3 November 20-26, 2025 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | 3 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | ▼ THE UPPER PENINSULA MAKE IT STOP FLORIDA GOP HOPEFUL’S BITCOIN MINE IS DRIVING A MICHIGAN SCHOOL NUTS. BY ALEX DELUCA T he noise, they say, is relentless. At Lake Superior Academy — a small K-5 Montessori school in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula — the constant whirring of giant computers across the street has become a daily torment for teachers and students. The sound hovers around 70 to 75 decibels, com- parable to a hair dryer, and never stops. It has drowned out the chirping of birds that the children are used to hearing. “The students often, daily, say ‘When is this going to stop?’” Superintendent Susie Schlehuber told WCMU Public Media, a Michigan-based public radio station. “Our special needs students, some, will come out and cover their ears.” The source of the noise: six metal storage units filled with high-powered computers mining Bitcoin. According to WCMU, records show the operation is owned by Michael Car- bonara, a Florida GOP congressional candi- date and cryptocurrency entrepreneur running to unseat longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. According to WCMU, records show Car- bonara is identified as the data center’s owner, and his company, Odessa LLC, is listed as the site’s property owner on the building’s permit application. In June, the school sued Carbonara’s com- pany to shut down the mining site. A month later, a judge issued a temporary restraining order, halting activity at the site. Though Car- bonara’s day-to-day role is unclear, the school says the noise has become so severe that it’s delaying plans to build new classrooms. Residents of the small town have also raised concerns about the potential long- term health effects of constant noise and air pollution. Carbonara did not respond to New Times’ request for comment about the operation. Across the country, communities have complained of similar problems as cryptocur- rency mining operations have multiplied. The powerful computers that verify digital transactions generate enormous amounts of power and require constant cooling from roaring fans that can run continuously, day and night. From rural Texas to upstate New York, residents have described a nonstop me- chanical hum that disrupts sleep, school, and small-town life — prompting lawsuits, local bans, and mounting questions about the in- dustry’s environmental effects. Carbonara, a New York native and Bro- ward-based CEO of fintech firm Ibanera, has pitched his run as a push for “conservative values and fresh leadership” in Florida’s 25th Congressional District. His crypto-driven campaign said in October it had raised nearly $1 million. [email protected] | RIPTIDE | Cryptocurrency executive Michael Carbonara is running to unseat U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Screenshot via @mrcarbonarafl/Instagram ▼ TAMARAC SHIRT HAPPENS DID TAMARAC’S MAYOR VIOLATE A RESIDENT’S FREE SPEECH RIGHT TO HAWK MERCH? BY B. SCOTT MCLENDON W hile the sounds of The Beatles and dulcet doo-wops rocked Tamarac residents at a 2024 Oldies in the Park concert, Mayor Michelle Gomez was busy violating a vendor’s First Amendment rights, ac- cording to an investigation by the Broward Of- fice of Inspector General (OIG). Released last week, the investigation stemmed from a complaint arguing that Gomez violated a vendor’s First Amendment rights by forbidding him from selling Kamala Harris shirts at Mainlands Park in September 2024, months before the presidential election. OIG, which in- vestigates claims of government wrongdoing in Broward County, interviewed city employees and Gomez, ultimately deciding their excuses were flawed and disproven by their own interviews. The issue began when a city employee ap- proached Gomez at the event to ask if salesman Alex Council had authorization to sell political shirts at the city event. Council was selling shirts that read “She has always had my back and now I have hers. #Ka- malaHarris2024,” in pink and blue. Gomez and city employees’ chief argument, which she would change during the investigation, was rooted in the notion that political shirt sales were against the tone of the event. According to the city’s website, the concert featured oldies hits from Motown artists, The Beatles, and The Beach Boys, all of which have famous songs about political issues like the Viet- nam War, Civil Rights, and elections. The Beach Boys recently dipped their toes back into politi- cal theater in 2017 when they played a string of events for Don- ald Trump. City employ- ees and Gomez argued that sell- ing shirts for Democratic pres- idential candi- date Kamala Harris violated the spirit of the event. The may- or’s solution? She asked Council to offer “Oldies in the Park” patrons the products he usually peddles: plant-based period pads. No, we’re not kidding. Inspector General Carol Breece’s 77-page re- port recounts the evening in tedious detail, in- cluding a veritable crime-scene map similar to those released after political assassinations. Go- mez’s attorney, Benedict Kuehne, pushed back in a seven-page defense, which Breece included in her report, arguing that it included unneces- sary, one-sided, unsupported, and inflammatory headings that accused Gomez of wrongdoing and violating a resident’s Constitutional rights. Gomez argued the city forbids the sale of po- litical products, despite no actual ordinance on the books giving the city any such power, ac- cording to the report. “Neither the mayor nor any city representative has cited any valid, con- tent-neutral policy or compelling government interest to justify the action, making the restraint presumptively unconstitutional under both fed- eral and Florida law,” according to the report. But during the course of OIG’s investigation, Gomez argued that she actually tried to kick Council out because he wasn’t an approved ven- dor for this specific event. OIG noted, however, that neither Gomez nor city staff raised the lack of pre-approval as an issue during extensive in- terviews. “In fact, the mayor said she told the vendor he could sell his usual ‘period’ products but not the T-shirts supporting a political candidate,” ac- cording to the report. “The government action in prohibiting a ven- dor’s sale of political T-shirts, which prohibition was based solely on the T-shirt’s content, amounted to content-based regulation of pro- tected speech at a traditional public forum or limited public forum,” according to the report’s conclusion. Gomez initially texted New Times saying she’d provide a response to the report but didn’t offer a statement by press time. GOMEZ ARGUED THE CITY FORBIDS THE SALE OF POLITICAL PRODUCTS, DESPITE NO ACTUAL ORDINANCE ON THE BOOKS. ▼ THE BLOCKCHAIN BYE BYE BITCOIN BRO FRANCIS SUAREZ’S FAREWELL GIFT TO MIAMI: A NEW CRYPTO STATUE. BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN S tep aside, Miami Bull. There’s a new cryptocurrency statue in town. At Cantor Fitzgerald’s three-day Cryp- tocurrency, Artificial Intelligence, and En- ergy Infrastructure Conference in Miami Beach, Cantor chairman Brandon Lutnick and executive vice chairman Kyle Lutnick unveiled a statue on Tuesday in honor of the pseudonymous Bitcoin developer Sa- toshi Nakamoto, which will soon be on dis- play in the Magic City. “Satoshi has come to the US! So Proud to bring this powerful sculpture to the city of Miami @satoshigallery,” Brandon wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. The Satoshi Nakamoto statue created by Italian artist Valentina Picozzi honors the mysterious person who developed Bit- coin. The metal statue depicts a hacker sit- ting with his legs crossed and a laptop on his lap. It will join the ranks of four identical Satoshi statues in Switzerland, El Salvador, Japan, and Vietnam. “The statue itself aims to give the viewer a sense of disappearance — the feeling that the inventor remains between the lines,” the Satoshi gallery website states. “When the observer places them- selves behind the statue, they become Sa- toshi because ‘we are all Satoshi.’” Nakamoto began developing Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency with the highest mar- ket capitalization, in 2007, then seemingly vanished. The coder has not touched their wallet, with an estimated 1.1 million Bitcoins currently valued at $111 billion, since 2010. Miami’s crypto-obsessed Mayor Francis Suarez wrote on X that the statue will per- manently sit in “one of our greatest parks by the water.” This statue joins a list of public officials’ passion projects on display in Miami, which includes Joe Carollo’s pre- cious walkway of massive, colorful dogs and cats at Maurice A. Ferré Park and Su- arez’s 11-foot crypto Bull on the Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus. As Suarez is set to leave his mayoral post at the end of the year, he appears to be seeking to cement his legacy as the “most bitcoin-friendly Mayor on the planet.” Yet, his crypto track record is fraught, at best. Remember MiamiCoin? He boasted that the revenue generated by the now worthless city token could one day replace city taxes. He also claimed that the cryptocurrency could generate $60 million over the course of the year. Those ambitions were short-lived, as the coin completely collapsed just two years after its launch. In 2023, the only exchange that supported MiamiCoin suspended trading of the token.
