top 5 worst and best Miami neighborhoods (Hialeah, Miami Beach: townhouse, schools, place to live)

[planetsurf]

Originally Posted by Miami305Kid

Omg I think you people what get it by now. Basically when people talk about Miami they're including the entire MIAMI-dade county unless otherwise stated. I think everyone knows Coral Gables is a seperate city than Miami, HOWEVER, it is in MIAMI-dade county so it is safe to say it is part of the Miami metro area. When people say Los Angeles they also include Compton even know it's a seperate city, why? Because it's in LOS ANGELES, County and part of the L.A metro. When people say Miami they rarely mean only the city of Miami because Miami only has 400,000 people while the Miami Metro has 5 million. Also with names like North Miami, South Miami, South-Miami Heights, Miami Beach, West Miami, North Miami beach, Miami Springs, Miami Shores, Miami Lakes, it's safe to call those places Miami. I hate when people try to act like a smart ass and have no idea what they're talking about.

100% correct! Unless specified, when you are generally talking about Miami, you're talking about Miami-Dade County.

I think that neighborhoods-wise, you might have to lump CGables and S Miami together, then Pincrest and Derring Bay/Kings Bay together -- all VERY nice areas in general.
Again, we're talking neighborhoods not municipalities. On the flip-side, that chunk of CGables north of 8th Street really isn't CG either imho (although not a bad neighborhood, just not great).

[cityrat]

I agree. North Miami Beach is run down in some areas but stunning in others. The area around city hall if much nicer than it used to be and the entire Victory pool has been remodeled. Say what you want but one must remember that NMB is still 2 miles from the beach and directly south of Aventura which is one of the priciest neighborhoods in the country. Additionally, for commuters it is only minutes from downtown Miami or downtown Ft Lauderdale. Some of the writers may not have been back for awhile so I don't know how up on things they are. Sure there is crime and a few gangs but what growing city doesn't have issues? It is the best place in the world to pick-up bargain real estate right now as there are so many foreclosures. Get in while the current city council is there because if they get voted out the place is going to boom with development like the cities to the north and south of it. You may see this as a good or bad thing but it will happen as soon as this market recovers. I highly recommend this area for the far-sighted but I will warn you that if you can only be comfortable with mono-cultural, white neighbors this area of South Florida is not for you.

[sapphos]

If you want a small family neighborhood that really cares about its residents then I vote for Surfside. During Hurricane Wilma, the mayor sent around police with bottled water and ice to residents!
High Pines on the edge of South Miami and the Gables is great
Coral Gables
South Beach
Pinecrest

I won't even repeat the worst as they've already been posted...

[runswithscissors]

"Also with names like North Miami, South Miami, South-Miami Heights, Miami Beach, West Miami, North Miami beach, Miami Springs, Miami Shores, Miami Lakes, it's safe to call those places Miami."

[Hasdrubal]

Coconut Grove is an upper-class neighborhood, although you can ran into very nasty ghetto-esque parts within a hundred feet.

[socrates]

Is north Miami beach a good neighborhood like Miami Beach or is it more like North Miami? I just noticed its on the mainland so I'm wondering.

[sapphos]

North Miami Beach is on the mainland and I wouldn't recommend most of it. You could check out Biscayne Park which has some decent areas and older historic homes.

[sapphos]

Originally Posted by Hasdrubal

Coconut Grove is an upper-class neighborhood, although you can ran into very nasty ghetto-esque parts within a hundred feet.

and you also have to worry about breakins. I know many people who live in the Grove, particularly southwest Grove and have had their homes broken into. I still love the Grove though.

[Phil~Denver]

Originally Posted by Chelito23

Hey elfyum,

From what my adult students who own a home in NMB tell me, it is not safe to walk at night. There are many home burglaries and invasions. Neighbors play loud music throughout the night. When I drive there, there are people loitering around the back alleys of the neighborhoods and sifting through the garbage cans.

If you go into a laundromat, pawn shop, gas station or supermarket on 163 St in NMB, you will see what the people who frequent the area are like. It may not seem bad driving through, but living and working there is a different story.

I beg to differ with you Chelito on your assertion that NMB is such a terrible place. I lived there for six years while I taught at FIU and lived in North Miami Beach near the Golden Glades interchange in a charming home with a typically large yard studded with cherry palms and exotic fruit trees, a one level floor plan, really nice neighbors and and only 10 mins to the Beach.(granted 163rd/167th is always packed with traffic, it's best to learn to navigate other streets to get to Biscayne, such as taking Miami gardens Dr.)

Chelito has a typical "better than thou" immigrant Latino attitude towards areas that have dark looking people, Even if they are nice areas.

The North Miami Beach and North Miami areas are quiet and leafy neighborhoods with an interesting mix of middle-class Trinidadians, Hatians, Jews, Peruvians, Jamaicans, Brazilians, Asians, whites, Blacks.. It offers good shopping, better schools than anywhere else in central and northern Dade. Best of all it's only minutes away from several beautiful public beaches, my favourite is Sunny Isles beach.

Now let's examine what I consider the "Worse" and "Worst" neighborhoods of Miami, Cuba.

All Latino/Hispanic ares if you don't speak spanish fluently and unintelligibly as it is spoken there. I lived in Spain as an international student and when I moved to Miami I had to learn a whole new language, it's called "Cuban".

Starting with Little Havana and the surrounding areas. Picture Cuba or Venezuela and all it's craziness transported literally to the United States. some streets are so polluted with litter that it piles up on the corners. If you don't speak spanish you will completely lost since even the street signs are in spanish. It characterized by substandard poverty and so much crime that all of the houses brandish Burglar Bars in all shapes and sizes.

Hialeah isn't much better.
West Miami is the same, from North Kendal to Sweetwater, Westchester, Flagami area, Miami Gardens, Hialeah Gardens and Doral, the scenery is all in spanish and you feel you are in another country. Burglar Bars, Crazy Drivers, unruly pedestrians, Gang activity on every corner, not to mention the loud Spanish music played from every house at all hours of the night and especially on weekends, cars parked on laws and over sidewalks. I lived near the FIU campus for a while near Coral Way, which by the way is a really nice area once you get close to Coral Gables and out of the Spanish areas. My townhouse looked like a prison, my neighbors were loud and disrespectful and several nights were interrupted with gunshots and police sirens.

Thank goodness I was able to move to North Miami Beach because I had starting not liking Miami. NMB was so much more pleasant and centrally located than the westchester townhouse.

North Miami Beach is much better, it's truly diverse and less ethnocentric than those Cuban areas of W and SW Dade. Crime is much less, I can go to the beach w/o having to get on a freeway and best of all, I can see out my Window!!!

Mod deleted

[big mean bear]

Originally Posted by Phil~Denver

I beg to differ with you Chelito on your assertion that NMB is such a terrible place. I lived there for six years while I taught at FIU and lived in North Miami Beach near the Golden Glades interchange in a charming home with a typically large yard studded with cherry palms and exotic fruit trees, a one level floor plan, really nice neighbors and and only 10 mins to the Beach.(granted 163rd/167th is always packed with traffic, it's best to learn to navigate other streets to get to Biscayne, such as taking Miami gardens Dr.)

Chelito has a typical "better than thou" immigrant Latino attitude towards areas that have dark looking people, Even if they are nice areas.

The North Miami Beach and North Miami areas are quiet and leafy neighborhoods with an interesting mix of middle-class Trinidadians, Hatians, Jews, Peruvians, Jamaicans, Brazilians, Asians, whites, Blacks.. It offers good shopping, better schools than anywhere else in central and northern Dade. Best of all it's only minutes away from several beautiful public beaches, my favourite is Sunny Isles beach.

Now let's examine what I consider the "Worse" and "Worst" neighborhoods of Miami, Cuba.

All Latino/Hispanic ares if you don't speak spanish fluently and unintelligibly as it is spoken there. I lived in Spain as an international student and when I moved to Miami I had to learn a whole new language, it's called "Cuban".

Starting with Little Havana and the surrounding areas. Picture Cuba or Venezuela and all it's craziness transported literally to the United States. some streets are so polluted with litter that it piles up on the corners. If you don't speak spanish you will completely lost since even the street signs are in spanish. It characterized by substandard poverty and so much crime that all of the houses brandish Burglar Bars in all shapes and sizes.

Hialeah isn't much better.
West Miami is the same, from North Kendal to Sweetwater, Westchester, Flagami area, Miami Gardens, Hialeah Gardens and Doral, the scenery is all in spanish and you feel you are in another country. Burglar Bars, Crazy Drivers, unruly pedestrians, Gang activity on every corner, not to mention the loud Spanish music played from every house at all hours of the night and especially on weekends, cars parked on laws and over sidewalks. I lived near the FIU campus for a while near Coral Way, which by the way is a really nice area once you get close to Coral Gables and out of the Spanish areas. My townhouse looked like a prison, my neighbors were loud and disrespectful and several nights were interrupted with gunshots and police sirens.

Thank goodness I was able to move to North Miami Beach because I had starting not liking Miami. NMB was so much more pleasant and centrally located than the westchester townhouse.

North Miami Beach is much better, it's truly diverse and less ethnocentric than those Cuban areas of W and SW Dade. Crime is much less, I can go to the beach w/o having to get on a freeway and best of all, I can see out my Window!!!

Mod Deleted

I'm surprised you survived at FIU as long as you did, it's a very Hispano-centric school/culture there, something which you seemed not to like. I have to admit, your synopsis of NMB is both bias and completely wrong. Bad means bad, no matter what race you are. "Trash radiates", and if 163rd is supposedly clean, the neighborhoods are atrocious. Furniture on the street atrocious. NMB has serious issues with crime and undesirability. It is one of the few parts of Miami which is both culturally and intellectually bankrupt. Unless you are talking about a culture of classlessness and urban 'hip hop' intellect.

Great shopping on 163rd... Yea Right! All those shady little stores that sell stereos and shoes for $3.99... LOL The only decent store is the Wal Mart on 163rd but it's as third world as they come without getting a Passport and going to Port-au-Prince.