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Monday October 1, 2007

The Little Havana roosters

william burroughswilliam burroughs

One of the more colorful bits to come out of the Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust situation is the case of these fiberglass roosters. Eight of these were ordered by the trust five years ago (total cost: $26,000) to give some pizazz to Little Havana. They quickly became the subject ridicule, then of vandalism.

Most of them have been mercifully removed, one still stands, hopefully to remind our esteemed leaders to relax and keep their notions of “art” to themselves. For crying out loud — Bacardi logos? What on earth were they thinking?! I photographed these in 2003; Veronica mentioned one in her piece on Little Havana in 2005.

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  1. DJ_Kremlin    Mon Oct 1, 08:17 AM #  

    You mention vandalism…
    It’s funny, but for some reason Miami is just over run with vandalism. You can’t put anything out without it being either, stolen, broken, spray painted, etc… This town is really full of savage people. I lived 10 years in Boston, and granted we too had our share, but it was never nearly as bad. And Boston has much MUCH more public art. Maybe city officials there are just better about getting the vandalism removed before anyone sees it, but I think it’s just the level of culture in the North East. People in the North East seem much more cultured, much better educated (even on the high school level) and have better things to do then break, steal or vandalize public art.

    Grow up Miami!!!



  2. Crumbs    Mon Oct 1, 10:07 AM #  

    Can someone get a grip on Dalva? It was cute when I thought it was a little punk artist – but when I realized it was an ad agency, I began wanting the cops to raid their place.



  3. l'elk!    Mon Oct 1, 10:33 AM #  

    why they never made a dead santería chicken statue in the mix is beyond me…



  4. Billermo    Mon Oct 1, 11:52 AM #  

    l’elk,

    the statues are full of dead santeria chicken. fibrerglass dont smell like that!



  5. dreaming    Mon Oct 1, 08:58 PM #  

    the waste of taxpapers’ dollars in miami continues to astonish, year in and year out. the fraud of the empowerment trust is just the latest example, preceded by the report on the ‘loss’ of expensive public art over the years.

    if miami were a person, it would be serving a life sentence in prison for grand larceny from the taxpayers.



  6. Ernie Gonzalez    Sat Oct 6, 07:50 AM #  

    Bacardi Logos…BACARDI USA pay x him..
    The Empowerment Trust rooster..Only in Flagler st..
    This photos:Privates owner in CALLE 8,

    Thepeopleeyes@yahoo.com



  7. w.mark coulthard    Sun Oct 14, 09:25 PM #  

    What is this obsession with the rooster,even the French are not this bad…We helped organise a beach clean up a month ago and found over twenty
    fresh santeria sites/offerings rotting on the shoreline on a saturday morning,six of these sites were dead chickens floating , spreading bacteria into the swimming zones.The Herald ,the
    city,no one has commented on our report. The Hindus have their cows and the Santis get their kicks from chicks..Watch out for more wierd public art on the I95 going north past overtown,
    the eyes of the dead watching us all pass by.
    what do visitors really think of this kind of expression? What are those symbols on the pillars of the 8th street & I95 junction ? Are
    they religious? if so why haven’t they been defaced. Vandalism of public art is a true expression of critiqueism. Contempt is a real feeling,fowl public art is therefore fair game.