Rewriting history: Arva Moore Parks. The South Florida native is updating her book Miami: The Magic City,first published in 1980 and revised in 1991.

Parks, 69, says she reworked the original material and added major events since the revision. They include: Hurricane Andrew; U.S. District Judge Donald Graham's ruling that created single-member districts on the Miami-Dade Commission; and the arrival and departure of Elián González. ''Defining moments,'' Parks says.

She chronicles the construction frenzy that led to a sea of high-rises in Sunny Isles Beach and downtown. ''We have a history of boom and bust.'' She also focuses on the ''explosion of the arts.'' There's Art Basel, a new performing arts center, and the Wynwood Art District.

She touches on corruption scandals at Miami City Hall -- ''without really naming names'' -- and, in one line, deals with suspended Miami Commissioner Arthur E. Teele Jr.'s suicide in The Miami Herald lobby.

Parks notes the passing of some prominent citizens: preservationist MarjoryStoneman Douglas, who died in 1998 at 108 (``we thought she was going to live forever''); former Knight Ridder Chairman James Batten; politicians GeorgeSmathers, Dante Fascell, William Lehman, Stephen P. Clark and Athalie Range; and Jorge Mas Canosa, founder and chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation.

She celebrates the discovery of the Miami Circle, and documents the closing of the Coconut Grove Playhouse, the demolition of the Orange Bowl and demise of Knight Ridder and Burdines.

The book will be loaded with photographs, old and new, of Miami-Dade's neighborhoods, from Little Haiti to West Grove. ''I've taken a lot of pictures myself,'' she says. ``I love to take pictures.''

Friends have sent photos, too. Charlotte Wise Powers, Parks' childhood pal from Girl Scouts, sent one from the 1930s of a Seminole family in front of Lemon City Drugstore. Powers' dad operated the pharmacy. ''The building is still there, at the corner of 61st Street and Northeast Second Avenue,'' Parks says.

Big names that weren't in the prior editions: U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek; former Gov. Jeb Bush; Miami Mayor Manny Diaz; University of Miami President Donna Shalala; developers Jorge Perez, R. Donahue Peebles and Craig Robins; banker and philanthropist Adrienne Arsht; and attorney H.T. Smith.

Parks' take on her hometown? ``We are constantly changing, we have an uncanny ability to absorb people who come from someplace else, and we overcome adversity. We have big problems, and we make major comebacks.''

Publisher is Community Media, owned by Ray Spagnuolo, who has an office on Brickell and in San Diego. He has lined up 80-plus corporate sponsors -- banks, hospitals, law firms, developers -- to tell their histories. ''Major businesses that helped shape Miami's economic foundation,'' Spagnuolo says. Parks' portion is about 340 pages, with another 150 pages in corporate profiles. The book is due out in December, for the holidays. Retail price is $59.95, with discounts for bulk orders.

Spagnuolo hired another well-known South Florida historian, Paul George, to do two books -- a history of Fort Lauderdale and of Broward County. George, 65, says the manuscripts are due in late '09.

LOUIS' LATEST

WSVN-Fox 7's Louis Aguirre guest stars in Thursday's season finale of Burn Notice, in an episode called ``Good Soldier.''

''I play a not-so-nice guy -- a henchman for a corporate kidnapping ring,'' Aguirre says.

Familiar locations from the July shoot: the Gansevoort South hotel in Miami Beach, Mayfair Hotel in Coconut Grove, and the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. ''Action,'' he says. ``It ends with a big bang.''

Aguirre, 41, Deco Drive co-host, says his latest Channel 7 contract permits him to do outside gigs. ``I'm free to audition. But I can't do commercials, obviously, because it's a conflict of interest.''

He has plenty of screen credits -- guest appearances on All My Children, Guiding Light, Days of our Lives, Sex and the City and JAG.

Burn Notice airs at 10 p.m. on USA Network.

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