We’re on a mission to help people in Miami be better locals. Related Link

“The New Tropic will help spur connections between Miami residents and engage them in local solution-building with $250,000 from Knight Foundation” – press release, 01/15/2015

We all have an instinctive need to find our local—the things we love about where we live. It helps balance out the complaining we all like to do. We want to be connected to the people and places around us, and to be part, even in a small way, of shaping our city’s future.

For every hour we spend in traffic, we need a hidden place of respite no one’s discovered; for every tourist trap, a hole-in-the-wall with the best arepas. For every frustration with local government, we need a new project or idea or emerging leader to get us excited about the future again. In growing changing places like ours, those things are tremendously important, but too often hard to find.

Today we’re launching a new endeavor to make that a little easier: The New Tropic. We make local journalism and events for Miami’s curious locals. We’re publishing a daily email newsletter that curates the day’s local news, shares original stories, and helps people find decidedly local things to do. We’re producing our own events, too, from happy hours to field trips to community workshops, focused on surprising, creative and smart experiences for Miamians. And we’re building a member community of curious locals who want to explore and learn together along the way.

For the past two years, we’ve worked on a project called WhereBy.Us. It began as a simple series of community brainstorming events, where we used sticky notes and Sharpies and the promise of free wine to get locals working together on “the possible”—ideas that could improve our city for the people who live here. We’re evolving WhereBy.Us to focus on a new opportunity to help our fellow locals navigate and explore a changing Miami, and connect with each other along the way. We’re exploring a new approach to local journalism and engagement, and we’re delighted to have Knight Foundation’s support on that journey.

Miami already has some great news organizations that provide critical day-to-day reporting. We’re focused on something a little different: helping people make sense of, and finding new ways to explore, the constantly expanding universe of issues, people and places in a growing city like ours. Where traditional journalism emphasizes a sort of arm’s-length objectivity, The New Tropic is proudly local and thoughtfully optimistic about Miami’s future. We have opinions. We are involved. And we’ll always be clear about that.

Our goal is to make something that’s useful to you as you go about your day. That helps you feel a little more connected or informed; that encourages the extra bits of neighborliness and wanderlust that help us feel at home. We’re excited about Miami’s future; about its hidden corners and emerging talents; about the people who will make it an even better place five, 10, 50 years from now. Also about sandwiches. And Pitbull having a New Year’s Eve special. We’re excited about a lot of things.

Check us out and sign up for our newsletter. Say hello and let us know what you think on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram. We look forward to meeting you out there in the weird and wonderful place that is Miami.