that adds a second set of “climate normal” averages, aggregating the years 1951 to 1980. The chart shows that “summer” spanned 138 days in the first “climate normal,” versus 159 days in the second. As defined by the National Oce- anic and Atmospheric Administration, (NOAA), climate normals are 30-year averages for climate variables. What’s more, the new “climate normal” shows 96 days when the minimum heat index failed to drop below 80 degrees. From 1951 to 1990, there were zero such days. “Not surprisingly, the lows are creeping up too,” McNoldy adds. It appears summer temperatures will be sticking around far longer than anyone hoped. “On average, mid-October is a good time to proclaim the end of summer here,” McNoldy tells New Times. [email protected] “ON AVERAGE, MID-OCTOBER IS A GOOD TIME TO PROCLAIM THE END OF SUMMER HERE.” 4 September 12-18, 2024 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | news | letters | coNteNts |
