The Times

Have you seen a lost peacock?

Lost: White peacock, vicinity SW 48th Street and 64th Avenue. Rosina Arca could not imagine what happened to Alma, one of her five peacocks. The others, three blue peacocks and white one, were shading themselves under the backyard trees as usual. And since she had put a notice in the newspaper, the worried housewife had only received one call. "One man from Coral Gables called. He said he'd seen a white peacock in his backyard the day before," said Mrs. Arca. "He said he told his wife, and she asked if he'd been drinking. "We still can't find her," Mrs. Arca said. "You know, peacocks don't fly very well, but they can jump right over a fence." Peacocks are not the only unusual pets which inhabit the jungle-like backyard of the Arcas, who live just off SW 64th Avenue. When the family lived in Cuba 16 years ago, they had a farm full of animals and three sons who adored and tended to the animals. Their South Dade home, situated on a tropical, two-acre lot bordering a canal, resembles some kind of far-out zoo. Two statuesque Rhodesian Ridgebacks, huge, muscular dogs traditionally used for African lion hunting, stand guard among a throng of unusual pheasants, hens and ducks. Twenty-year-old son Manuel, who collects rare birds, keeps a large screened-in shed in a back corner where colorful birds from all over the world congregate. And cuddled on a high branch of a shade tree is Linda, a furry raccoon-like animal known as a coti mundi. "Linda . . . come on down," coaxed Mrs. Arca, holding out a mango and a dish of raw egg. But Linda, who was busy scratching a flea, wouldn't budge. "Ah, Linda is taking a siesta now. She sleeps with Manuel, and when he gets up in the morning, she gets in bed with me," said Mrs. Arca. The Arcas, who have had the peacocks about a year, bought them from a lady in Key Largo who raises them, Mrs. Arca explained. She said that a young peacock costs about $25. Alma, the white peacock who is presumably lost and wandering about somewhere in South Dade, is the only female the Arcas have left. Another one recently died. Anyone who happens across the bird can contact The Times/Guide. ELIZABETH OWEN

Family's office 'life' temporary

By ERICA MEYER Staff Writer It took Maria Revithis two-and-a-half hours to get from her home on Miami Beach to her business in Coral Gables Tuesday, May 12. That's why Maria decided that she and her daughter would stay in her dress designer shop's four rooms upstairs at 2101 Ponce de Leon this week until her husband — the only family member who drives a car — returns from Canada. Constantine Revithis is in London, Ontario for a leg operation. Maria, with her daughter Athina, 14, a Ponce de Leon Junior High eighth grader, has been accused of a zoning violation because, just for a week, she's living in a commercially zoned property. Leon Newman, the Realtor in the downstairs office, calls the accusations "harassment. This is their business," he said. "If they want to stay there, if they want to work more than 40-hours a week, they have that right. "They just want to live nice quiet lives. They are successful business people. They have a home on the Beach. "City Hall sent an inspector out here yesterday (Monday, May 11) and he said there's no violation here. He didn't plan a report or anything." City Zoning Director John Little said Tuesday that the department is checking the address, but that he knows of no violation. He said the situation came to his attention when the police were called to 2101 Ponce by another business tenant reporting an obscene phone call and police said someone might be living in the office building. The Revithis' aren't living at 2101 Ponce: they explain that they are simply using their reception room, fitting room and two sewing rooms of their dress design business as headquarters until Constantine and the car return to Coral Gables next week. "Usually Dad drives me to school," Athina said. Maria explained that her daughter entered Ponce so that she could come to her parents' business after school instead of going home to an empty house from Nautilus Junior High on Miami Beach where she used to attend. Maria said she had already been contacted by a local television station looking into the alleged zoning violation. "I don't understand this," she said. "I have a home on Mutiny Avenue on Normandy Island on the Beach. I don't drive so we are staying here just until my husband comes back. It's temporary." Newman praised the Revithis' "as hard working, successful people. They didn't come here with five cents in their pockets. "Someone is giving out a bunch of second-hand erroneous information," Newman said. "It's really none of their business. It's just making something out of nothing. The zoning man was here and found no violation." Newman had no objection to taking a reporter upstairs and introducing the Revithis family, whose dress designing business shares the upstairs area of his real estate office with Aquarius, a water distributing firm.

The Times Guide

Serving The City Beautiful Since 1926 4627 Ponce de Leon Boulevard Coral Gables, Florida 33146 Florida's Best Suburban Newspaper Phone 665-7961 40 Pages Vol. 50 No. 39 Wednesday, May 12, 1976 10 Cents

Gables resident tired of living in construction crane's shadow

By ERICA MEYER Staff Writer The shadow of a giant construction crane crosses Anthony Darnell's lawn at 40 Calabria every afternoon. Darnell is tired of living in that shadow. The crane, atop an unfinished condominium at 911 E. Ponce de Leon, provoked heated debate and an unusual resolution from the Coral Gables City Commission Tuesday, May 11 as Darnell and attorneys for the developer and architect and a representative from the developer's financial backer all appeared at the speaker's podium. Darnell claimed it is "unfair to city residents and to the City Beautiful's pride to allow these people to bicker and sit on their torts while I live under an eyesore." Darnell described broken sidewalks, the nuisance of a partially blocked street, a lack of security at the incomplete building, his fear that the crane could topple into his yard and an industrial phone that rings late in the evening across the vacant construction site. Commissioners ruled three to two (with Commissioner Al Jacobson and Bill Kerdyk opposing and insisting that the crane be immediately dismantled) that the parties involved promise the city by Thursday afternoon, May 13, that if construction cannot start again on June 1, the crane will be dismantled. The commission called for that commitment and for a report at the May 25 commission meeting. For 18 months, the crane has hovered from the top of the building and the parties involved have argued. The developer, Ponce de Leon Development, now represented by attorney Richard Brickman, ran out of construction money in the face of a generally slack condominium economy. Since that happened some months ago, efforts have been made to refinance the project through Atico Financial Corporation, represented locally by Ernest Porter. All those appearing at the hearing Tuesday (Brickman, Porter and architect Phillip Fontinells' attorney Hernando Velez) seemed hopeful that a contract could be put together in the next two weeks that would lead to construction starting again. They also seemed hopeful that, within the next two days, someone among them will agree to cover the $4,000 cost of dismantling the crane starting May 26 if contract negotiations deadlined for May 25 fail. The crane's owner, George Morejon of Dade Crane Ser- See PROJECT, Page 16

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