They say that the nicest thing about Miami, Florida, is that it is nearby the United States.
Miami, if you did not know, officially is named the City of Miami, is the cultural, economic, and financial center of South Florida and a magnet for immigrants from South America. Miami covers an area of about 56.6 square miles, between the Florida Everglades, to the west, and Biscayne Bay on the east, making it the sixth most densely populated large US city.
The Miami metropolitan area is a home to 6.1 million people and the seventh-largest metropolitan area in the nation; Miami’s metro area is the second-most populous metropolis in the southeastern United States and fourth-largest urban area in the U.S.
A one week trip to Miami, Florida, at the end of September 2018, left a certain impression on me and brought some thoughts to mind.
General Impression
Miami is very green; gardens hardly need to be watered; there is access to the sea and water canals and waterways on land everywhere; humidity soaks the air, with unbearable heat and lots of mosquitos are inconvenient. It rains suddenly and the rain ends suddenly and the sky is colorful, blue, with fiery sunset and clouds of all colors much depending on what the weather is like at that moment.
My host, who speaks 6 languages, reminds me of Europe where most people speak several languages. That gives a sense of global influence.
The road traffic is heavy all day, highways and flyway interchanges are complex.
The city is rather clean and they are clearing and cleaning it even more. Delapidated old structures are being replaced with impressive new architecture.
The Adrienne Arsht art center is impressive and so is the rest of the city architecture. The new Brickell City Center is a new architecture of loftiness. High rise hotels are ubiquitous, to accommodate the influx of annual tourism.
Miami has many centers and ethnic sections, each one serves a different purpose: the government, the financial, the hi-tech, the arts & crafts and many others. Lincoln Blvd turned into a boutique and restaurants are raw. Newly developed neighborhoods seem to spring up overnight.
People from all over the world purchase property in Miami, which makes the city very cosmopolitan.
Languages
In Miami, me no hablo Inglés, “I do not speak English,” is a common reply of a person with whom one tries to communicate with, in the English language.
In Miami, Inglés is not the spoken language; I went to the market where everyone around me spoke something other than English. A cashier greeted me in Spanish, taking it for granted that I am one of them. So was my experience in a clothing store into which my curiosity took me exploring. When riding the train and in the restaurants where I ate, or in the art gallery opening I attended, Spanish and Portuguese were the prevalent languages. When a person approached me for a conversation they approach me in Spanish, and it is common that the Spanish language is the only language with which one can communicate in Miami; English it is not. When wandering around the city you think you took a trip to a foreign land.
And tourists from different countries are exploring the beauty of the city.
Construction
The jingle is: get out of your car!
When one drives in Miami, one cannot miss the dominant scene: construction cranes on every corner. And they are building in ‘reach the high sky’ dictum. Thousands of apartment buildings, each one is shaped differently, each one marks a new style and height.
Metro-People Mover
In Miami you can travel all over the city at no cost, on a single car, electric, driverless, seatless built high monorail. It takes you through and in between buildings and passages, over the Miami river. The view during the ride is breathless.
I think that it is time to upgrade the saying that the nicest thing about Miami, Florida, is that it is nearby the United States; the upgrade should be: Manhattan, move over, Miami, here I come!
President Trump’s slogan ‘Make American Great Again’ applies to Miami, Florida very well.
