The Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office investigated 39% fewer homicides during the first three months of 2025 compared to the same period last year, according to preliminary data.

Why it matters: Stats compiled by the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) indicate that the nationwide COVID-era crime wave has almost faded away — even as some officials, including President Trump, falsely claim that immigrants are driving increased crime rates.

The big picture: Violent crime in the U.S., especially homicides, spiked during the final year of Trump's first term and during Joe Biden's first two years as president.

• Since then, they've been dropping dramatically, an Axios review of MCCA data shows.
• Overall, violent crimes — robberies, rapes and aggravated assaults — decreased by an average of 14% in the first quarter of this year, reports from police departments in 68 cities indicate.

Many cities have had significant drops in homicides so far this year.

• Dallas has seen a 44% decline. Denver (58%), Honolulu (82%), Minneapolis (54%) and Philadelphia (28%) were among the cities showing notable drops.
• The data didn't include New York City, the nation's largest city, which didn't submit crime numbers. New York releases crime stats on its own website, where it reported a 34% drop in homicides in the first quarter of 2025.

Zoom in: The Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office investigates homicides in 27 of Miami-Dade's 35 municipalities and unincorporated Miami-Dade.

• MDSO handled 11 homicides between Jan. 1 and March 31, down from 18 during the same period in 2024, per MCCA data.
• The City of Miami, which has its own homicide unit, handled eight homicide cases during the 2025 period, compared to 9 during the same three-month period in 2024.

MDSO and Miami Police also reported decreases in other violent crimes, like rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

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A mixed-use development featuring more than 1,900 new units and waterfront retail space is coming to Brickell.

• Flow on the River is the latest venture from Flow, the residential real estate company from the controversial WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann.

The latest: The residential real estate brand announced this week it acquired a building at 275 SW 6 St. and the adjacent parcels to develop a flagship mixed-use building.

By the numbers: The acquisition, done in partnership with Canada Global & Yellowstone Trust, includes:

• 54-story tower with 632 residential units
• Nearly 800 parking spaces
• And about 39,000 square feet of commercial space.

The deal also includes three adjacent land parcels, cleared for more than 1,300 residential units, plus office, hotel and commercial spaces.

Flashback: In 2022, at Flow's onset, it had raised a reported $350 million (at a more than $1 billion valuation), despite no details of the business being made public.

• At the time, reports said Neumann wanted to bring a sense of community to properties and develop a widely recognizable brand.

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🏀 The Miami Heat will open its preseason schedule against the Orlando Magic on Oct. 4 in San Juan at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico. (Miami Herald)

🗣️ Gov. Ron DeSantis named Tampa Republican Sen. Jay Collins as his new lieutenant governor yesterday, replacing former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Núñez, who left in February to become president of Florida International University. (WLRN)

🍴 Gordon Ramsay's Lucky Cat, the Asian-inspired restaurant in South Beach, announced it was closing for "a moment to reset" this week after opening in early 2024. The restaurant gave no reopening date. (New Times)

👋 Martin here! When my wife and I got married in 2021, we had an intimate, standing-only ceremony at a North Miami-Dade park we got to use for free.

• Four years later, we're planning a more formal wedding celebration in Spain, though we're keeping the guest list lean and trying to stay within budget.

Why it matters: Some couples are skipping big weddings to save money and throw a more intimate gathering.

• The average guest count nationwide was 131 in 2024, down from 184 in 2006, according to data shared with Axios by The Wedding Report.
• And smaller celebrations, those with 50 guests or fewer, made up 18% of nuptials last year, compared to 10% in 2013, per the research company.

Axios' Sami Sparber contributed reporting.

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Workers inside the agency that oversees Social Security warn that they're buckling under the strain of understaffing — accelerated by recent Trump administration initiatives.

The big picture: An analysis of union workforce data shared with Axios from the Strategic Organizing Center finds that field offices were down 78 union employees — nearly 5% of staff — in Florida as of March 2025, compared with the prior year.

Between the lines: Attrition and understaffing are long-standing problems at the agency that every presidential administration has needed to manage.

• The Trump administration's hiring freeze and efforts to force out employees with early retirement and buyout offers made a tough situation worse, employees say.

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