Miami has sun, sand, and sex, but it lacks one critical feature of the modern luxury economy: a place for ultra-wealthy seafarers to dock their shimmering mega-yachts.
This is undoubtedly something that keeps the proud residents of South Florida awake at night — awake in the soft, humid night, after the final mojito has been downed and the last salsa danced in South Beach. So the city is doing something about it. The question is: Will the mega-yacht harbor be done in time for the 2015 Miami Yacht & Brokerage Show?
The show kicks off in mid-February, so the clock is ticking for the developer of the project, the Flagstone Property Group. But according to Miami Today, the firm has assured the City Commission that work has begun, the deadline will be met, and the mega-yachts with not be denied.
In fact, the Harbor at Island Gardens — the port is part of a planned $1 billion residential, dining, retail, and entertainment mecca — will address a global dearth of mega-yacht slips not just in Miami, but on the planet.
The current torrid rate of mega-yacht construction outstrips the supply of watery high-end parking spots. And while it's amusing to ply the waves, literally unmoored and addressless for weeks or months, there comes a time when you want to pull into port. Which will cost you. More than $4,000 a day.
As Charterworld reported back in February, the new marina will "accommodate 35 to 75 mega-yachts, superyachts and giga-yachts within a range of 80 to 480 feet." (If mega-yachts don't do it for you, giga-yachts the size of Navy frigates are where you turn). This is critical: when it comes to mega-yachts, you have to cater to the 300-foot-and-above-club.
We reached out to the Yacht & Brokerage Show organizers for a preview of mega-, super-, and giga-yachts to expect next year in Miami and will update when we know more.
SEE ALSO: Charter This Megayacht With An Inflatable Water Slide For $425,000 A Week
SEE ALSO: A Mysterious Middle Eastern Mogul Bought This Insane Megayacht With An Infinity Pool
Join the conversation about this story »
.jpg)
With wind that can gust up to 80 miles per hour and annual snowfall up to 55 feet, it is easy not to leave Begich Towers for days or weeks. Some residents have boasted that they have not left in years, a not impossible feat with corner store, post office, and church all in the building.
TiNoi and son Demetrius attempt to shoot molting salmon as they swim upstream. TiNoi traveled to Whittier to work at the cannery eight summers ago. He and wife Ata moved into Begich Towers and stayed, he working for the harbor and she at the school and tunnel.
In summer, the town’s population swells with transients. Terry works at the cannery, living in a bunkhouse across from the crumbling Buckner Building, once the largest structure in the Alaskan territory, abandoned and uninhabited since the army left in 1960..jpg)
Terry’s roommate in the bunkhouse is Dut, an immigrant to Anchorage from the world’s youngest country, South Sudan. He and the other cannery employees will work for the summer and leave Whittier again before winter sets in.
The town lies nestled on a delta between the Chugach Mountains and Prince William Sound. The harbor is the basis of Whittier’s economy, as the water accommodates barges, fishing boats, tour boats, and this vessel, pulled from the water and being scrapped for parts.
Charlene and Arnie have lived on their boat in the harbor on and off since the 1960s, and have participated in the town’s evolution nearly since incorporation, playing the roles of harbormaster, school district superintendent, and mayor. But they don’t live in Begich Towers anymore. “I call it the bat cave,” said Arnie, “Because you have to be battier than hell to live there. When one person sneezes, everyone sneezes.”
Brenda doesn’t live in Begich Towers either, but her two pet reindeer live in a pen across the street. In the thirty-five years she has lived in Whittier, Brenda has been notary public, weather woman, gift shop owner, resident artist, and sign painter. “Whittier magnifies what people are about,” she said.
When the military base at Whittier was mothballed just 20 years after the tunnel’s construction, civilians inhabited the abandoned base and incorporated a town despite its blend of isolation and claustrophobia. From the tunnel to the end of an unfinished road, the town is just three miles long, barely longer than the tunnel itself..jpg)
Until 2000, the tunnel was railroad-only and residents could enter and exit the town by train only a few times a week. Today, cars stage on both sides, passing into Whittier on the bottom of the hour and out of the top. At night when it closes, one is acutely aware which side of Maynard Mountain one is stranded on.
“If you can deal with yourself, you can love Whittier,” said Jim, a stone carver who lived in town for 20 years. In his last years in Whittier, he lived in a hotel room in the Anchor Inn, between the town’s only year-round restaurant on the first floor and its bar on the third.
Salesforce, Twitter, Dropbox, Adobe, Google, and Square 
Maybe it was almost socially acceptable to behave like a bro when you were caressing a keg and singing Cornell's fight song ... maybe.
9. Then there are hilarious celebrity appearances. 
There are a few things that Google Shopping Express lacks that others have. AmazonFresh offers 1-hour time slots. It also allows you to order fresh groceries, such as meat and eggs and milk. And you can order frozen foods. 
Because someone else is shopping for you, there are a couple things that could go wrong. For example, I ordered 
