We're here and WOW (Miami, Aventura: apartments, foreclosure, rent)

[Wild Style]

Originally Posted by Bostonian08

It's near the "Deep Ellum" in downtown Dallas. It's so close to downtown that Lee Harvey could cap yer mama while she's shopping at Neiman Marcus.

The Galleria is sagging a bit these days - kinda dirty imo. And yeah for natural wonders, DFW is literally a rather dry plain place.

I gotcha beat though - in 1986 I paid $42 a week to live a 235 Washington in SoBe!

im not shocked. i wasn't here back then but I think that was the coke days of south beach when that place was a hell hole from what i understand.

[♥♥PRINC3Ss♥♥]

Dense in numbers but this city is not walkable, just parts of south beach which is full of tourists and a total nightmare to park with no decent Public transportation to Miami mainland or Broward. I know things are worse in other places but To say that this city is second to new York is very far fetched. If someone wants density they should try NYC, Chicago or San Francisco

[♥♥PRINC3Ss♥♥]

Originally Posted by Wild Style

im not shocked. i wasn't here back then but I think that was the coke days of south beach when that place was a hell hole from what i understand.

I wasn't here in the 80's but in the early 90's it wasn't that bad. It was dirtier with a lot of mom and pop businesses and more crime. I'm not really a big fan of those big hotels and $300 entree restaurants, so to me what we have now is a closer version of hell

[WINTERFRONT]

There is a big gap between American cities. Only one "real city" with density followed by small towns surrounded by suburban sprawl.

[Wild Style]

Originally Posted by ♥♥PRINC3Ss♥♥

I wasn't here in the 80's but in the early 90's it wasn't that bad. It was dirtier with a lot of mom and pop businesses and more crime. I'm not really a big fan of those big hotels and $300 entree restaurants, so to me what we have now is a closer version of hell

in other 10 years south beach will be like 42nd street in NYC. One big disney land

[whitmeyer]

Originally Posted by Inter441

lol wait till you come to West Palm Beach .. It is like a laid back life here no lights on the streets after 8pm and shops close at 6pm

I moved to Sunny Isles Beach and liked it for about a week. I moved to Palm Beach Gardens after 6 months and would never, ever live near Miami again.

[♥♥PRINC3Ss♥♥]

Originally Posted by Wild Style

in other 10 years south beach will be like 42nd street in NYC. One big disney land

In 10 years if we are all alive and this forum still exists, I'm gonna come back and laugh in your face. Please, absolutely no way this place is gonna look like 42nd st in such a short period of time.

[Wild Style]

Originally Posted by ♥♥PRINC3Ss♥♥

In 10 years if we are all alive and this forum still exists, I'm gonna come back and laugh in your face. Please, absolutely no way this place is gonna look like 42nd st in such a short period of time.

Maybe your not from NYC originally so the point of my statement may be lost on you. For any New Yorker we know that 42nd used to be run down, mom and pop shops but had character. Much like S. Beach pre 2000. Now they have brought in big box retails stores and shops and changed the original character of the area (42nd). They are doing the exact same thing in S. Beach. They opened up the best buy and those other big box retail stores in Miami Beach on I think 5th (I think that is the name of that street) not even two years ago. There is a plan for another big mall further north on Miami beach. They have pottery barn now and a host of other things that are changing the character of that area. So "laughing in my face" would only make you look silly as these changes are already under way and evident to anyone who has been living here for some time or visiting S. Beach over the last decade.

[xS☺B☺s]

Originally Posted by Wild Style

im not shocked. i wasn't here back then but I think that was the coke days of south beach when that place was a hell hole from what i understand.

Nah, it wasn't a hellhole. It was just really run down. It was in a generational transition. It went through a transformation just like Times Sq did, although of course it was much smaller than TS. It was gritty and seedy in many ways, but mostly it was old and poor because there was such a large population of old - and I mean REALLY old - people living here. They were the original beach bums that came here in the thirties and forties - and they were still here in the 80's - but of course by then they were all 80 years old. They called Miami "God's Waiting Room" back then because of all the old old people waiting to meet god at any moment. So when a large portion of the population lives on a SS check, well, the nightclub business won't be world class.

But what happened was three things. The Mariel boatlift of course infused a whole new youth and vitality into the city. Second, the old folks passed away. And finally there were kids like me who were watching Miami Vice up in the snow belt thinking I could do with a bit of that ... and so when the likes of us all came down from wherever - Boston, NY, Chicago, Ohio, wherever - we got there and found yeah, these places on SoBe aren't the Ritz, but for $200 a month ($100 with a roomy) I can have a pad one block from the beach in Miami Beach, FL? Holy Flippin' Shist! Hell yeah!

So that's what we did. And we met each other and hung out. And got seen - and were watched by other young people driving by with their doors locked - scared by the dread tales of SoBe but hopeful and looking for something good - something cool. And they saw us - not rich, but young and pretty having a great time on this old resort town ... and so it began ... first it was Miami Vice --- Then Ron Wood from the Rolling Stones opened a club... then Club Nu... the Junkyard ... The South Pointe Park ... then the News Cafe and Penrod's

Hell -- we rented and operated our Music Studio on Lincoln road ...

Is it better now? I kinda agree with Princess ... it's not necessarily progress replacing a 1 dollar espresso stand with a $100 french restaurant .... I dunno ... the espressos were great and the same distance from the beach ... dollar per dollar ... hell, I think it was f-in' paradise ...

[Jmlacysr]

We go back to Dallas today.

We have driven over 650 miles in Soflo in the last 5 days. 2 trips to IslaMorada and the rest in and around Miami. We've seen he good, the bad, the ugly and the odd by comparision to Dallas. I'll have much to say in the next few days and it all won't be a glowing endorsement.

My take on Miami is that she's like a high maintience woman. Beautiful for sure, but not easy. What I don't know if I was courting Miami or Miami was courting me. Maybe a bit of both.

I see Miami as trying hard but struggling. Some of the areas of urban improvement show promise, but it's going to take a while. I spke with old timers who told me abut the days of money being everywhere and they missed those good old days.

I think Miami could be a harsh place. It's not for the timid or impatient. Reality bites here for those who have nothing, and the ones who have real jobs struggle for basic subsistance. I'm not convinced everyone here has an easy life.

There is a wide seperation from the ultra rich and the very poor. It's almost as though you have everything or nearly nothing at all. The middle class, if you can call it that lives from paycheck to paycheck.

Miami is an expensive mistress. Cost of living here is high and while the rich can afford it, much of Miamians probably stuggle. I suspect many people sacrafice the good things in life simply to sustain life at all.

Finding good values in housing is difficult at best. You simply have to make trade offs. You can't live close to downtown affordably and if you do, you're in less than desirable areas.

My take on things is that there are 5 Miami's. The beach crowd, the brickell crowd, the Fisher island crowd and the poor. Ok, maybe a 6th, the Kendall, penbroke pines crowd. What you earn defines you around here and likely your overall view of Miami.

If by luck or some divine intervention, we found an area with the least amount of trade offs. We decided to be beach people. There is an area between 65th and 75th on Collins that we have decided to call home. There are a few streets over, Byron, Abbott, Harding that have affordable housing. You can find a 2 bedroom apt, duplex in there for 1200.00 a month and walk to the beach. Part of that area is walkable and I see this area as a poor man's south beach. It took a while to find that little part of the city but when we looked at all the areas, we felt this one was the safest and most affordable. I think that area is called Surfside but it's bewteen Miami Beach and Bal Harbor on A1A.

We have an app for place in that area, we are going back over there before we leave. We ere there last night until about 8:00. There were women walking alone, locals on the streets, Police were there and we felt safe to be on the beach even at night. Sure there were some dodgy people, but so it goes in all of Miami that's anywhere within the average persons budget.

We spent some time in Aventura yesterday looking at place to live. Most of the places we saw felt like retirement homes in our price range. We went back to Sobe and looked and it's too expensive and the places in our price range were run down. Surfside seemed to be the place with the least amount of tradeoffs, although we are still making consessions.

We don't like the food here and getting anyone to do what they say they will do seems a struggle.
Jaywalking seems to be the national sport around here, and amount of honking is not too far off from NYC. Driving is actually no problem at all for us but pull up to a read light and you better have your foot on the gas. If that light turns green you only have less than 2 second to move or the guy behind you will glady tell you the light is green. The crazy drivers in Solfo is grossly overstated IMO, really, it's not that bad.

You might me wondering where is my favorite place I found in all this? Cocowalk. IMO it beats Sobe by a wide margin. Frankly, I don't get Sobe, it's nice from what we saw but Cocowalk felt much better to us. LOVE those houses in that area but unless you have Fisher Island money, who can live there?

I have a lot more to say about my intial impressions about all this called Soflo, but we have to get back to Surfside than back to Dallas today.