Jeffrey Loria
Owner of the Marlins
Having finagled taxpayer dollars for the new 37,000-seat, $634 million Marlins stadium, which last year replaced the now-demolished Orange Bowl, Loria and other executives are ensnared in an SEC investigation into its financing. An even greater crime, for Marlins fans, was Loria’s public commitment to building a winning team, which was almost immediately followed by the sale of five of the Marlins’ top players “for pebbles,” as the locals sneer.
Anitere Flores
Rising Politico
Earlier this month, Florida lieutenant governor Jennifer Carroll was forced out of office amid a $300 million scandal involving a veteran’s charity that the attorney general accused of being a front for a gambling racket. Among the names swatted around as a possible replacement is Republican state senator Flores, a 36-year-old Cuban-American whom the Miami New Times called Marco Rubio “without a comb over.” One of the only Hispanic women in the Florida legislature, Flores has statewide ambitions: She’s been the education policy chief for Jeb Bush and was a leading Romney surrogate last year.
“Florida Man”
Tweeter Extraordinaire
Representing all that is weird and wrong in the Sunshine State, the anonymous @_FloridaMan handle tweets a ticker-tape feed of only-in-Florida absurdities to its 78,000 followers. “Florida Man Arrested Forcing Pit Bulls to Drink Rum,” reads one. “Police Find Cocaine in Florida Man’s Prosthetic Leg,” reads another. The New Times blogs similar stories with the “WTF Florida” tag, including the recent “Florida Man Arrested for Assaulting Teen Relative With Taco Bell Burrito.”
Dr. Leonard M. Hochstein
Preservation Saboteur
With its celebrated Art Deco and Mediterranean Revival architecture, Miami has long fueled preservationist passions. Last year, plastic surgeon Hochstein and his wife, Lisa, a cast member on the Real Housewives of Miami, bought an eight-bedroom mansion on Star Island at a foreclosure auction for $7.6 million. They planned to demolish the 1925 home and replace it with a glitzy 14,000-square-foot house and five-car garage. A review board approved the wrecking ball on March 5, but activists at the Miami Design Preservation League continue to fight it.