What town's in Miami Dade are still old skool American (Hialeah: real estate, neighborhoods)

[Wheaten]

I'm a south florida native and I can assure you that very few places in Miami are similar to how they were 10 years ago, let alone "old school." That funky, old town feel with unique eateries and many different cultures who all found a way to get along has been replaced with massive chain establishments and neighborhoods where people rarely introduce themselves to, let alone converse with neighbors. As far as demographics are concerned, they are available through city-data. Moderator cut: off topic If you love the ocean and climate, it can't be beat, but don't expect a welcoming attitude and picket fences. Neighbors don't really talk here.

I agree with compelled to reply with his choices of areas, but those are very pricey areas to live in, so be prepared. Also, you can't just stay in a little neighborhood all the time. Based on the feel I get from your message, you may not want to live south of the northern areas of broward.

[NJ Chutzpah]

Originally Posted by copacetic

NJ definitely has a certain charm to it. They should open a hotel in Miami Beach with a NJ theme. Make everything inside a plastic replica of something you might find in NJ.

One time I was in Red Bank NJ on business and I ended up in one of those kind of diners alone really late at night, and it was a transcendental experience. You definitely won't find that here in Miami. But you'll find other stuff.

What made your experience transcendental

[Cane Fan]

Originally Posted by NJ Chutzpah

What was it like ten years ago, and how come it changed so much?

Miami was a better place to live even as recently as ten years ago ... unchecked illegal immigration from Latin America & The Caribbean .. there are many illegals here from Jamaica , Haiti , Trinidad , The Bahamas . etc , etc .... as well as an additional 200,000 Cuban immigrants via the absurd and unfair Cuban adjustment act ... 20,000 visas a year not counting Cubans who cross the Mexican border as well as several thousand who are smuggled here via speed boat .... these recent arrivals are NOTHING like the original Cuban refugees who came here in the 60's and 70"s ... these are mainly low lifes raised in a Communist regime , many of whom actually will defend and stick up for Castro and have come here for economic reasons .... bling , jewelry , cars , reeboks , nikes , Ipods ... NOT because they are being politically persecuted ... and last they all stay in Miami ... won't go to Tampa , Jacksonville , Atlanta , Charlotte .. hell they will not even live in Broward ... nope we are blessed with their presence in Miami .... LOL .... that my friend in a nutshell is Miami's problem .

[Cane Fan]

Originally Posted by tokay57

"If you are caucasian, expect significant trouble in certain areas of Miami if you do not speak Spanish, as residents tend to be intolerant of anything other than the perfect dialect."

can you give an example please? from personal experience?

Despite the fact that there are many issues with Miami and many things that I do not like about the city ... I have been "annoyed" by the language issue but NEVER have experienced "significant " trouble or have never been "mistreated" for not speaking Spanish ..inconvenienced maybe ... disrespected or mistreated .... that is an exaggeration .

Also the person that originally posted that nonsense obviously does not know that many Hispanics are Caucasian ... man the ignorance here is mind numbing .

[runswithscissors]

Originally Posted by immigrant

What's really a depressing fact about Miami-Dade it has lost the southern athmosphere, nowhere to be found.
When I moved to Miami I atleast expected to find some suburbs that qualify, but not one comes even close. Miami is all yankees, jews and immigrants from islands, south and central america, some europeans, very few Dade natives that have seen the place change from a southern smalltown to an artificial tourist destination, an immigration melting pot, a playground for rich folks and north easterners.
I'm trying to answer the same question, just in the frame of South Florida.
I'll go with a small town the day I find an old school southern spot on the coast of south Florida.

Things listed above are basically the reason people are having a hard time adjusting into the atmosphere of Miami. I would choose the retro Miami from the 80's over the Miami we have today, anyday.

By the way, native americans should be considered as immigrants too. They've been there for a long time though.

LOL I think it's safe to say you were never here in the 80's. Old school Florida in the sense that most people mean was the 50's through about 1970. The 1980's were a nightmare for Miami.

I don't get this. Dade "natives"? how far back are you talking, like the 1930's?

Too many Jews now? Uhhhh....try there were plenty of Jews even in the 60's. People used to complain about Miami especially Miami beach being a haven for Jews then.

Playground for the rich? Uhhhh have you seen "The Godfather"? It's always been.....college students were flocking to south Florida since 1935.

And lastly, about Native Americans being immigrants, well unless you count some early physical evidence of the Vikings many thousands of years ago, in NORTH AMERICA, Newfoundland and Labrador, (which they abandoned anyway) ...are you speaking of Greenland where the Vikings discovered it in the 900's?

The Vikings abandoned their small "colonies"further down in NORTH AMERICA due to the hostilities of the Native Americans.

it was the Naive American population that was conquered by the Spanish. And NORTH AMERICA is not exactly what is now the USA. I consider Paleo-Indians to be what we are calling Native Americans. They are the earliest accepted hunter gatherers going back 10,000 years according to archaeologists.

If your statement was designed to diminish the treatment of Native Americans in RECENT history starting in the 1400 and 1500's, and to make a case for the Spanish being here on equal terms, I disagree. That's only a couple of centuries back compared to 10,000 years. ....since ya mentioned it.

[Keeper]

Please get back on the original topic. This thread isn't about cubans, illegal aliens or hispanics.

What town's in Miami Dade are still old skool America?

[saved by grace]

I was born and raised in Homestead (still live here) and there are a few of us " old skool " people left.. used to be growing up, you could go to downtown and get a vanilla coke at the newspaper stand... go out on the airboats on the weekends.. have genuine bbq's in the back yard..stay out till the streetlights came on.... could go eat at Tony's ( the local "crackerbarrel" ) everybody knew each other...highschool sweethearts got married and had kids...STAYED TOGETHER... then their parents coached their baseball teams.... I thnk we still have that somewhat here.. Although I do live out in the "Redlands" area... on the outskirts of Homestead... and we "old skoolers" pretty much do things together.. There is a place to go 4 wheeling...certain old time places.. pubs and such that are out of the way gathering places.... and although they are slowly dwindling away.. we still have farmlands...u-pick fruit stands....everglades national park.. and we are 18 miles from the first key.. ( key largo).... we have a wal-mart.... but.............STAY AWAY ! Unless you go at 1 am.. and then......you still get run over, pushed out of the way, and bumped into by all the people ! And it is nice to get with the felloe "old skoolers" that come in for Nascar.... indy car...truck races...... and such !

[rogerbacon]

Originally Posted by compelled to reply

I saw flat out Cuban rednecks with confederate flags on their cars when I went to get gas.

LOL. Maybe there's some hope left for the melting pot afterall.

[TannerMan]

Has alot really changed since 1998? From what Ive read demographics were practicly the same, economicly Miami was in a hell of a worse place, corruption was at an all time high, crime was higher, and i just can't think how a much a city might have changed. Ive asked this before because its been repeated over and over but nobody seems to be able to answer.

[Marlin331]

Miami is much BETTER now than 10 years ago; there are more highrises (mostly residential), stores, restaurants, etc.. Also, the demographics are basically the same except that the Latin American population is more diverse (in national origin, race/color, etc.) I don't know why people think Miami was any better in 1998 than it is now.