they were works of modern, abstract art. For example, at first glance, the bright orange eyebrow of a South Beach apartment and the worm’s-eye-view of a Brickell skyscraper take on the geometry of a Mondrian painting. It’s this perspective — exaggerating the small- est of details — that often stumps locals, who then peek at the comments to figure out what they’re actually looking at. BES T A CTIVIS T Eliana Salzhauer @ESALZHAUER (TWITTER) A year ago, Eliana Salzhauer might have been named “Best Politician.” She was then an elected commissioner in Surfside during the town’s most trying time — the aftermath of the Champlain Towers condo collapse. But her true calling at city hall was holding developers at bay while acting as the chief dissenter to Mayor Charles Burkett, whom she (in)famously flipped the double bird during a Zoom meeting in 2020. Then came the elections in March, and both she and her nemesis lost their seats in a near clean sweep by newcomers. After the loss, Sal- zhauer indicated that she wanted to take a break from city meetings, but that turned out to be impossible. “I don’t have the abil- ity to take it easy when someone is taking a shit in my living room,” she said with char- acteristic bluntness. Salzhauer says the new slate of commissioners is more pro-devel- opment than ever, especially the new vice mayor, Jeffrey Rose, a prominent home builder in the sleepy seaside burg just north of Miami Beach. So Salzhauer is bird-dog- ging the new commission like never before, calling out every potential conflict of inter- est and attempt to skirt setback rules or height limits. “They just put this entire town in a cage with the snake and nobody wants to look,” she says. Her efforts and means may not always be polite or popular, but Surfside, you want her on that wall, you need her on that wall. BES T POLITICIAN Nikki Fried @NIKKIFRIED (TWITTER) When resident demagogue Ron DeSantis an- nounced, in the midst of our national gun-vi- olence epidemic, that he wanted to make it legal for basically any yahoo to pack heat in public without a permit, it was gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried who immediately smacked him down. “This is absurd political pandering from the governor of a state that has experienced some of the worst mass shootings in our country’s history, in a nation where we have the highest rates of gun vio- lence in the world,” she stated. On the same day, Fried, using her power as the state’s commissioner of agriculture and consumer affairs, suspended the concealed-weapons permits of seven January 6 insurrectionists. Need more convincing? How about someone who denied DeSantis’ order to lower state flags to half-mast when corrosive hate-talker Rush Limbaugh passed on to Hell? She did that, too. Someone who’s leading the charge on adult-use cannabis, you say? Check. The big question now is whether she can beat Charlie Crist, the all-time king of showing up, to secure the Democratic nomination for governor and square off against DeSantis one on one. It’s a major task, but remember that back in 2018, she beat a rifle-toting Republi- can to become the only Democrat to be elected statewide. Translation: She has sur- prised before. BES T LOCAL GIRL MADE GOOD Ketanji Brown Jackson JUDICIARY.SENATE.GOV/JUDGE- KETANJI-BROWN-JACKSON Ketanji Brown Jackson hasn’t just made good, she’s made history. In fact, no South Florida girl or boy has made a more profound mark on history. Yes, the late great Janet Reno, the first woman to serve as U.S. Attor- ney General, comes close. But to be the first Black woman named to the U.S. Supreme Court? Epic. And awe-inspiring. Jackson was born in Washington, D.C., but she grew up in Miami and her roots here run deeper than a live oak’s. Johnny Brown, her father, was the lead attorney for the Miami-Dade school board; her mother, Ellery Brown, served as principal of the New World School of Arts. An uncle, Calvin Ross, was a Miami police chief. Jackson herself graduated from Miami Palmetto Senior High School, class of 1988. Not surprisingly, she’s remembered by many as highly driven during her South Florida youth and made good during her senior year when she won the national oratory champi- onship. From there it was on to Harvard — and now, history. BES T LOCAL BOY MADE GOOD Mario Cristobal @COACH_CRISTOBAL (TWITTER) Yes, it’s true that Mario Cristobal is the sec- ond consecutive University of Miami football coach to “come home” to great fanfare and big dreams. And it’s also true that the first one — the super-hyped Manny Diaz — lasted three excruciating seasons before the axe fell. Might Cristobal follow in those regrettable footsteps? Don’t count on it. Cristobal comes here with an edge Diaz lacked, one sharpened during his last somewhat bitter exit from town. You might remember that back in 2006, at age 36, Cristobal was named head coach at Florida International University, a 11 11 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com BEST OF MIAMI® 2022 BEST OF MIAMI® 2022 NEW TIMES NEW TIMES JUNE 23-29, 2022 JUNE 23-29, 2022
