Miami Gardens

[brother's keeper]

Originally Posted by Chelito23

To go back to an earlier point, I think in all of Florida, the counties have much more authority than in other states. County run school districts, police departments, fire departments, mayors, libraries, County Hall, etc. So, the county can and does act as a city and regulate and control growth when areas are not part of a city.

Now, in Broward County there was some sort of a mandate that all areas HAD to incorporate some time back...I am not sure of the reason for this, but there previosuly were many unicorporated areas there as well, but no more.

In Miami Dade, many people felt that the county, being so large, was not addressing their local issues and wanted to incorporate to have local power of their resources. This is how Palmetto Bay and Doral formed recently as well.

Miami Gardens was always thought of as a strange community to incorporate because they received more funding from the county than what they gave to it, so obviously they have had a rocky financial road ever since they incorporated. There was also an issue of the community being predominantly black, and wanting to have more direct power over local resources and decisions being that this is a very Hispanic county.

In general, what is now Miami Gardens was always "Northwest Miami Dade" or unicorporated NW Miami Dade. Any unicorporated area in Miami Dade has a "Miami" address, even if it isn't the city of Miami. But in all honesty, you can write any name for the city, as long as you have the correct addy and zip code. Some people write Coconut Grove, FL vs. Miami, and they are in the city of Miami! So if you live in Kendall (unicorporated), you can write Kendall or Miami.

It is quirky now that I think about it, all of these named, unicorporated areas. It has always been this way though, so I guess it makes us unique in that way. Interesting thread though!

Yeah by the way you describe things I can see why so much emphasis isn't focused on cities down there.....Sounds like Miami-Dade is alot more unified a county than were I'm from/used to.