The Coral Gables Times

City Drops Court Fight, But Not Fight on Rooms

Mrs. Everett Liner, 427 Giralda Ave., will be hostess T[?]day evening for the first f[?] meeting of the Chapter, Reserve Officers Association Ladies Club.

Same Effect In the End: Letting Over

The City Commission has dropped any further litigation in the illegal room renting case won by a Coral Gables resident in July. Commissioners decided this week to drop any appeal in the case of the late James W. Nichols against the city. The Nichols charged that a resolution permitting limited room renting was illegal. The Circuit Court backed them. The Commission Monday decided to put into ordinance form what it has sought illegally to do by resolution. According to City Attorney Ted Semple, who had opposed the original resolution, but who defended it in court, the ordinance will accomplish the same objective: Permit hardship cases. Permit room renting by those who rented prior to passage of the anti-room renting ordinance of June 27, 1944. Eventually cut off all room renting by limiting this right only to the original property owners and not permitting this right to be passed on to a new owner or heir. Semple said Monday that an entirely new ordinance would have to be drawn up to replace the existing ordinance.

Life Around the Gables But Officer!

THIS SNARLING dog obviously disapproves of what meter checker Gayle Campbell is doing but he'll have to tell it to the Metro Judge. (Staff photo by Raymond Lang)

McLeod, Gautier Talk to Jaycees; Club Backs Metro

The Coral Gables Jaycees heard a debate about Metropolitan Government Thursday night of last week and then voted to oppose the McLeod Amendments. Their meeting was held at the Coral Gables Country Club and the panelists were R. B. Gautier, former State Senator, and John B. McLeod, former county commissioner and leader of the movement to revise the county's charter. About 70 people attended. The debate started when McLeod charged that, as usual, he had to speak first, thus giving Senator Gautier the opportunity to hear what he was going to say and then tear it apart. McLeod devoted much of his argument to attacking the Miami newspapers for "slanting" their articles concerning the Metropolitan Government and in charging that the present county manager is in fact, a dictator. Senator Gautier stressed the history of Metro and stated that it had provided an over-all government which was needed to provide many services not feasible under the old system whereby each municipality had full autonomy. He further said that many of the failings of Metro were the result of the fact that the original Metro commissioners were opposed to the Metropolitan plan and thus had "sabotaged" Metro from within. Commissioner McLeod stated that Metro's only achievements had been to double the county budget; double the number of county employees and reassess everyone's property at 100%. He stated that the McLeod Amendments, or People's Amendments, as he prefers to call them, would insure that the people control the government and would do away with reassessment. He said the present Metro Commission composed of 13 members is unwieldly and that his plan for five commissioners would be more practical. Senator Gautier said tha[?] he McLeod Amendments would make the offices of sheriff and tax assessor elected rather than appointed and would thus submit them to political pressures which would defeat objectivity on the part of these office holders. Commissioner McLeod f elt that the people had the right to elect their sheriff and their tax assessor and that if [?]ey were elected they would be more responsive to the peoples' wishes. Commissioner McLeod stated that he did not know whether he would run for county commissioner if his amendements were adopted, but stated that he might if his amendments were passed by a 2 or 3 to 1 vote. "I will be happy if I ne[?]er hold another public office in my life," he said.

Controversial Undug Canal Will Be Sold to Residents

Coral Gables' undug canal is going to remain that way. Property owners, meeting with the City Commission Tuesday night in a special session, decided they did not want the canal dug and a clear majority indicated they wished to buy the 100-foot strip of property from the City. The undug canal is located parallel to Avenues Parma and Paradiso and between Granada Boulevard and Orduna Drive. If dug, it would have linked the Coral Gables Waterway to the University Waterway. Two bridges, costing an estimated $50,000, would have been built. The property has been in the news because of differences between the City and an Avenue Parma family, the Dr. Gibbsys. Eleven of the property owners along the undug canal indicated they preferred to buy their portion; two said they wanted the canal; one told the City he wanted no part of either proposal; and four were not present at the meeting. Fifteen of the eighteen property owners involved, however had signed a petition earlier and presented it at the meeting asking to buy the land. Mayor Robert L. Searle, who presided over the knotty meeting, told the group that the commission would take action on their decision at next Tuesday's meeting. Homeowners will now have the choice of buying their strip at prices appraised by the city or letting neighbors buy.

Saves Time

The first installation in the United States of an assembly-line production model of the Bell System's new data-phone equipment has been made at Coral Gables Federal Savings and Loan Association. The few previous installations in the country were made with experimental models. These first production line sets have provided the missing link in Coral Gables Federal's new automated accounting system, enabling one business machine to talk to another over telephone lines.

Royal Castle Opens Shop

Royal Castle will open its second shop on Ponce de Leon Boulevard Friday night. It is located at the corner of Ponce and Avenue Giralda on what was a service station site for many years. The shop will be the firm's 95th, about half of which are located in Dade County. Royal Castle, which specializes in hamburgers, has another Ponce location a few blocks to the north. The company's board chairman, William D. Singer, is a Gabelite, living on Granada Boulevard.

THE BOOM was bust here when this picture was shot. It shows the old North Campus Building with an array of that day's modern autos. The picture is believed to have been taken shortly after 1930.

Something TO TALK ABOUT

George Merrick, father and founder of the Gables, faced many problems before his dream of a City Beautiful became reality. He sent architects, including H. George Fink, to the Mediterranean and South Sea Islands to study designs which he believed were best adaptable to South Florida. There they discovered what Merrick wanted... but not in time. Before the first unit of road building and beautification was finished his original $500,000 was exhausted. In desperate need of financing, he went from bank to bank. His own words described his dilemma: "They called me a visionary and sometimes they were not so complimentary. I begged them for aid, but they laughingly rejected my pleas. "Then, after many sleepless nights, when I was tempted to junk the entire project, a ray of hope came out of the darkness." One day he accidentally met an old college chum, C. F. (Jack) Baldwin, one of Coral Gables' first City Commissioners, who had opened an insurance office in Miami. Merrick told him his plans and was advised to catch the next train to Baldwin's home office. There, he convinced the company to finance the construction of 100 homes. Originally all construction in Coral Gables was of mixed Spanish and Italian design. But Merrick went so far as to import hand-wrought roofing tiles shaped over the knees of the artisans in Spain and Cuba. Later, "villages" were built, and remain today as o[?] of interest. One is an entire block of Chinese-compound ty[?] houses, another a street of American colonial, and others of French provincial and Dutch patterns.