What was Miami like before the majority was Cuban? (Hialeah: low income, transplants)

[Banx]

As in, majority non-Hispanic white. Better? Worse? More fun? More boring? Richer? Poorer? A southern type of city? What was it like?
Just curious thanks.

[DCkid]

It was a typical southern city from what I heard. It was like Alabama, Mississippi, and northern Fla. Watch a movie called Cocaine Cowboys. It gives you a brief lesson of how the city of Miami came about.

[HowGoesIt]

It was just typical Americana back then, completely different. The populace consisted of mostly white folks and african americans. Miami Beach had the rat pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., etc) and retirees. It was more chill and laid back.

[jbravo]

Originally Posted by Banx

As in, majority non-Hispanic white. Better? Worse? More fun? More boring? Richer? Poorer? A southern type of city? What was it like?
Just curious thanks.

It was segregated.


(p.s. Don't want to burst your bubble, but Cubans are not a majority in Miami.)
(American FactFinder)

[Banx]

Originally Posted by jbravo

It was segregated.


(p.s. Don't want to burst your bubble, but Cubans are not a majority in Miami.)
(American FactFinder)

Didn't know that. Let's just say majority Latin American or "people of spanish speaking descent".

[jbravo]

Originally Posted by Banx

Didn't know that. Let's just say majority Latin American or "people of spanish speaking descent".

Oh, .....

OK:

It was segregated.

(and you could go see the Miccosukees at 27th Ave and South River Drive and gambling always existed in Miami Beach)
(See thread "Miami what was")

[burgler09]

From what everyone speaks of, the "miami from the good ole days" sounds boring as hell.

[dadeguy]

when we moved to miami in late 1960 miami was a far different place.

the sidewalks and streets were rolled up and stored away at 2100 hours sharp.

many of the locals called miami my-am-uh

the world ended just west of the palmetto by-pass and there was very little in between the palmetto by-pass and le juene road.

wilcox field (MIA) was the end of the world with NW36st being the only place to get fuel etc.

hialeah was a great place to grow things.

there were blue laws

you could hear church bells on sunday morning.

if anyone is interested you may ask me specific questions because I have a pretty keen memory and got around town quite a bit with my grand dad in his truck. I watched miami grow from a sleepy backwater to the great world city it is today.

[angelo7221]

A very, very resourceful website
Memories of Old Hialeah, Old Miami and Old South Florida Photo Galleries Photo Gallery by Don Boyd at pbase.com

CHOCK FULL OF MEMORIES AND FORGOTTEN LORE

Now I was born in 1976...from a firsthand perspective, all I can tell you was that most of the finer establishments and stomping grounds of west kendall closed down 6pm sharp on Sunday....

winn dixie was the grocery store of choice...publix didn't come around until 1984 or so.

if you got lost, or in trouble, the managers cared and saw that you were attended to..called your parents..called the police.

west kendall was the epitome of a bedroom community, perhaps borderline rural. Almost every shopkeeper in the kendale lakes mall was from NY and knew your name after a few or so visits. Very rarely was spanish spoken...when the neighborhood became more latinized the jewish people that did not go with it began to leave..as early as 1986 or so. Many left when they found out they were going to put low income apartments on sw 80 st...aka "Kendale Lakes west".....the ones that remained were of course more tolerant.

My neighbor across the way used to do PR related work in miami beach....prior to the advent of south beach it was rather close knit amongst the jewish...there were nightclubs for the tourists and others for the hotshots to go and rub elbows....cause a ruckus..be rowdy....not the same way people are rowdy today but as rowdy enough as frequenting a respectable establishment would allow. You had characters. The restaurants were clean, eating was good. Wolfie Cohen's was of course the place to eat good deli..you didn't have to pay much...you could still see and be seen....without having to get past a stuffy maitre'd and bull**** artist waiters....waiters that knew how to take your order and not **** it up.

All the areas that are heavily working class cuban were working class redneck....but for an allowable sum you had a considerable piece of the pie....a modest 4-5 room house with jalosy windows/ florida room where you were guaranteed an unobstructed view of pine trees/ patches of green.

Or wooded/ dirt roads/ hidden trails.....with sturdy dade pines..this all existed along bird road...particularly the lake dr/ sw 74 ct area....also in kendall....back then the 99 ct subdivision was quite nice and there was nothing around it. Nob Hill was the place to be amongst the upwardly mobile jewish transplants from NY....my parents first moved there in 1970...everyone called it Snob Hill.

If you turned on the radio you were not greeted to salsa, but Lynyrd Skynyrd or Blue Oyster Cult. Everyone went to the Coliseum in Coral Gables to catch a band....many of the concerts were held at Hollywood Sportatorium..where a subdivision in Pembroke Pines exists now.

If you want to find out more about Kendall prior to the 80's..which is my frame of reference, there is a lady who works the diner at the west kendall Denny's (122 ave and N Kendall) that may prove indispensable....also the counter ladies at Chuckwagon. The middle-aged and older Cubans who have lived in westchester since the beginning are also handy....and you can find out what living here was like from different perspectives....

Truthfully...I think it was a lot back then what parts of Broward that are WASPY are like now.

Mass migration and the greed of developers ruined it all....but change is part of continuity....

[Banx]

Originally Posted by angelo7221

A very, very resourceful website
Memories of Old Hialeah, Old Miami and Old South Florida Photo Galleries Photo Gallery by Don Boyd at pbase.com

CHOCK FULL OF MEMORIES AND FORGOTTEN LORE

Now I was born in 1976...from a firsthand perspective, all I can tell you was that most of the finer establishments and stomping grounds of west kendall closed down 6pm sharp on Sunday....

winn dixie was the grocery store of choice...publix didn't come around until 1984 or so.

if you got lost, or in trouble, the managers cared and saw that you were attended to..called your parents..called the police.

west kendall was the epitome of a bedroom community, perhaps borderline rural. Almost every shopkeeper in the kendale lakes mall was from NY and knew your name after a few or so visits. Very rarely was spanish spoken...when the neighborhood became more latinized the jewish people that did not go with it began to leave..as early as 1986 or so. Many left when they found out they were going to put low income apartments on sw 80 st...aka "Kendale Lakes west".....the ones that remained were of course more tolerant.

My neighbor across the way used to do PR related work in miami beach....prior to the advent of south beach it was rather close knit amongst the jewish...there were nightclubs for the tourists and others for the hotshots to go and rub elbows....cause a ruckus..be rowdy....not the same way people are rowdy today but as rowdy enough as frequenting a respectable establishment would allow. You had characters. The restaurants were clean, eating was good. Wolfie Cohen's was of course the place to eat good deli..you didn't have to pay much...you could still see and be seen....without having to get past a stuffy maitre'd and bull**** artist waiters....waiters that knew how to take your order and not **** it up.

All the areas that are heavily working class cuban were working class redneck....but for an allowable sum you had a considerable piece of the pie....a modest 4-5 room house with jalosy windows/ florida room where you were guaranteed an unobstructed view of pine trees/ patches of green.

Or wooded/ dirt roads/ hidden trails.....with sturdy dade pines..this all existed along bird road...particularly the lake dr/ sw 74 ct area....also in kendall....back then the 99 ct subdivision was quite nice and there was nothing around it. Nob Hill was the place to be amongst the upwardly mobile jewish transplants from NY....my parents first moved there in 1970...everyone called it Snob Hill.

If you turned on the radio you were not greeted to salsa, but Lynyrd Skynyrd or Blue Oyster Cult. Everyone went to the Coliseum in Coral Gables to catch a band....many of the concerts were held at Hollywood Sportatorium..where a subdivision in Pembroke Pines exists now.

If you want to find out more about Kendall prior to the 80's..which is my frame of reference, there is a lady who works the diner at the west kendall Denny's (122 ave and N Kendall) that may prove indispensable....also the counter ladies at Chuckwagon. The middle-aged and older Cubans who have lived in westchester since the beginning are also handy....and you can find out what living here was like from different perspectives....

Truthfully...I think it was a lot back then what parts of Broward that are WASPY are like now.

Mass migration and the greed of developers ruined it all....but change is part of continuity....

Great post, really interesting. +1.