Improvement district to celebrate aviation heritage

Entering the new year, the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District is shifting gears to celebrating the neighborhood’s 150th anniversary, with an ongoing series of events.

Themed “Grove Heritage,” the Coconut Grove BID is set to produce monthly events to add magic and memories to all residents and visitors of the Grove, said Cynthia Seymour, the BID’s executive director.

The year-long series of celebrations will be kicking off Friday (1/6) on the streets of the business district, with a birthday cake, entertainment and historic reenactments.

“We’re going to be looking at all of the various historical elements,” Ms. Seymour said. “We’ll focus on women’s history in March and will focus on the artist like the history of the art being a real strong undercurrent of Coconut Grove, and during the Coconut Grove Arts Festival we’ll focus on our time history.”

Other historic events that will be spotlighted include the aviation history of Pan American and Miami City Hall.

“We’re going focus on month-by-month telling those historic stories and just like last year, we will culminate the holiday season like this summit or grand finale,” Ms. Seymour added, “where everybody comes together, who have participated over the course of the year.”

The BID has a real opportunity to set the stage and create all these dramatic, fun moments that are entertaining and memory-making, she said.

“Here in the Grove, our beautiful sidewalks are redone and we’re working with a landscape architecture team to recreate fuller streets as a pedestrian zone,” Ms. Seymour explained. “The idea is that the streets would actually take on stormwater so there’s an environmental aspect. So, it’s a stormwater management plan underneath the surface, and on top, it’s all about the performances, entertainment and that place where people come, music could be played, and dances could happen.”