By Ashley Miznazi, Miami Herald

MIAMI — From the front yards of West Miami-Dade to the waterfront mansions of Fort Lauderdale, artificial turf is appearing more and more.

And with the spread of artificial turf comes a mounting number of questions and criticisms — about everything from how it looks to how it impacts the environment, the climate and even human health. This stuff, made of plastic, can get absolutely skin scorching in the extreme heat of a South Florida summer.

But some homeowners still prefer it over natural, said Yoandy Perez, who has installed artificial turf at multiple homes in one East Hialeah neighborhood because they like that it looks neat year-round and saves on landscaping costs.

“The city doesn’t like concrete, but they want green,” said Perez. “Many places here are just sandy soil and construction fill. The clients prefer the turf.”

Now, a new state law has opened the multibillion-dollar artificial grass industry to what could be a big expansion, with lawmakers moving to forbid cities from banning fake grass in front yards. In Hialeah, turf is allowed with proper permits. But several South Florida cities and towns — including Coral Gables, Miami, Miami Lakes and Pembroke Pines — allow fake grass only out of sight in back or side yards.

But researchers and city governments say there are many downsides to expanding Florida’s fake grass footprint. Scientists warn that the synthetic plastic grass blades (beyond being made from petroleum) are not well suited for the warmer and wetter world the state is already experiencing from climate change. Artificial grass also can become extremely hot, doesn’t have the best drainage and isn’t easy to recycle.

Then there’s aesthetics of it. There have been years of fake vs. real disputes, including in Miami. When the real stuff along Brickell Avenue was ripped out and replaced with artificial, residents protested until the Miami officials agreed to remove the $230,160 project.

For now, despite the new law, the future of fake grass remains in a bit of a flux. This week, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP, started accepting public comments and working on rule-making for turf on residential properties. Coral Gables and Miami Lakes officials told the Herald they are holding off changes to their permitting process until the state releases those standards.

“Once released, the Town will compare the State’s standards with the existing Town ordinance,” said Daniel Angel, Miami Lakes’ zoning director.

Fake can feel baked

In sun-drenched places like Miami, where extreme heat warnings are common, you can often feel the difference between fake and real. Natural grass tends to cool thing off. And that’s not just what you or your dog might feel under your feet. University of Florida assistant professor Marco Schiavon, who is based in Fort Lauderdale, said widespread use of synthetic grass could contribute to even higher local temperatures.

“What surprised me was that artificial turf grass on stadiums was often, if not always, warmer than the parking lot right next to it,” Schivaon said. He said he’s measured artificial turf to be as much as 100 degrees hotter than real grass.

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Earlier this week, with partly cloudy skies and the air temperature at 91 degrees, the Herald conducted its own check using an infrared thermometer. The results were not quite as extreme but still striking: In many locations, artificial turf measured nearly 40 degrees hotter than natural grass.

At the dog park at Margaret Pace Park in Miami, the turf reached 150 degrees, while the grass nearby was 112. That was not the only issue. Kevin Lopez, who came with his German shepherd mix Cosmo, said, “The smell is worse on the turf, and the poop just sticks.”

Aida Curtis, a landscape architect with 40 years of local experience, said she refuses to use artificial turf in her designs because of how it absorbs heat and is a danger to children, dogs and the environment and is a “liability waiting to happen.”

“We’re already into the problem of climate change. Severe high temperatures, more rain, and rather than going back to nature, like putting grass, we’re removing a natural system to put an artificial system,” Curtis said.

Spraying the turf with water, common before many sports events. can cool it down but also tamps down on a benefit that the industry highlights — that it doesn’t need watering.

“You are replacing turf grass with artificial for water conservation, but then you find yourself watering a piece of plastic in order to have that piece of plastic functional, and at that point, you have lost all the environmental benefits,” said UF’s Schiavon.

Soccer player Andy Rodriguez practices at the Little Haiti Soccer Park, which is covered with artificial turf at noon where temperatures measured several degrees higher than in the natural turf covered areas, on July 29, 2025. (Pedro Portal/Miami Herald/TNS)

A rainstorm over a Little Haiti soccer field showed the difference water can make, but it’s still hotter than the real stuff. After the storm, the artificial turf field was 120 degrees and the grass right beside it was 96 degrees — a 24-degree difference.

“You can see the heat radiating from the turf,” said Anthony Rodriguez, a 16-year-old playing for the first time at the soccer field.

But the fake grass does have one upside in a heat wave, according to the artificial turf industry. It looks good. It won’t dry up and turn patchy — its color remains pristine green.

Drainage questions

While the newer, artificial turf is designed with drainage holes, some experts say it’s still not enough for the stronger and wetter storms Miami is prone to have because of climate change.

Jason Kruse, an associate professor of turfgrass science at the University of Florida, said fake grass takes an area that would’ve been naturally permeable and reduces its infiltration potential.

“Because of the rainfall that we get in Florida, we need a place for that water to go. And if we can infiltrate it into the profile, that’s better for everybody, because it gets down to the aquifer and we don’t have to deal with it in the stormwater system,” he said. “ I suspect that if we were to see more installation of synthetic turf that may result in more runoff, which could have some consequences that we’re not really thinking about at the moment.”

It’s important to note that there are different standards of turf in the industry that could be better suited for water, Kruse said. Bigger sports fields are usually evacuated and then storm drainage is added underneath in those cases, he said.

Real grass, on the other hand, helps with drainage and a healthy soil microbiome. Kruse said the roots open up pathways underground that loosen the soil undergrowth, and leave a channel water can seep through.

“You do see increased infiltration over time with these established root zones,” he said.

While synthetic turf lacks the ecological benefits of natural grass, Goodman, Perez and others in the industry point to how it doesn’t require any pesticides or fertilizer, which drive many of the state’s water pollution problems.

But scientists told the Herald that while it eliminates fertilizer run-off, there is concern of the grass breaking down over time and contributing to micro-plastic pollution in our waterways.

Juan Jose waters the artificial turf in the front of his house in the East Hialeah, Florida, area, where this kind of material installation is in high demand in the area, on July 29, 2025. (Pedro Portal/Miami Herald/TNS)

Landfill-bound

Artificial grass has a lifespan of about eight to 10 years, and after that, most of it goes to the landfill. Some companies specialize in artificial grass recycling, such as Artificial Grass Recyclers, but Kruse said they aren’t always regionally accessible.

“It’s not cost-effective to transport it to a location where they can recycle it. So most of these products end up in landfills at the end of life,” Kruse said.

Whatever the concerns, artificial turf does offer a quick fix to someone who wants a good looking lawn out front. One homeowner in Hialeah said he took a DIY approach to recycling old turf in his yard. Juan José explained that his son salvaged some artificial turf from a job where it was being removed, and they installed it themselves last year.

“We like how it looks much more,” he said. “We plan to get the rest of the yard done this year.”

Sean Goodman, the owner of Royal Synthetic Turf, which is based in South Florida, said lawmakers made the right call in responding to consumer demand. The restrictions by some cities hurt business because most customers want entire lawns redone, not just a piece of it.

“If the customer wants the entire house with artificial turf,” he said, “we should be able to do it.”

©2025 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

CATHERINE DANG: Presents her novel “What Hunger,” in conversation with Josh Moehling. 7 p.m. Tuesday, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.

LAROCHELLE/MUSKE: David LaRochelle and Colleen Muske sign copies of their new children’s picture book “How To Draw a Tree.” 10-11:30 a.m. Friday, Lake Country Booksellers, 4766 Washington Ave., White Bear Lake.

John Gaspard (Courtesy of Minnesota Mystery Night)
Jim Cunningham (Courtesy of Minnesota Mystery Night)

MINNESOTA MYSTERY NIGHT: Magic and illusion on the page and stage is the theme for this month’s MMN program featuring John Gaspard and Jim Cunningham. Gaspard is the award-winning author of 10 Eli Marks mysteries, the latest of which is “Twisting the Aces,”  and Como Lake Players mystery series as well as “Held Over,” a retrospective about the two-year run of “Harold and Maude” at the Westgate Theater in Edina. He’s also a screenwriter and filmmaker. St. Paul native Cunningham is an actor who most recently played Groucho in the world premiere of Jeffrey Hatcher’s “Groucho Marx Meets T.S. Eliot” at Illusion Theater. He has played James J. Hill for the Minnesota Historical Society and narrates audiobooks, including the Eli Marks series. 7 p.m. Monday, Lucky’s 13 Pub, 1352 Sibley Memorial Highway, Mendota. $13. Reservations required. Go to mnmysterynght.com. Dinner service begins at 5:30 p.m.

BRANDY SCHILLACE: Discusses “The Dead Come to Stay,” a cozy crime novel featuring an amateur autistic sleuth and a wry English detective. The Ohio-based autistic author is a historian and editor. In conversation with Minnesota crime writer Matt Goldman. 7 p.m. Wednesday, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.

What else is going on

Friends of the St. Paul Public Library announced “Evidence of V” by Sheila O’Connor as the fall pick for One Book/One Minnesota, the statewide book club inviting Minnesotans of all ages to read a common title and come together virtually to enjoy and discuss. The reading period continues though Sept. 28, with a virtual conversation with the author at 7 p.m. Sept. 17. O’Connor’s widely praised, genre-jumping 2019 book, subtitled “A Novel In Fragments, Facts, and Fictions,” is based on how she discovered her mother was born to a 15-year-old inmate of the Minnesota Home School for Girls in Sauk Centre. All Minnesotans are invited to access a free ebook edition of “Evidence of V.” Go to thefriends.org.

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(Courtesy of Berkley / Penguin Random House)

“Matchmaking for Psychopaths”: by Tasha Coryell (Berkley, $29)

People frequently assumed that our clients were ugly or strange and that was why they struggled to find love; often it was the opposite. Strange people found one another. — from “Matchmaking for Psychopaths”

“This book is bat— crazy.”

Tasha Coryell (Emily Covington / Penguin Random House)

That’s one reader’s online opinion of Tasha Coryell’s quirky novel “Matchmaking for Psychopaths,” and the St. Paul author considers it a compliment to her story about Lexie, a matchmaker whose niche is pairing psychopaths. She’s well-suited to the job because her parents were serial killers who lured young women to their deaths. Now Lexie’s father is dead, her mother in prison, and she discovers on her 30th birthday that her best friend and her fiance are in love. As if that isn’t enough for the poor girl, she starts receiving bloody packages that seem to have something to do with her murderous parents. She’s lonely, so she’s happy when a new woman friend comes into her life who seems too good to be true.

What is this book?

“I’d say it’s a thriller with literary touches and horror elements,” Coryell says in a phone conversation from her home in Highland Park, where she lives with her husband, 3-year-old son and a greyhound.

“One of the things I tried not to do is self-censor,” she explains. “If you go into writing worried about going over the top it’s easy to shut down. You have to go for it. I don’t want to write about anything where children or animals get hurt. In some instances I had to stop reading thrillers because they were so heavy. I knew when I wrote this story that it had to be crazy but come out happy.”

Coryell’s widely praised debut novel, “Love Letters to a Serial Killer,” is about a woman who writes to an accused serial killer and moves in with him after his acquittal, grappling with her feelings for him while secretly investigating his background. Like “Matchmaking for Psychopaths,” it’s a multi-genre thriller/horror/humorous story.

After the success of “Love Letters,” Coryell and her editors were kicking around ideas for a second book, including the author’s love of reality TV shows like “Love Island,” and somehow the conversation turned to psychopaths and matchmaking.

“I was open to the idea. It was a good airing for serial killers.” she recalled.

Coryell didn’t do a lot of research into psychopaths, a term that is not used by mental health professionals. To depict how Lexie figured out which of her clients fit the description, she got help from Canadian psychologist Robert Hare’s textbook that gives a checklist of psychopathic traits.

“Psychopaths in general are good at convincing people to like them,” she says. “They know what people want. They’re gregarious, fun to be around.”

Coryell, who is expecting a baby in September, is deep into writing her next novel set in a milieu similar to her previous books.

She will sign copies of “Matchmaking for Psychopaths” with Sam Tschida, who also writes mystery mashups, at 3 p.m. Aug. 23 at Barnes & Noble, 11500 Wayzata Blvd., Minnetonka, and will join fellow thriller writers Andrew DeYoung, Kathleen West, Katrina Monroe and Tschida for a panel discussion at 3 p.m. Sept. 6 at Avant Garden Bookstore, 215 E. Main Street, Anoka.

(Courtesy of Harpers Ferry Park Association)

“Between These Rivers”: by Kathleen Ernst (Harpers Ferry Park Association, $9.95)

The two rivers surrounding this story by an experienced Wisconsin author are the Potomac and the Shenandoah that flow through the legendary scenery around Harpers Ferry, W. Va. It’s 1895, and two very different young women form an unlikely friendship that withstands the hatred of many white people for their Black neighbors decades after the end of the Civil War. Ida Mae Parker’s family belongs to what we would call today the Black middle class. Her stern parents, who insist on education and upholding their conduct to the highest standard, want her to be a teacher. She wants to sing onstage. Hazel Whitaker, who is white, is shoved out of her family home by her stepfather when she’s only 15 because there are too many mouths to feed. The young women meet at a resort hotel where Ida Mae works and Hazel collects rags she sells to make money.

Ida Mae has never directly faced discrimination, but when her brother’s newly constructed hotel is burned, she follows a male friend to civil disobedience in a railroad car and pays the price. Hazel is fascinated by a photographer working at an island carnival and is soon learning from him how to take lifelike photos instead of staid, posed ones. Her dream is to take over his business.

Ernst is a social historian, educator and bestselling author of more than 40 novels, including the Hanneke Bauer historical mystery series and the Chloe Ellefson mysteries. Her children’s books include 20 titles for American Girl. “Between These Rivers” could easily fit into the young adult category.

“The Duke of Buccleuch”: by A.S. Lorde (Sea Goat Press, $30)

Subtitled “Nick Carraway writes The Great Gatsby,” this second novel by a Texas-based writer tells of what happened to Carraway (narrator of Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”) during the two years after Jay Gatsby was found shot to death in his swimming pool in New York.

Returning to St. Paul after national publicity attaching Carraway’s name to involvement with the murder of a bootlegger, the young man is not well received by his wealthy family’s social group. He lives at the University Club and is engaged to his former girlfriend. But he’s really in love with professional golfer Jordan, Daisy’s best friend in “Gatsby.” The story is a mash-up of parts of Fitzgerald’s real life and characters and settings in the original novel. And there are revelations about Daisy and Gatsby that will surprise readers. Although this story can be read without any knowledge of “The Great Gatsby,” Fitzgerald fans can spend hours debating whether he would approve of this take on what happened after the Gatsby magic was gone.

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The deal that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang hammered out with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office this month might be good for his shareholders. But it’s bad for America.

After Huang promised to pay the U.S. government 15 percent of the revenue he makes from selling certain artificial intelligence chips to China, Trump called Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and directed him to issue the necessary export licenses to allow Nvidia to resume a valuable line of business that Trump halted in April.

With a market capitalization of nearly $4.5 trillion, Nvidia is the world’s most valuable public company and obviously stands to profit handsomely from doing more business in the world’s second biggest economy. (AMD has agreed to the same deal.) And this helps Trump’s trade negotiations with Beijing. The U.S. needs critical minerals that China sells, as much as China needs American-made chips. Both sides are working to reduce these dependencies, but these efforts could take years.

It’s not intrinsically bad that Trump wants to collect more revenue, at a time when the government is spending so much more than it takes in. But this doesn’t seem to be his main motive for making Nvidia and AMD pay for their export licenses.

The Constitution explicitly bans export taxes, which raises questions about whether the agreement is actually legal — though neither Nvidia nor AMD has reason to challenge it in court. In any case, if revenue was the goal, Trump could ask Congress to change the tax code.

The reason the U.S. government previously blocked chip exports to China was national security. Obviously, drawing a few extra billion dollars of tax revenue from chip makers does not mitigate the risks of transferring advanced technology. Trump only undermines international trust that the United States will hold firm when it imposes export controls. (Nvidia says it follows whatever rules the government sets, and Trump’s defenders say the H20 chips that will be sold are not the best available.)

Trump’s side deal is best viewed as inappropriate state intervention in the U.S. economy. Word has gone out that CEOs can kiss the president’s ring by offering to give him something he wants and in return be exempted from whatever policy threatens to damage their business. In this way, companies deepen their dependence on government and on Trump personally.

The chief executive of Intel demonstrated this same concept when he came to the White House after Trump had called on him to resign for allegedly being too cozy with China. Lip Bu-Tan flew across the country to persuade the president that he should keep his job. Intel received billions in federal subsidies as part of the industrial policy enacted during President Joe Biden’s term, and now the chip maker needs to get on good terms with the new occupant of the White House.

These are not the only examples. Recall how Trump finagled a “ golden share ” of U.S. Steel for the federal government as a condition for allowing Nippon Steel to take over the company. On the same day Trump met with Huang of Nvidia, Apple CEO Tim Cook gave the president a glass disk with a 24-karat gold base as he announced a $100 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing facilities. This freed the iPhone maker from new levies that Trump announced on semiconductors.

The president has also demanded large “signing bonuses” with other countries as a condition for agreeing to trade deals. The leaders pledge major investments in the United States and promise to give Trump a say over how the money gets spent.

Corporate chieftains have been far more muted in their criticism of the president than they were during Trump’s first term, because they fear retaliation if they fail to sing his praises. And when big companies get audiences with the president to negotiate special deals, these often come at the expense of smaller players who are unable to pay top lobbyists. Erecting such barriers to entry reduces competition.

It would be an exaggeration to equate this new economic order with China’s state capitalism, but there are echoes. The U.S. government has meddled in private enterprise in the past, especially during wartime, and it has bailed out companies during financial crises. Biden used government largesse to prod companies to give special treatment to unions and minorities. But Trump is the only president to make his dog and pony show an everyday reality of doing business in America. Now that this door is open, a future Democratic president might be even more aggressive in advancing his or her ideological aims. Any CEO who is pleased with how things are working right now should remember that they could find themselves out of favor under the next administration.

Government has never been good at allocating private capital or picking winners and losers in the marketplace. Even trying to do so makes companies overly dependent on the White House. And it makes the U.S. economy less vibrant.

— The Washington Post

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