WGM Weekly: Star Island Says Sayonara Sean Combs, Shiso Closes, & State of Kid is the Best!
+ the Ocean is filled with Poop and Vilebrequin opens Roseville in Miami Beach
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WHAT’S GOOD MIAMI: 7.13.26
ON MY MIND: AI Made Everyone Sound Smarter and Say Nothing
I got a text from a friend last week. Perfectly worded. Warm, professional, structured like a memo. Not one word of it sounded like him.
SMALL BUSINESS SUMMER: State of Kid, Where Miami Kids Hang
There are kids, and then there are Miami kids. And there’s no cooler place for a Miami kid to be than State of Kid.
Beach Business
Star Island Says Sayonara to Sean “Diddy” Combs
Sean “Diddy” Combs’ company has sold his waterfront mansion at 1 Star Island Drive for $55 million to John Franklin of Franklin Management.
Ocean Update: Don’t Drink the Water. Or Touch It.
Sargassum was the appetizer. Now Miami-Dade’s water has a fecal bacteria problem too.
Marine Stadium: One Step Closer to Relaunch
Miami decides the stadium’s near-term future in an August 18 special election.
Hospitality Local Insider
Vilebrequin La Plage: An 18,000 Square Foot French Bathing Suit Wonderland
Here’s the pitch: take a swimwear brand, slap it on a bar on top of a hotel, call it “La Plage”.
Summer Shakeup: Wynwood Continues to Overpromise and Underdeliver. Shiso is Closing.
One year. That’s all Shiso Asian Smokehouse got before Wynwood decided it would rather have another event space.
ON MY MIND: AI Made Everyone Sound Smarter and Say Nothing
I got a text from a friend last week. Perfectly worded. Warm, professional, structured like a memo. Not one word of it sounded like him.
I knew immediately. He ran it through AI first.
Here’s what’s happening in Miami right now, in every city right now: people are asking ChatGPT how to respond to the people closest to them. Everyone sounds smarter. Everyone sounds calmer. And underneath it, nobody knows what’s actually going on with anyone else.
A real text has a stumble in it. A real message has one sentence that’s a little too honest, because the person writing it was actually feeling something when they hit send. Strip that out and you’re not communicating — you’re issuing press releases to the people who are supposed to know you best. I’ve started noticing it everywhere: two people, two AIs, laundering the tension out of every conversation until nothing real gets said, and nothing moves.
Connection doesn’t happen at a polished distance. It happens in the stumble. Use the tool for your invoice. Don’t use it for the people who matter.
SMALL BUSINESS SUMMER: State of Kid, the Only Kid Spot in Miami That Actually Gets It
There are kids, and then there are Miami kids. And there’s no cooler place for a Miami kid to be than State of Kid, the spot every parent in this town already knows, and the ones who don’t need to.
Alana Oxfeld built it herself, from nothing, starting in 2019 when she was a mom of a two-year-old looking for exactly what didn’t exist yet: one place that had the best clothing, toys, and accessories, and also ran the classes. Music, art, cooking, occupational therapy from actual experts. Not a shop. A hub.
Everyone loves Alana. She’s the Mayor of Miami Beach Moms, the person every parent in this city seems to know, trust, and text when they need to figure something out. That’s not an accident. She and her team aren’t buying what sells, they’re buying what they’d want for their own kids, because most of the people running State of Kid are parents themselves. That’s the difference between a kids’ store and a kids’ store an entire community builds its week around.
And it works on every level. You can come for the art, stay for the classes, and let your kid experience everything the neighborhood has to offer without needing to buy into every brand in the building. They have three locations now, Miami Design District, South Miami, and the Miami Beach Botanical Garden.
Breakthrough Offer: Summer Class Packs, Drop it like its hot!
For the first time ever, State of Kid is offering summer class packs, four-packs and eight-packs, usable across any class, any kid, weekday or weekend. Got four kids? Use it on all four. Packs start under $40 and expire end of August, summer only, not available during the school year.
→ Sign up at StateOfKid.com. This won’t last.
BEACH BUSINESS
