Miami, Florida

Miami, Florida, called the “Magic City” because it seemed to grow overnight, is a well-known tourist destination and business center, situated along Florida’s southeastern Gold Coast. For decades, it has attracted both those fleeing oppressive regimes and those merely seeking a warm climate. After the railroad reached Miami in 1896, development and growth built the city into a business and transportation center with a metropolitan area covering some 56 square miles (145 square kilometers). It is also the county seat for Miami-Dade County. Neighborhoods such as Little Havana and Little Haiti offer a rich multicultural mix of foods and festivals. Some consider the city a gateway to Latin America.

Landscape

Miami is built on Biscayne Bay at the mouth of the Miami River. The area is a flat coastal plain. Other regions nearby are sparsely wooded or swampy and the Everglades lie to the west. Miami is flanked by the Everglades National Park to the west and Biscayne National Park to the east. By far, the most noticeable feature is the city’s perch on the Atlantic, which draws vacationers, particularly in winter.

Miami’s climate is subtropical, with mild and dry winters that precede humid and hot summers with abundant rain. The effect of ocean breezes can mean a 15-degree difference between inland and seaside areas of the city. The average January temperature in Miami is 69 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius). In July the average temperature reaches 84 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius). In the western parts of the city, freezing may occur. At any time of year, the city is at risk for strong thunderstorms. Late summer and autumn bring the threat of hurricanes. Among Florida cities, Miami has the third-highest risk of hurricanes.

The hurricane that hit the Miami coastline in the fall of 1926 did severe damage. That storm retained the dubious honor of being the most devastating until category 5 Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Andrew caused about $26.5 billion worth of damage and was the costliest hurricane in US history until Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

People

Miami is the state’s second largest city, after Jacksonville, with a US Census Bureau estimated 2022 population of 449,514—a significant increase over the 2010 census count of 399,457. During the boom decade of the 1920s, the city grew from 29,571 to 110,637, the largest permanent growth of any Florida city. The city is crowded, with more than 12,285 persons living in each square mile according to the 2020 census.

About 65.4 percent of Miami's population is white, according to 2021 American Community Survey. African Americans comprise 16 percent of the total population. More than 16.6 percent of Miamians are sixty-five years old or older, while less than 17.2 percent are under the age of eighteen.

Beginning with the 2010 US census, the Census Bureau had a separate question from race for Hispanic origin, as many Hispanic individuals self-identify with several of the races defined within the survey. As of 2022, 72.3 percent of Miamians claim Latino or Hispanic descent, with nearly 60 percent of Miami’s residents being foreign-born. Among Miamians aged five and older, English is not the first language spoken in the home for 77 percent of residents.

Miami boasts a significant Cuban population. Cubans first settled in fishing villages dating back to the time of the Spanish conquistadors. A second, major migration began in 1959, when Cuban leader Fidel Castro began stripping citizens of their rights. “Freedom flights” from Havana, Cuba’s capital, to Miami, brought 100,000 Cubans to the city in 1965 alone. Many of these immigrants settled in the Riverside area, soon known as Little Havana. Another 150,000 Cubans arrived in the city in 1980 with the Mariel Boatlift.

During the 1990s, a wave of immigrants from Haiti began arriving by boat, seeking a better life. Little Haiti, located in what was once called Lemon City, is now a thriving district noted for its Creole cuisine, art, and—in the business district—the vibrant Caribbean signage. Some streets and public buildings are named for Haiti's heroes, such as Toussaint Louverture Elementary School. About 99,366 Haitian immigrants lived in Miami-Dade County in 2022.

Economy

Following World War II, many people had more leisure time and disposable income than ever before. Tired of the deprivations brought on by the war, they purchased cars and began to travel. In Miami, between 1945 and 1954, more hotel rooms were constructed than in the combined total of the rest of the United States.

Miami’s economy continues to rely heavily on tourism, including its cruise ships—the city is one of the busiest cruise ports in the world, welcoming nearly 5.6 million passengers in 2018. Along with beaches, deep sea fishing, and golf courses, the city offers other sports venues. It boasts professional teams in football, baseball, and basketball, and hosts the Orange Bowl Festival (a Bowl Championship Series postseason college football game) in January.

Miami’s third-largest employment sector is health care and social assistance, after accommodation and food services and retail trade. This may be due to Miami having a higher than national average population over the age of sixty-five. Elderly people often require more health care and social services than younger people.

Both Miami International Airport and the Port of Miami handle imports and exports. This, in turn, creates a need for a large international finance and banking industry. A large portion of the economy is centered on international finance trade with Latin countries.

Despite a lower than average unemployment rate, Miami’s job growth rate between October 2022 and October 2023 was 3.4 percent. The metropolitan area’s professional services, construction, and educational and health services industries showed some of the highest rates of job growth. The city has also been known for manufacturing pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, printing, metal products, and clothing.

Miami’s location also makes it a leader in marine study. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) supports laboratories there. In addition, the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, with ties to the University of Miami, conducts research in marine life.

Landmarks

Several attractions celebrate the region’s flora and fauna. The Miami-Dade Zoological Park and Gardens, commonly known as Zoo Miami and comprising nearly 750 acres, is the largest and oldest zoological garden in Florida and the only subtropical zoo in the continental United States. Zoo Miami houses more than 3,000 animals representing more than 500 species, of which 40 species are classified as endangered. Miami Seaquarium, a 38-acre attraction, highlights dangers to sea turtles and manatees and offers several different shows and exhibits. It is also allows human-dolphin interactions.

Jungle Island (formerly Parrot Jungle and Gardens) began with Austrian immigrant Franz Scherr’s dream of a place where birds would fly free. In 1936, he opened Parrot Jungle with twenty-five Macaws on land he left primarily to nature. The attraction was relocated to 86-acre Watson Island in 2003, after two years of installing the landscape. It is now home to 2,000 plants and more than 600 monkeys, birds, and other animals. In 2017, Jungle Island was closed temporarily after the park suffered extensive tree damage during Hurricane Irma.

Many art deco buildings that arose in the building boom of the 1920s and 1930s dot the South Miami Beach Architectural District. This area boasts the nation’s largest concentration of resort buildings from the 1920s and 1930s. Buildings from the former decade are nearly all in the Mediterranean revival style. Those built in the latter decade are a mix of modern, international, and art deco. The entire district is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is another architectural jewel, designated a National Historic Landmark. Built in 1916 for James Deering, the vice president of International Harvester, it was his winter home until his death in 1925. It includes ten acres of formal gardens that were seven years in the making, the main house of thirty-four rooms, and a historic village in the process of being restored. Deering wanted the look of a 400-year-old Italian palace, so he and his team gathered European art objects and furnishings from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries. Vizcaya has hosted foreign royalty as well as the Summit of the Americas. A free trade agreement between the US and Chile was signed there.

History

Native American tribes populated South Florida from the Paleo-Indian era. Artifacts indicate that the Tequestas were among the earliest people in Miami; Spanish explorers in the sixteenth century noted the existence of their village. The Spanish founded a mission there in 1567, but it failed. In 1763, the British were given the land as part of the Treaty of Paris; two decades later, Spain again owned the land.

In 1821, the United States took possession of Florida and constructed Fort Dallas as a base during the Seminole Wars, the Native American group that, along with the Miccosukee, had followed the Tequestas. After three wars, the Seminoles retreated into the Everglades.

A few early white settlers began to establish homes, businesses, and yacht clubs in the 1890s. Julia DeForest Sturtevant Tuttle, who lived from 1849 until 1898, arrived in the settlement along the Miami River, where she had purchased Fort Dallas buildings in 1891. Almost at once, she began attempts to persuade the two railroad titans, Henry Plant and Henry M. Flagler, to extend their respective lines to Miami. Neither man was interested until the freezes of the winter of 1894–95 destroyed much of the state’s citrus crop.

Flagler sent two men to investigate Tuttle’s claims that crops were still growing in the Miami area; when he saw the physical evidence the men brought back, he agreed to extend the Florida East Coast Railway to Miami in exchange for land grants from Tuttle and William Brickell, another pioneer. The town incorporated in 1896.

Henry Flagler was noted for his hotels as well as for his railroads. He constructed the Royal Palm Hotel in Miami, which was a locus for both social and business activities from its opening on New Year’s Eve 1896 until a 1926 hurricane damaged it beyond repair.

A land boom marked the first half of the 1920s. Land from the Everglades was reclaimed for building, and subdivisions such as Coral Gables and Miami Beach popped up. The 1926 hurricane ended the boom, yet even after the 1929 stock market crash, Miami continued to be popular with the rich and famous.

During World War II, many Florida cities, including Miami, set up training facilities for the armed forces. With its level terrain and good weather for flying no matter the season, Florida was a natural choice. The Army Air Force took over 70,000 hotel rooms on Miami Beach and the Halcyon Hotel served as the US Navy’s District Headquarters. In addition, Miami was the navy’s headquarters for the Caribbean and South Atlantic Command, a major training center for the WAVES (the Women’s Naval Corps), and the site of the Coast Guard’s Southern Command.

Approximately 20 percent of all enlisted men and 25 percent of all air officers took basic training at the facilities in Miami. Service members marched in formation through Miami Beach and donned gas masks as they did calisthenics on five acres of the beach. By 1943, most of the trainees had been shipped out, and the hotel rooms were again available for tourists. Following the war, many service personnel returned to the area to live, creating another growth spurt.

The city remained segregated until the 1970s, with Overtown being the area of Miami where many African Americans lived. Racial tension simmered during the 1980s, as black citizens advocated for civil rights and equal treatment under the law. In two major riots, in 1980 and 1982, more than a thousand people were injured and about eighteen people were killed.

During the 1980s, the city’s skyline changed with the addition of many high-rises. A capital improvement plan was put in place to change the infrastructure of the city. The $500 million program included projects to improve storm water sewage and drainage, in an attempt to prevent flash floods that occur during rainy season.

Illicit trade in narcotics became a major issue for the city in 1980s. Then it suffered a spate of violence against tourists in 1990s.

More than eighty thousand people fled Miami-Dade County in the early 1990s in the wake of Hurricane Andrew, which destroyed tens of thousands of homes. Miami later saw a high-rise building boom until the national housing bubble and global recession hit in 2007.

The twenty-first century brought more natural disasters. In 2015, an outbreak of the Zika virus began in Miami-Dade County and became serious enough that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel warning to prospective visitors in August 2016. Then, the following September, downtown Miami experienced major flooding from Hurricane Irma. Flooding and storm surges prompted further infrastructure investment to mitigate future flood events and sea-level rise.

Trivia

• In the 1940s, pharmacist Benjamin Green developed the first sunscreen cream, which he cooked on his stove and applied to his bald head. He introduced Coppertone Suntan Crème in 1944.
• There are more than seventy-five diveable wrecks in the waters surrounding Miami, earning it the title Wreckreational Diving Capital of the World. Many of the wrecks, which include a water tower, boats, yachts, army tanks, and a 727 plane, were sunk to provide artificial reefs for marine life.
• The Miami Beach Architectural Historic District contains more than 800 buildings exhibiting this twentieth-century style.

Bibliography

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Florida, Richard. "Miami Is Rising. But So Is the Ocean." Citylab, 1 May 2019, www.citylab.com/life/2019/05/miami-fl-portes-global-edge-book-interview-climate-chang/588460. Accessed 7 May 2019.

"FloridaCommerce Announces the Miami Area October 2023 Employment Data.” Florida Commerce, 17 Nov. 2023, www.floridajobs.org/news-center/DEO-Press/2023/11/17/floridacommerce-announces-the-miami-area-october-2023-employment-data. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.

Frank, Andrew K. Before the Pioneers: Indians, Settlers, and the Founding of Miami. UP of Florida, 2017.

Frommer, Myrna Katz, and Harvey Frommer. It Happened in Miami, the Magic City: An Oral History. Taylor Trade Publishing, 2015.

Maingot, Anthony P. Miami: A Cultural History. Interlink Books, 2015.

“Miami city, Florida.” QuickFacts, US Census Bureau, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/miamicityflorida/. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.

Parks, Arva Moore, and Carolyn Klepser. Miami Then and Now. Pavilion, 2014.