Coral Gables Historical Archive
The Coral Gables Times
Thursday, July 13, 1961, page 1 (of 44)
The page
The text of this pageRead by computer from the scan, so some words may be wrong. The page picture is the original.
81 Things You Can't Have Zoo? Tree House? No Soap
By MAURICE LABELLE Times Reporter You may brag about having been born in Coral Gables. And you may be pretty proud of the fact you've lived here all your life. But don't make any permanent plans for remaining here. There are no cemeteries. Leastwise, none in operation. So, why not, you ask? It's simple — the law is against it. Zoning ordinances prohibit 81 categories of businesses or other property use. Though the Gables was once flying center and many cadets trained here, you'll have to satisfy your yen for that sport by going someplace else to do your flying. It's permissible to fly over the city at 1,000 feet or better. Airports or helicopter ports are no longer permitted. The only kind of pool allowed is the kind you bathe in. Billiard rooms and pool parlors are taboo. If your favorite form of exercise is bending your elbow, you have to stay home to do it properly, or join a club. Liquor bars are out and only beer and wine are dispensed from open bottles. These are but a few of the things you can't do in Coral Gables. Let's say you wanted to hold a convention. You'd be hard put to find a place to hold one — auditoriums, with the exception of school auditoriums are not in vogue since before the Coliseum became the home of ten pins. Judging by the long-time battle between the room renters and the anti-room renters, you might think it a matter of opinion, but law prohibits the renting of rooms or operation of boarding houses in residential Gables. Dancing is not illegal, but the operation of dance halls is. You have to dance in the privacy of your home or some private club. Perhaps you'd like to live on the water for a while. That's fine, but you'll have to go someplace else to enjoy it. The Gables, probably from fear that the Waterway would turn into another Yangtze River, has banned houseboats. There are probably thousands of various kinds of pets in the Gables, but unless they were born in the city, they were imported. No pet shops, as such, but you can have your pedigreed pup pampered at a pet beauty parlor. And the Huck Finn type boys are severely handicapped by not being able to build tree houses, erect tents or fish off a bridge. T'wasn't always like this, though. Back before the city was incorporated in 1925, the Gables was just another stomping ground for the Seminoles and later their pale face counterparts. Now we can't even have a zoo.
THE Coral Gables TIMES Vol. 36, No. 22 24 Pages Thursday, July 13, 1961 Phone HI 3-1661 Price 10c
Doctors' Hospital Wins Tax Fight Four Years' Savings May Be $40,000
(Background Story, Page 10) By MAURICE LABELLE Times Reporter Doctors' Hospital received a clean bill of health Tuesday from the City of Coral Gables concerning four years' disputed taxes. The hospital won't have to pay any. It's a savings of from $30,000 to $40,000 for the period in question. The City Commission, sitting as a Board of Equalization, gave the hospital its exemption as a non-profit institution. The ruling affected this tax year and those preceding it back to 1958. Tax Assessor T. C. Blount, who had been opposed to any concession, changed his mind on all but one of the four years after nearly two hours' testimony by hospital and city officials. The board exercised its powers and overrode his objections on that one. Blount stood fast on his opinion that the hospital could not show it operated as a non-profit organization in 1958 since it had been under the control of Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation, Inc. only 14 days when it filed its tax statement for that year. But the City Commission acting as a Board of Equilization, unanimously approved the exemptions this week for the entire period. It did so after hearing Dr. C. Howard McDevitt Jr., chairman of the Macdonald Foundation, Hospital Director Mary J. Reeder and other hospital officials explain the institution's financial set-up and their charaitable and non-profit status. Any profits that have been made are paper profits, McDevitt said. Surpluses are being spent for improvements. NO PROFIT YET None of the investors who originally established the hospital as a private financial corporation have received any money, Dr. McDevitt said. Bonds held by them do not mature until after 1964. Both Dr. McDevitt and Mrs. Reeder told the board that some of the 70 doctors and four laymen who bought hospital bonds have already returned them. An effort is being made to get the other investors to do the same. Doctors' donations amount to $100,000, he said. Dr. McDevitt said that char- (See Tax-Exempt, page 2)
Pay Tax, City Tells 2 Schools
Two Coral Gables private schools will have to pay real estate and personal property tax back to 1958 unless they can come with more proof to back their exemption claim. The Board of Equalization Tuesday backed Tax Assessor T. C. Blount in his opinion that Deerborne School, 311 Sevilla Ave., and Riviera Day School, 6800 Nervia St., did not qualify for exemption as non-profit educational institutions based on records supplied to the tax assessor. A door was left open for the private schools to show that they are qualified when the board agreed to allow the school owners to come up with more detailed records to prove their exemption.
Subscribers
If you are one of the several hundred subscribers who today began receiving your Coral Gables Times by carrier salesman instead of mail we offer an explanation. In order to assure prompter service we are converting many customers from mail to carrier delivery. This is necessitated by the fact that due to the hour of our printing on Wednesday night it is sometimes impossible for the Post Office to assure Thursday morning delivery. Your paper should be on your porch. If not, contact Mr. Speier, our circulation manager, at HI 3-1661.
ALLEY PAVING
Calif Construction Co., has been awarded a $2,970 contract by the City Commission to pave an alley in Block 198, "Riviera Section," lying between Yumuri Street and Madruga Court.
Gulf Offices Sold, Also Salzedo Lot
A Miami Beach investor has rchased the old post office building on Giralda Ave. and a controversial piece of property once sought for a gas station site. Jefferson L. Ford Jr. reportedly paid $289,000 to Ed Rogers for the old post office, now the home of Gulf Oil Corporation's Western Hemisphere Exoration Division, and $52,500 to E. Ernest Nitzsche for a 100 foot square lot on the north east corner of Salzedo Street and Giralda Avenue. An office building is planned at the vacant lot over which Nitzsche recently sued the city when it turned him down on a request to rezone the lot ca gas station. Giralda Avenue, from Ponce de Leon Boulevard to Galiano Street, is scheduled to be beautified and repaved in the near future.
A Riddle
What has a handle and four legs but can't walk? Whatever it is, it's lying in a corner of the Coral Gables Police Station. Along side it are five cans of Metrecal, a beat-up bowling ball, two books, a golf club, a bike basket and one fender. And assorted odds and ends. These are all stolen goods. Gables lawmen confiscated them last week when they stopped some youths in a car.
Bob Munley Scores--On Wheels
By JOE MORRIS Correspondent Bob Munley flew 25 mission over Japan as a naval air crewman in Word War II. He came home on furlough in 1945. Then it happened. An airplane accident paralyzed him from the waist down. He has been confined to a wheel chair ever since. Yet, today the muscles in his hands, biceps and shoulders are strong as steel. His smile is pleasant and his spirit of competition is as strong as ever. "I made up my mind to make the best of it and so far I'm doing it," he says. Playing wheelchair basketball the past four months with 10 other paraplegics proves his statement. Developing his skill in dribbling, passing and shooting for the basket from a sitting positon he hopes to play with the Florida Phantoms, July 20, against the Miami Beach Police. The action will take place in Miami Beach Auditorium during the 15th annual convention of the Paralyzed Veterans of America. "It is a lot like donkey baseball and the lack of coordination makes it humorous and fun to watch," Bob explained. "The policemen are not accustomed to moving around in a wheel chair. They get excited and jump up to shoot a goal or get out of their chair to pick up a rolling ball and then are penalized. "When you can't get up it's easier to stay put but even so four or five fall out of their chairs during the game. "I'm a beginner but the fellows that play in the second game are really good," he went on. "The Florida Wheels (Tampa) versus Broken Spokes of Miami will be a real game. (See He Found, page 2) Staff Photo by RAYMOND LANG ROBERT MUNLEY SET TO PASS BASKETBALL
Shoplifter Off to Jail For 30 Days
A 28-year-old Miami woman was sentenced to 30 days in jail by Municipal Judge Charles Spooner Tuesday after she pleaded guilty to shoplifting at Millers, 55 Miracle Mile. Yvonne Hill, of 327 NW 14th Ter., took the jail sentence in lieu of a $205 fine. She had been charged by ary Miller with taking a dress and two maternity outfits valued at $22. The defendant had a previous conviction and suspended sentence hanging over her in Miami.
3 Appointed To Race Unit
Three persons have been appointed to the City of Coral Gables' Bi-Racial Committee. They are, Anthony Gardner, Mrs. Frances Tucker and Dr. Jess Spire. The committee was formed in May 1960 on the recommendation of former Governor LeRoy Collins following a series racial disturbances in other states.