Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago had another emotional meltdown on the Coral Gables dais this week. But this time, it wasn’t about Commissioner Melissa Castro. It wasn’t about Ariel Fernandez. And it wasn’t about the Coral Gables Gazette or — sadly for me — Political Cortadito.
No, this week the target of Lago’s righteous fury was Miami New Times.
Yes, the alternative weekly. The free paper. The one with the naughty covers. The one Lago insists nobody reads — while holding it aloft like a cursed object in a medieval exorcism.
Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago tries, fails to censure nemesis Melissa Castro
It began, as these things often do, with someone committing the unforgivable sin of noticing what happened at the last commission meeting. You may recall that at the January 13 meeting, the mayor stormed off the dais in a huff — twice. Probably because he couldn’t get a second to censure Castro for some ridiculous reason. When the video of that meeting later appeared 
online, those little outbursts had mysteriously vanished. Poof. Gone. Like they never happened.
New Times wrote a story asking why.
Activists Maria Cruz and Rip Holmes brought it up — por supuesto — during public comments. She called the editing a cover up. Holmes called it “tampering with public records.s”
“Of course, I’m sure we’re going to say it was done because it didn’t look good for the city,” Cruz said. “But my question is was it not good for the city or was it not good for the mayor? Because obviously his behavior was not acceptable.”
But instead of answering the simple question — who ordered the edits? — Mayor L’Ego decided to stage a half-hour dramatic reading of Why The New Times Is Out To Get Me.
He brought props. He brought a slideshow. He brought a copy of the newspaper.
He might as well have brought a fainting couch.
First, Lago assured us he is absolutely not bothered by the New Times article. He is so unbothered, in fact, that he devoted a at least 30 minutes of a public commission meeting — taxpayer-funded and televised — to explain how deeply unbothered he is.
Sure. Just like he is unbothered by the Miami Herald and Actualidad Radio, who he sued after a show aired information about an ethics investigation into the mayor’s lies about his family’s involvement in the Little Gables annexation efforts.
Read related: Judge dismisses Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago’s defamation lawsuit
Then came the accusation: the story was “fed” to New Times by one of the commissioners. A brief round of “Was it you?” followed. Everyone denied it. The mystery remains unsolved. Stay tuned for next week’s episode.
Next, the mayor unveiled his evidence board. Not about video editing. Not about transparency. Not about why the public record was altered.
No — about newspaper boxes.
Yes. Metal boxes. On sidewalks. The true threat to democracy in Coral Gables.
Lago presented photographs of New Times distribution boxes he claims are unsightly and not ADA compliant. This, he explained, 
proves the newspaper has a vendetta against him. Because he — noble guardian of The City Beautiful — has been bravely battling rogue newspaper boxes for years.
But Ladra bets the Power Point was created after the first New Times story Monday.d
Besides, which is it, mayor? Did someone feed them the story or did they write it in retaliation for your code enforcement efforts?
Finally, the showstopper: Lago held up the latest issue of New Times, pointed at the cover — a piggy bank in lingerie — and announced that the paper has no substance, no readership, and exists only to publish “pay-to-play hit pieces.”
Read related: Post-election Vince Lago revenge tour in Coral Gables = political retaliation
He then reminded us he does not read it. Which is impressive, considering how thoroughly he critiqued its content.
Meanwhile, the actual issue — whether a public government video was edited to remove embarrassing behavior by an elected official — floated quietly out the window, unaddressed, unanswered, and unresolved.
In Coral Gables, it seems, we enforce standards for newspaper boxes, but not necessarily for public transparency.
And somewhere, I confess, I felt a twinge of professional jealousy. I remember when Mayor Lago used to reserve this level of theatrical outrage for me. Now New Times has stolen my spot as his media nemesis.
But don’t worry, Mayor. Ladra is still here. I’ll just make sure to watch the meetings live from now on. Just in case of editing.
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Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago has a new enemy target: Miami New Times added by Ladra on
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… lago once again wasting everyone’s time… same story… they. hurt. me… it is time coral gables gets rid of lago and his goons…
It is a clown show. I thought the funniest moment was when Mayor Lago wanted Commissioner Fernandez to make a motion to remove the Miami New Times newspaper racks from Coral Gables because Mayor Lago thought that Commissioner Fernandez “leaked” the manipulation of the video to the newspaper – it is public information and I (and the other 40 viewers) saw it in real time on the website during the meeting. Commissioner Fernandez says he has been addressing the newspaper racks issue for over 1 year. And when Vice-Mayor Anderson moves to make the motion requested by Mayor Lago, City Attorney Suarez says that the Commission cannot do that because Code Enforcement is currently addressing the issue and any motion would screw up the Code Enforcement process.
Do the newspaper racks affect density or Zoning Code exceptions granted to incompatible real estate developments in residential areas or delays with getting permits or quality of life issues?!? Mayor Lago – stop worrying about you and worry about Coral Gables!
The commission meetings are unwatchable, never again.
How did they possibly get out of the fact that they’re selectively editing an official record? Try to spin that the broadcast is a convenience and not a record of the proceedings? What recording do they hand you if you FOIA them?
I used to do this in a former life and you wouldn’t believe how many times the senator or hearing commissioner or whatever would have the staff called me and asked me to alter the record and delete something they didn’t like. . It was a big no-no back then
Isn’t it time we discuss the real problem? Here, the leftists lunatics, excuse me, the “democrats” will love this, but despite being a staunch conservative republican, I wouldn’t vote for a candidate just because of party affiliation. Given all the corruption and insanity floating around these days it’s even hard to find an actual candidate that is truly seeking to represent their constituents and do the right thing. Let’s be honest, the Biden administration was a fiasco and easily the worst president this country has ever had, and Kamala wasn’t a real candidate, she would have been worse as she was nothing more than a marionette puppet for the new world order as they call themselves despite claiming they don’t exist. Which brings me to the real issue at hand and it’s Castro. No, not young Melissa Castro whom is actually doing a great job, but Fidel Castro whom much like vince dirty lake suffered from paranoia but as we all know by now was actually communist tendencies to put it mildly. If newspapers are telling the TRUTH and it bothers you to the point of paranoid delusions then could it be they’re right or perhaps you’re a closet communist…? Poor Coral Gables, and poor Miami with such lowly local politicians that only represent themselves buying huge mansions even on questionable income sources, except for La Gringa whom it seems IS ACTUALLY DOING HER JOB! Go figure. La peste del lago ese llega hasta acá, fó.
The City of Coral Gables Building Department needs a lot of work to function properly and not take forever to issue a permit. Instead of focusing on issues like this, the mayor focuses on this nonsense!
It’s an embarrassment to the people of Coral Gables. When does he get termed out?
I wish our local officials would focus more on governing and less on payback
The slicked back hair / shiny head dudes like Vince Lagos and his bros Carlos and Franny Suarez are so 1980’s Cuban Miami.
In 2026 it looks so creepy.
As if coral gables magazine and its editor JP are not pay to play and literally are lago lackeys. JP has been on attack campaign against Castro for a while now and enjoys humiliating Castro over and over just to please its daddy lago. Hey city of CG…… how much do you pay for the CG magazine to do your dirty work? Last we checked it’s $3000-5000 per page and why do you use our tax $$$ for this.
Can You Say “Trump Clone”!
Sounds like concerned citizens now have to DVR the commission meetings, in case Coral Gables does more editing.