moving to north miami/ft. lauderdale (Orlando, Hollywood: apartments, crime rate, home)

[zmeflyby]

I am an asian guy, 21 yr old, moving for graduate school. My school, Barry University, is located on miami shores.

I know for a fact that I do not want to live there. I was looking at Aventura, Pembroke Pines, and Miramar. They seem to be the most ideal places for me because of their location/demographics.

Can someone tell me the differences between the areas? Which would be perferred for someone like me?
I am looking for a more diversed area with asians/whites.

I dont know spanish at all. =)

thank you

[JacobMAX]

The best for you between these 3 neighborhoods ( Aventura, Pembroke Pines and Miramar ), in my opinion, would be Aventura; Pines and Miramar are more far from Barry University, are more suburban type neighborhoods, and also the crime rate in the Eastern part of Miramar is relatively high.

But I would also consider living in:

- Miami Beach: good overall, about 20/25 minutes to Barry ( without much traffic ) and more expensive than the other areas.

- Downtown Miami/Brickell: good overall, about 15/25 minutes to Barry and relatively expensive.

- Hollywood ( East of US-1 ): good overall, about 25/30 minutes to Barry and not too much expensive.

All areas that I cited are diversed.

[compelled to reply]

Pembroke Pines is the spot if you are Asian and want a more diverse spot and just want to live in the suburbs. Most east Asians here are Chinese, Filipino or Korean. There is little to no Japanese community here, nor is there much of a SE Asian community. If you are going to live in Pembroke Pines you have to forget about race all together because most people there don't care, and that's why it's diverse.

Miami Shores actually is very nice. There are a few Filipinos there and it's white dominated (no majority) so if you need a diverse area it actually fits the bill. You do not need to know Spanish to live there. In fact there are less Hispanics there than some of the W. Broward communities (less than P. Pines and way less than Miramar) and the ones that live there are a higher class type that know how to speak English, more like the Hispanics in said W. Broward communities, although as a whole Pembroke Pines/Miramar tends to be safer and more diverse.

[zmeflyby]

thank you for the replies!

I map quested some apartments from Pembroke Pines to Barry, and it only showed 20 mins, versus the ones I map quested for Aventura showed 15 mins.

I will have to check out those areas again.

Also, which area would be less partyish?
I am not into those things, I would rather sleep right and study right.

[compelled to reply]

Pembroke Pines is the total opposite of partyish. It's generally just a typical shopping/residential suburb. It is also home to the (in)famous Pines Blvd/dragstrip, where people are known to drive like morons and sway across four lanes of traffic at 50 mph. P. Pines tends to be congested.

Also, Miami Shores is not partyish either. So why don't you just live there? . It's just a charming old residential suburb.

Anyway, yeah, 20 minutes is optimistic. It depends how far west you are in the Pines (the further west the better) and also traffic conditions on I-95 when you get south of the Golden Glades, or on the local streets. 30 minutes sounds closer to accurate. All of the good parts of Miramar are also waaaay west, like west of I-75. East of there you have more robbery type crimes because of the thugs driving in from Miami Gardens below it. The neighborhoods are usually nice until you get to about Douglas Rd but it's so close to Opa Locka.

Aventura is basically a vertical high rise suburb. Not really that diversified and also crowded. Beautiful but congested and also snobby.

[JacobMAX]

Originally Posted by compelled to reply

Pembroke Pines is the total opposite of partyish. It's generally just a typical shopping/residential suburb. It is also home to the (in)famous Pines Blvd/dragstrip, where people are known to drive like morons and sway across four lanes of traffic at 50 mph. P. Pines tends to be congested.

Also, Miami Shores is not partyish either. So why don't you just live there? . It's just a charming old residential suburb.

Anyway, yeah, 20 minutes is optimistic. It depends how far west you are in the Pines (the further west the better) and also traffic conditions on I-95 when you get south of the Golden Glades, or on the local streets. 30 minutes sounds closer to accurate. All of the good parts of Miramar are also waaaay west, like west of I-75. East of there you have more robbery type crimes because of the thugs driving in from Miami Gardens below it. The neighborhoods are usually nice until you get to about Douglas Rd but it's so close to Opa Locka.

Aventura is basically a vertical high rise suburb. Not really that diversified and also crowded. Beautiful but congested and also snobby.

If you're not partyish, I will have to agree with compelled that the best for you is probably Pembroke Pines.

[zmeflyby]

Seems like everywhere in the miami/ft. lauderdale area is congested.

Again, thank you for the helpful guides!

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by zmeflyby

Seems like everywhere in the miami/ft. lauderdale area is congested.

Again, thank you for the helpful guides!

The congestion is not horrible once you go north of Golden Glades. Traffic tends to be heavy but it moves and I find that I get where I need to go without many problems. The traffic doesn't back up here when somebody sneezes like, say, Orlando or DC, there are predictable trends and hot spots that you can learn to avoid.

Miami south of the Glades is a different story.