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Miami Information and History

Introducing Miami

Little known fact: on the Eighth Day, God shook all the eccentrics of America into the nation’s Southeast corner pocket. And They Became South Florida. And It Was Weird.

Here’s how it works: cruise down I-95 from the northeast corridor and at some point, near Richmond, you cross the invisible line separating the North from the South. Now go further, all the way to America’s tip. Somewhere around Orlando, you crossed another line, separating the rest of Florida from reality. Here in Miami, the Everglades and the Keys, things are a little Alice in Sweaty Wonderland. It’s the weather, y’know; all the humidity and hurricanes drive everyone a little crazy. And the alligators. And the mosquitoes, goddamn them. And the people, of course.

What was once a citrus farming town is now a pan-American mosaic, the most Latin city in the world north of Mexico. Throw in enterprising Caribbean immigrants, Jewish Holocaust survivors and their children, a fantabulous gay party scene, mad rednecks, the cast-off spawn of the dinosaur age cruising local waterways, and a South Beach celebrity scene that would make OK! magazine wee itself in joy, and, well…Look guys: it’s weird here. And beautiful. Think of those clean lines slimming down a deco hotel on Miami Beach. The impossibly sexy people lining up at a Fort Lauderdale club. That pale full moon making love to the Everglades on a dank, sweaty night.

Miami Airport Car Rental

Which isn’t to say modern Miami lacks problems. This international city has both the cheerful energy and hungry Third World edge of the Caribbean and Latin America. Economic inequality is rampant, and the grandiose spirit of American capitalism has mixed with Miami’s Latin/Mediterranean flair, making the gulf between the haves and have-nots here seem particularly vast.

But that shimmering mirage of wealth and sex is also what makes this town so fun and fast. ‘The World is Yours’ was the iconic catchphrase of Scarface, a movie that captured the highs and lows of Miami’s hyperextravagant 1980s, and the citizens of this town have taken that motto to heart.

West of here is the Everglades, possibly the most unique ecosystem in North America, a flooded wetland that feels like nature’s own musty womb. To the north, Fort Lauderdale sips a martini by its yachting fleets. Down south stretch the mangrove islands and sultry sandbars of the Florida Keys, islands of both exile and refuge for those nonconformists who are too out there for even South Florida’s misfit mentality.

Sounds good? Come on down. The air feels like a silk kiss and the beach smells like lotion and hormones. Welcome to Miami. The party started five minutes ago. You gonna dance?

History

Rest assured: the Miami you visit today will be gone by the time you come back.

This is a city built on boom and bust, by dreamers who took advantage of nice weather and opportunists who took advantage of natural disasters. Every chapter of this town’s saga is closed by a hurricane, building boom or riot, and when the dust settles a new Miami is left sizzling on the beach. That’s an ironically jerky rate of growth, considering it took about 400 years for Miami to turn into a city (since Ponce de León missed the fountain of youth). But when this town decided to go large, it played catch-up with a vengeance.

In some ways, the story of Greater Miami is a classic American tale of displacement, entrepreneurship, refugee hopes and desperate innovation. But don’t forget the footnotes: corruption, neglect, and fraught – and occasionally bloody – community divisions. The end product is hardly perfect. But it’s also continuously resurrecting itself, as new immigrants push into low-rise tenements, and the nouveau riche reinvent the glittering Miami skyline.

The recent past

10,000 BC

Tequesta Indians arrive in South Florida. They live as hunter-gatherers in the area that includes modern Miami, the Ever­glades and the Keys, but leave little trace of their existence for archaeologists.

1513

Juan Ponce de León is the first European to land in Florida, supposedly seeking out the fountain of youth. He misses the fountain, but does find the Gulf Stream current, an extremely important current for navigators.

1565

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés lands in Florida and founds the city of St Augustine, the first permanent (European) settlement in what is now the continental United States.

1783

The British grant America independence at the Treaty of Paris. They also vacate Florida and give it back to the Spanish, who now have to contend with American territorial ambitions.

1821

The USA acquires Florida from Spain. Settlers arrive in great numbers, and tensions between mainly white migrants and Native American communities, many of which have taken in runaway black slaves, run high.

1835–42

Second Seminole War. Seminoles and black allies fight a guerilla war against the US Army, which ends with much of the tribe exiled west, although elements remain in South Florida to this day.

1845

Florida becomes the 27th state in the Union. Almost half of the state’s population is slaves, which partially accounts for Florida joining the Confederacy during the Civil War.

1896

Henry Flagler finishes construction of his railroad; Miami is incorporated. Miami, a small city quite literally at the edge of America, is accessible to the rest of the country by overland travel.

1898

Army camps are set up in Miami during the Spanish–American War, beginning a trend of migration; soldiers who are barracked in Miami decide they like the area and move their families there.

1914

Miami Beach’s first hotel, the WJ Brown Hotel, opens for business. The initial boom of hotel development, often spurred by Jewish investors, starts turning the beach into the ‘American Riviera’.

1915

Carl Fischer dredges Biscayne Bay to build Miami. To this day the Bay divides the city of Miami Beach and the island of Key Biscayne from Miami proper.

1926

A hurricane demolishes much of the city. At least 373 people are killed, but Miami rebuilds herself in the hurricane’s aftermath. To a much lesser degree, the cycle of storm and rebuild continues to this day.

1935

Miami Beach population hits 13, 350 –doubling from just five years earlier. Art Deco architecture is prevalent and the ‘tropical deco’ style is in vogue, giving Greater Miami’s buildings a distinctive global cachet.

1959

Fidel Castro takes over Cuba and the influx of Cuban exiles begins. The new Cuban-American population will define Miami demographics, culture and politics to the present day.

1961–2

The failed Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis deepen the already fraught tensions between America –particularly South Florida, home of many Cuban exiles – and Castro’s Cuba.

1973

The Miami Dolphins win Super Bowl VII, capping off their 17–0 1972 season, which remains, to date, the only perfect season in National Football League history.

1979

The Miami Beach Architectural District gets historic-landmark status with the National Register. Miami Beach begins preserving its deco hotels, which will become the foundation of the tourism boom that later transforms South Beach.

1980

Race riots tear up Miami while the Mariel Boatlift, the largest nonmilitary naval fleet in history brings in 125, 000 Cubans. Tensions between blacks, whites and Latinos remain high for some time.

1984

Miami Vice hits the air, giving Miami and Miami Beach a distinctive brand name associated with convertibles, palm trees and pastel suits. Models, fashion designers and photo shoots soon follow.

1985

First Winter Music Conference (WMC) solidifies Miami’s hip reputation. The WMC continues to bring DJs, the gay community and a large crowd of Europeans to Miami every year.

1992

Hurricane Andrew slams nearby Homestead, but leaves Miami relatively unscathed. The devastation forces Homestead and nearby towns to almost completely rebuild themselves from the ground up. Damages are estimated at $20 billion.

1996

The city of Miami turns 100, the same year it is named the fourth-poorest city in the USA. Economic issues continue until Manny Diaz is elected mayor in 2001.

1997

Gianni Versace is murdered on the steps of his Ocean Dr home. Ironically, this murder of a European fashionista in turn encourages more European tourism to South Beach.

1998

Mayor Xavier Suarez is ousted from office for absentee-ballot fraud (dead people voting). Suarez is, to date, the last vestige of Miami’s notoriously colorful and corrupt mayors.

1999

Elián Gonzalez is rescued at sea and brought to the USA. A prolonged custody battle ensues between his maternal American family and his father in Cuba, ending with Gonzalez being repatriated to Cuba.

2002

The first Art Basel Miami Beach brings the art world to South Beach, adding the cachets of ‘art city’ and ‘design city’ to Miami’s global tourism brand and pulling, yet again, more European tourists.

2003

Nip/Tuck, a series about Miami plastic surgeons, premieres. The show shifts Miami’s depiction in popular culture from a city of crime and hot weather to a city of shallow, beautiful people and hot weather.

2005

Hurricane Wilma wrecks the Keys and ex­acerbates the pre-existing affordable housing crisis in those islands. Employees of Keys hotels, bars and restaurants commute for hours from Homestead to their jobs.

2006

The Arsht Center (then called the Carnival Center) opens, the second-biggest performing arts venue in America. The much-delayed, much over-budgeted project is nonetheless warmly embraced, and kicks off a series of Downtown revitalization projects.

2008

Plans are approved for a new Miami Marlins stadium to replace the Orange Bowl. The 37, 000 seat, retractable-roof stadium has an estimated $525 million price tag, mainly covered by the City of Miami.

Let’s be clear: Miamians still don’t like Castro, so this isn’t the best place to flash your Che T-shirt. In the past, street carnivals in Little Havana have been set off by rumors of Fidel’s ill health. When Rafael Del Pino, a former Cuban general and defector, suggested some détente with his motherland in 2008, a caller to Radio Mambi suggested that the highest-ranking Castro official to ever reach American shores be lynched. Del Pino subsequently filed a lawsuit, which was promptly thrown out of a federal court.

In 2008 Castro finally announced his intent to step down from power. Surely a retirement announcement warranted a party, at least a handover-of-power mojito? Nope. The reaction among Cuban exiles never topped cautious optimism. Will Fidel’s brother and successor Raul be a reformer? Delfin Gonzalez, uncle of the famous Elian, told us, ‘Fidel, Raul –they have the same mother.’

In 2008, the newer wave of Cuban immigrants – the working class who’ve been coming to America since 1980 – defined the public face of the community response. They have little love of Castro, but are more concerned with making a better life for themselves then settling political scores.

One Cuban waitress tersely reacted to the latest chapter of the Fidel chronicles with these words: ‘I don’t have time for the news.’ Then she went back to work.

The issue of legalizing slot machines consistently appears on voters’ ballots, but whether or not they’ll ever appear at local race tracks remains anyone’s guess – for years the fight has been shot down, resurrected and debated again and again, ad nauseum. And as Miamians debate the ins and outs of gambling, their city fathers are pushing for complete incorporation of Miami-Dade county by 2010. This would cause huge swathes of unincorporated county – including the area around Everglades National Park – to fall under city control. At issue: who would do a better job of managing Miami-Dade? County commissioners? City council members? Local governments? The logic behind incorporation runs like so: divide Miami-Dade into dozens of small cities governed by local councils, and those councils will have a better idea of their constituents’ needs, particularly in poorer areas. But there are plenty of examples of local councils using local connections to make a cut off real estate development, as opposed to funding infrastructure for the underclass.

Besides, who has time to care about the poor when the South Florida Sun Sentinel estimates that one in 10 Floridians in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties is a millionaire (when you include the value of their homes, cars and stocks)? Just drive from the condo coast of A1A, through a valley of poor and middle-income homes, and re-emerge at the eastern edge of the Everglades, where the newly wealthy are carving wetlands into personal palaces of the ego. To top it all off, the region’s original inhabitants, the Seminoles, are busily preparing to turn their ancient tribal homeland into a Las Vegas–style casino block. This could be bad news for endangered species like the Florida panther, but hold on, there are free drinks at the craps tables!

Money & costs

Costs

Miami’s economy relies heavily on tourism, but its position as gateway to Latin America has given it powerhouse status as an international business city. More than 150 multi­national companies have operations in Miami, including Burger King, Carnival Cruise Lines, and Citizen Savings Financial; and at least 100 have their Latin American headquarters here, from Johnson & Johnson to the Gap. The city is also establishing itself as an international banking center –more than 40 international banks call it home. But leading the way today is the business of development, causing investors and builders to jump for joy.

While the growth of the national economy is at its weakest in many years, Miami’s economy is booming. And that could mean high prices for the traveler. It’s still possible to experience Miami on about $90 a day – $60 for a room in a hostel, $20 on a combo of diner and take-out food with the rest spent on drinks and/or transport – but the reality is that you will be tempted to spend quite a bit more to truly enjoy your time here. Depending on the location and the time of year, a nice hotel room is going to cost you at least $120, with popular South Beach midrange haunts going for closer to $170 to $250. On the high end of the spectrum, expect to pay anywhere from $400 to $1000 a night. Then there’s food. The preponderance of ethnic cuisines, delis and diners means that it is possible to find dinner for as little as $10 –but once you throw in ambience and alcohol, you’ll find it’s $10 just for your glass of wine and at least $25 per person for the food. Other costly activities will seduce you as well: nightclubbing, with entrance fees of about $20 and cocktails that cost about $10 apiece; bicycling, with rentals averaging $20 daily; sky’s-the-limit shopping; children’s attractions such as the Seaquarium; and live entertainment and sporting events, where ticket prices can cost anywhere from $15 to $100 or more. Expect to spend about $200 a week on a rental car – more if it’s peak tourist season.

Bargain seekers, take note: while museums do charge entrance fees, usually around $5, many have free days or hours, including the Bass Museum of Art (6pm until 9pm second Thursday of the month), the Historical Museum of Southern Florida (Sunday) and the Miami Art Museum (Sunday).

Expect prices to generally be a bit cheaper in the Keys, especially when it comes to lodging and dining (although top-end restaurants, while not as ubiquitous as they are in Miami, charge much the same rates). Unfortunately, because the Keys are islands, certain staples like water and gasoline can cost a dollar or so more than they do on the mainland.

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Money

The US dollar is the wimpy pushover of the currency world these days, so come on over and take advantage of our economic woes. The dollar is divided into 100 cents (100¢) with coins of one cent (penny), five cents (nickel), 10 cents (dime), 25 cents (quarter) and relatively rare 50 cents (half dollar).

Bank notes are called bills. Be sure to check the corners for amounts, as they’re all the same size and color. Circulated bills come in denominations of $1, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100. The US has two designs of bills in circulation, but you’d have to study them closely to notice.

There are three straightforward ways to handle payments: cash, US-dollar traveler’s checks (just as good as cash, but replaceable if lost or stolen) and credit/debit cards.

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Changing money

If you prefer cash, try to change a good chunk in your own country before you arrive in Miami, as exchange rates here are notoriously skimpy. If you must change money, do it at banks. Try Bank of America (305-350-6350), which offers foreign-exchange services in its branches – or money-changing operations such as Thomas Cook (305-285-2348, 800-287-7362).

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