☀️ GOOD MORNING, HOLLYWOOD!
Good morning, Hollywood. Well, this is it - the last time the World Cup plays in our backyard. France and England are at Hard Rock this afternoon, and tomorrow the whole thing ends downtown on a giant screen. Today we’ve also got the plan that could reshape Federal Highway for the next 20 years, a fight over Joseph Young’s 1925 landmark, and an Israeli baking star who just opened in Hallandale. Grab your coffee and let’s get into it.

📰 IN TODAY’S BLEND
⚽ South Florida’s last World Cup match is today
⚽ Tomorrow: Argentina vs Spain, on a giant screen downtown
🏗️ 25,100 apartments and the future of Federal Highway
🏠 The fight over Joseph Young’s 1925 landmark
🥖 An Israeli baking star opens in Hallandale
🎟️ Spotlight - Tito Puente Jr. brings the mambo to Davie

📅 WHAT’S HAPPENING - July 18-21

Saturday, July 18 - Today!
⚽ World Cup Bronze Final: France vs England at Hard Rock Stadium, 5 PM
🎟️ Colombia Independence Celebration at ArtsPark (downtown Hollywood) - 4-11 PM, free
🎭 Downtown Hollywood ArtWalk - 6-10 PM, free
🎧 Beautiful Loser (Bob Seger tribute) at The Casino @ Dania Beach - 8 PM
🍽️ Yellow Green Farmers Market (Hollywood) - 200+ vendors, 10 AM-6:30 PM

Sunday, July 19
⚽ World Cup Final Watch Party: Argentina vs Spain, Downtown Hollywood - gates noon, kickoff 3 PM
🏕️ “The Garden of We” COVID Memorial dedication at Bob Butterworth Park
🍽️ Yellow Green Farmers Market (Hollywood) - 200+ vendors, 10 AM-6:30 PM
🏆 Live thoroughbred racing at Gulfstream Park (Hallandale) - first post 12:50 PM

Monday, July 20
🎬 $1 Summer Movies at Regal Dania Pointe, from 11 AM
🍽️ Hallandale Eats: prix-fixe menus at 26 restaurants (through Aug 20)

Tuesday, July 21
🎬 $1 Summer Movies at Regal Dania Pointe, from 11 AM
🍽️ Hallandale Eats: prix-fixe menus at 26 restaurants (through Aug 20)

COMING UP
🖼️ “Force of Nature: Hurricanes and Hollywood” opens at the ArtsPark Gallery - Wed July 22
🍸 National Tequila Day Tasting at Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort - Fri July 24
🎧 Lionel Richie and Earth, Wind & Fire at Hard Rock Live - Fri July 24
🎧 Disturbed at Hard Rock Live - Sat July 25
♠️ Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open - July 28-Aug 11
🎟️ Tito Puente Jr. & His Orchestra at the Miniaci Center, Davie - Sat Sept 12 (see Spotlight)

🌡️ High: ~93° | Feels like ~104° | Mostly sunny, afternoon storms possible
The dust finally breaks. That Saharan plume is easing, and with it the rain comes back - about a 50% chance of showers and storms this afternoon, most likely after 4 p.m. Worth a thought if you’re headed to Hard Rock for the 5 p.m. kickoff or out to ArtWalk tonight. Heat risk eases from Friday’s “major” down to moderate, but it’s still 93 with a heat index near 104. Hydrate, find shade midday, and never leave kids or pets in a parked car.

Source: National Weather Service / CBS Miami

⚽ Today: The World Cup Says Goodbye to South Florida

This is the one we’ve been counting down to, and not in a good way. France vs England kicks off at 5 p.m. at Hard Rock Stadium - going by Miami Stadium for the tournament - in the Bronze Final. It’s the seventh match South Florida has hosted, and the last. After today, the circus leaves town.

Neither side wants to be here. France was picked apart by Spain in the semifinals; England watched Argentina rally past them. Now two of the sport’s heavyweights meet for third place, which sounds like a consolation prize until you remember it’s a World Cup medal.

If you’re not among the people who paid north of $4,200 for a seat, the whole county will be watching anyway - beachfront bars, downtown patios, and every TV in between. One thing to plan around: storms are back in the forecast this afternoon, most likely after 4 p.m. Bring a backup plan and an umbrella.

Source: FIFA / Hard Rock Stadium

⚽ Tomorrow: Argentina vs Spain, and Downtown Goes Big

Then comes the main event. Argentina vs Spain for the World Cup, tomorrow at 3 p.m., live from the stadium in New York/New Jersey. It’s on FOX in English, Telemundo and Peacock in Spanish - and Lionel Messi, in what’s almost certainly his last World Cup, is one win from back-to-back titles.

You don’t need a plane ticket. Downtown Hollywood’s official Watch Party takes over Hollywood Boulevard between 19th and 21st Avenues, with the match on multiple giant outdoor screens. Gates open at noon, kickoff is 3 p.m., and there are DJs, food trucks, and specials at downtown businesses all day.

A word to the wise: the last downtown watch party pulled more than 30,000 people and hit capacity. Get there early. There’s a free City Hall shuttle dropping at S. 20th Avenue and Van Buren Street, and if it fills up, the surrounding restaurants and bars are a fine plan B.

Source: City of Hollywood / FIFA

🏗️ 25,100 Apartments and the Next 20 Years of Federal Highway

Hollywood is planning for a skyline. City commissioners have moved to raise the housing cap in the Regional Activity Center - the high-density zone running along Federal Highway from Sheridan Street south to Pembroke Road - from 17,100 dwelling units to 25,100. That’s 8,000 more. A companion plan would lift the State Road 7 corridor from 5,309 units to 9,688.

To be clear about what that number is: it’s a ceiling, not a construction schedule. Roughly 6,000 units have been built or are in the pipeline along Federal so far. Land-use attorney Keith Poliakoff figures most of the new towers would go up over the next 20 years. “These units are not all being built tomorrow,” he said. “This is a long-term plan.”

Whether you love it or dread it, one number explains the push. When the Pinnacle 441 apartments opened on State Road 7 - 113 units, rents starting near $1,100, built for people earning 60% or less of the area median income - more than 21,000 people registered. The developer had to run a lottery. Broward County figures the region needs 7,000 new units a year just to keep pace. Not everyone is convinced they will get built: former commissioner Dick Blattner, now on the Planning & Development Board, notes the city has approved plenty of towers over the past five years that never broke ground.

Source: Sun Sentinel

🏠 The Fight Over Joseph Young’s 1925 Landmark

Here’s a piece of Hollywood history worth knowing. The Hollywood Beach Resort at 101 N. Ocean Drive went up in 1925, built by city founder Joseph W. Young in 90 days flat, using round-the-clock shifts. When a railroad embargo choked off his building materials, Young had cement barged in from Belgium up the Intracoastal. That’s the kind of stubbornness this city was founded on.

A century later, it’s the center of a fight. On June 17, commissioners voted 6-1 to affirm the property’s vested right to 398 residential units on the 4.5-acre oceanfront site. It’s a procedural step confirming what the building has long been - not an approval of any particular project - but it matters, because Related Group’s Jorge Pérez and BH Group’s Isaac Toledano have the property under contract for a reported $100 million, with developer David Martin reportedly in talks to join them.

The lone no vote was Commissioner Caryl Shuham, who wasn’t in a generous mood about the current owner. “This building was left to decay,” she said, “and we had to take this owner to the Unsafe Structures Board.” Whatever comes next, Young’s 100-year-old landmark is about to become something else entirely.

Source: The Real Deal / City of Hollywood

🥖 An Israeli Baking Star Just Opened in Hallandale

If you know babka, you may already know the name. Uri Scheft - the baker behind Tel Aviv’s Lehamim Bakery and a co-founder of New York’s Breads Bakery, the man largely responsible for introducing Israeli-style babka to America - has opened the first South Florida location of his Bakey brand in Hallandale Beach. Mayor Joy Cooper was there for the opening.

The Hallandale shop is kosher, and the case reads like a greatest-hits list: chocolate and almond babka, cheese bourekas, goat cheese croissants, rugelach, challah, sourdough breads, and bagels, plus salads, sandwiches, and coffee. Everything is baked in-house through the day, using unbleached flour and natural sourdough. Catering, wholesale, and holiday menus are on the way.

Scheft, who grew up between Israel and Denmark and trained across Europe, wrote the James Beard-nominated cookbook “Breaking Breads.” He’s expanding here with partner Amir Vadash, whose family ran Vadash Jacob’s Bakery in Israel for decades. Bakey has five locations around Boston, and Fort Lauderdale and Aventura are next - but Hallandale got there first.

Source: Ynet

🎟️ The King of the Timbales, Carried On

Mark this one down now, because it’s worth the wait. Tito Puente Jr. & His Orchestra bring “The Music of Tito Puente” to the Rose & Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center in Davie on Saturday, September 12 at 7:30 p.m.

If the name doesn’t land, the sound will. Tito Puente was the “King of the Timbales,” the bandleader whose career reshaped Afro-Cuban music, mambo, salsa and Latin jazz and whose songs you’ve danced to whether you knew it or not. His son now carries that catalog around the country with a full orchestra behind him - blazing brass, big percussion, and the kind of rhythm section that makes sitting still feel rude.

“This isn’t simply a tribute concert,” Puente Jr. says. “It’s a celebration of music that continues to unite people of every generation and culture through rhythm.” The Miniaci Center sits on the Nova Southeastern University campus, an easy run up I-95 or the Turnpike. Tickets are at MiniaciPAC.com.

Source: BroadwayWorld / Miniaci Performing Arts Center