Miami Beach

Miami Beach

Miles of radiant beaches, surrounded by parks, golf courses, world-class dining, shopping, arts and culture: if there is a heartbeat to Miami's barrier-island communities, Miami Beach is it.

A ribbon of Atlantic white sand marks one side of the 7-square mile city, and on the other side is Biscayne Bay, overlooking the islands of Miami's Intracoastal Waterway. The barrier island's cities and villages surround it, and it is steeped in not only the history of Southern Florida, but also the revitalization of the area that began in the 1920s and 1930s (and resumed, in Miami Beach, in the late 1980s).

It is a city dressed up in its past and pointed toward the future. The cool, clean lines of its Art Deco Historic District — and especially its South Beach neighborhood — have been made famous by TV and the movies, from Miami Vice to The Birdcage.

But Miami Beach is not just the glittering ocean-side world of pastels and sunglasses. It's a thriving community that has put itself on the cutting edge of cultural change. While the movement of people and ideas in South Florida (and beyond), has always affected Miami Beach, now more than ever the city is a place with an agenda that includes progress and the promotion of change.

First, the facts:

  • Population: Miami Beach is home to nearly 88,000, featuring a deeply-rooted community of Latin American peoples. Colombians and Brazilian make up a significant percentage of that population. Additionally, residents of Italian and German ancestry are an important part of the city. The median annual household income in Miami Beach: about $42,000.
  • Real Estate: There are about 45,000 households in Miami Beach, and a little more than half of those are rentals. According to the U.S. Census, median home value is $374,600. The homeowner vacancy rate is 6.5%; rental vacancy is at 10.4%.
  • Business: While the Army Air Corps is long gone, the city of Miami Beach has transformed into a place where people work (primarily) in the hospitality, entertainment, arts, and retail/service sectors.Florida International University's School of Architecture operates a campus in the South Beach neighborhood, specializing in graduate-level architecture, art, music, and theater instruction.  
  • Schools: Miami Beach is home to numerous public elementary schools, part of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system. Older students can attend the Nautilus Middle School and then go on to Miami Beach Senior High School.
  • Weather: Like most of Miami-Dade County, average temperatures in the winter are in the upper 60s, and the summer averages in the 80s. The rainiest months, on average, are June, August, and September. Hurricanes are a factor in the weeks of and around August.

Founded in 1915, Miami Beach started as a beach resort community, and it still is. The 1980s and 1990s brought boom times, however, as the city garnered fresh attention from its featured role as the setting of Hollywood entertainments. During that period, a multi-billion dollar push reshaped its skyline and modernized its transportation systems. Suddenly, Miami Beach was opened (and accessible) to a whole new influx of visitors and residents. 

This further enriched its already long-established identity as a cultural melting pot — a place where people of various ethnic, religious, and economic backgrounds lived, worked, and played. The once dilapidated Art Deco district became the site of a new and vibrant community, in part energized by arriving gay and lesbian residents — people who helped bring about the city's late-80s/early-90s reinvention.

To get there now, one grabs an Airport Flyer express bus from Miami International Airport — a 30-minute ride at most. Or, along the barrier island, the South Beach Local bus makes frequent stops throughout the city. Drivers can come across from the Venetian Causeway and then bank south along Route 1A. Miami Beach locals — and savvy tourists — have come to rely especially upon the bicycle in recent years. Rentals are widely available.

Whether you live here, or are just visiting, there's more to Miami Beach than its legendary waterfront. From antique and vintage shopping, to galleries, to fashion and jewelry, there's a store for that. A stroll along the brilliant colors of Ocean Drive might just as well lead you into the Art Deco environs of the district named a historic landmark in 1979.

And then there're South Beach staple eateries like Joe's Stone Crab, or fine-dining adventures such as Evolution and Table 8. After dinner, rooftop lounges become a crackling scene where A-list celebrities and the otherwise fabulous mingle for cocktails and warm evening air.

All of this, and it's only moments from the metropolis of Miami proper. Slipping into and out of the city for theater and recreation of all kinds is only a cab-ride affair. It's part of what makes Miami Beach, when it comes to desirability, a kind of South Florida trifecta: location, lifestyle, and accessibility.

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