Editing Fisher Island, Florida (section)

==History==
{{more citations needed|section|date=September 2024}}
[[File:Fisherislandconstruction.JPG|thumb|Buildings under construction in the summer of 2001]]
Fisher Island was separated from the barrier island which became Miami Beach in 1905, when [[Government Cut]] was dredged across the northern end of the island.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Stuart |first=Reginald |date=July 8, 1983 |title=Big Island Near Miami Being Developed |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/07/08/us/big-island-near-miami-being-developed.html?auth=link-dismiss-google1tap |access-date=December 2, 2019}}</ref> Construction of Fisher Island began in 1919 when [[Carl G. Fisher]], a wealthy land developer originally from [[Indiana]], purchased the property from businessman and real estate developer [[Dana A. Dorsey]], South Florida's first [[African-American]] [[millionaire]]. In 1925, [[William Kissam Vanderbilt II]] traded a luxury [[yacht]] to Fisher for ownership of the island.

After Vanderbilt died in 1944, ownership of the island passed to [[U.S. Steel]] heir Edward Moore. Moore died in the early 1950s, and [[Gar Wood]], the millionaire inventor of hydraulic construction equipment, bought it. Wood, a speedboat enthusiast, kept the island a one-family retreat. In 1963, Wood sold to a development group that included local [[Key Biscayne]] millionaire [[Charles Rebozo|Bebe Rebozo]], Miami native and [[United States Senator]] [[George Smathers]], and then former U.S. Vice President [[Richard Nixon]], who had promised to leave politics. During his subsequent presidency from 1968 to 1973, and during the [[Watergate scandal]], Nixon maintained a home on nearby Key Biscayne known as the "Key Biscayne Whitehouse" that was the former residence of Senator Smathers and next door to Rebozo, but none of the three ever resided on Fisher Island.

The [[Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science]] at the [[University of Miami]] maintained the Comparative Sedimentology Laboratory on Fisher Island from 1972 to 1990 under the leadership of Robert Ginsburg.

After years of legal battles and changes in ownership, further development on the island was finally started in the 1980s, with architecture matching the original 1920s [[Spanish architecture|Spanish style]] mansions. Although no longer a one-family island, in 2005, Fisher Island still remains somewhat inaccessible to the public and uninvited guests, and is as exclusive by modern standards as it was in the days of the Vanderbilts, providing similar refuge and retreat for its residents. The island contains [[mansion]]s, a hotel, several apartment buildings, an observatory, and a private [[marina]]. [[Julia Roberts]], [[Oprah Winfrey]], and [[Mel Brooks]] are among the [[celebrity|celebrities]] with homes on the island.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Narishkin |first1=Abby |last2=Dyer |first2=Clayton |last3=Appolonia |first3=Alexandra |work=Business Insider |title=Inside the richest ZIP code in America, Fisher Island in Miami |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-richest-zip-code-in-america-fisher-island-miami-florida-2020-8?op=1 |date=2020-09-05 |access-date=2024-02-03}}</ref>

In 2005, the island attempted to incorporate as a town, but the Miami-Dade County Commission did not support this initiative.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fisherislandvillage.org/ |title=Fisher Island Village |access-date=2007-02-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070125143323/http://www.fisherislandvillage.org/ |archive-date=2007-01-25 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Controversies===
In 2006, the [[Service Employees International Union]]  began organizing the workers on Fisher Island in preparation for a petition for recognition as those employees' bargaining representative. The campaign culminated on June 15, 2007, with a march to the mainland ferry terminal that ended with a worker's arrest.<ref>[http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/141673.html] {{dead link|date=February 2018}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' wrote an exposé on the situation.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/business/01fisher.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin | work=The New York Times | title=An Island of Moguls Is Latest Front in Union Battle | first=Eduardo | last=Porter | date=2007-02-01 | access-date=2010-05-02}}</ref> In the article, residents were portrayed as not caring about the welfare of the community, but residents disputed this characterization, insisting that the island included financially successful, compassionate people who had established several charitable activities on the island, provided health insurance to their employees and were involved in various arts organizations in the Miami-Dade area.{{Citation needed|date=May 2013}} The union argued that the wages provided by the island were too low for employees to care for their families and that the health insurance provided was out of the reach of most island employees.{{Citation needed|date=May 2013}}

===The Fisher Island bankruptcy case===
One of the last developable parcels of land on the island, a {{convert|15|acre|adj=on}} site approved for residential development facing the shipping channel that separates the island from Miami Beach, was for a number of years subject to a protracted legal battle between [[Inna Gudavadze]], the widow of the late [[Georgia (country)|Georgian]] billionaire [[Badri Patarkatsishvili]], and investors aligned with his distant relative and former business associate, Joseph Kay.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/30/realestate/fisher-island-a-gilded-island-swirling-with-intrigue.html|title=Fisher Island: A Gilded Island, Swirling With Intrigue|first=Alexei|last=Barrionuevo|date=27 December 2012|website=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

A judgment handed down by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida<ref>[In re: Fisher Island Investments, Inc., and Little Rest Twelve, Inc., United States District Court For The Southern District of Florida, Case No. 12-cv-20939-KMW, 10/16.2013]</ref> on October 16, 2013, upheld in the US a previous 2010 judgment from the Supreme Court of [[Gibraltar]] that comprehensively dismissed the "wholly unconvincing" case brought by Joseph Kay.<ref>[IN THE MATTER of the trusts known as The Valmore Trust and The Summit Trust, Mr Justice Dudley, The Supreme Court of Gibraltar, Claim No. 2008 M No 70, 17 December 2009]</ref> The development then moved forward, under the supervision of Inna Gudavadze and the Patarkatsishvili family.