How American is Miami? (cities, millionaires, places)

[NeverBeingBoring]

Originally Posted by Miserere

I guess that for many people, a prosperous city controlled by Latins is just a slap in their face. Also an insult for hispanics that are underdogs in most American cities except Miami and a few others.

I find your post interesting. Why would a prosperous city controlled by people of Latin and South American derivation be a slap in the face for many people? And why an insult for other people of Latin and South American heritage in other parts of the country?

[TooLoud]

Originally Posted by T.Winter2001

Felix, I think you need a night class on US economics and why Miami is so corrupt, the rich and poor with no middle class. Perhaps you are a child of Cuban immigrants, or you are a newly arrived foreigner. in either case I sincerely welcome you to The US! But I surely advise you to seek concrete facts as to why the Miami golden days are long gone. Frankly, I feel sorry for you and others who ignore the realities of Miami. The good and bad, and terrible living conditions that dominate the Miami landscape. I pity the fool.

To fully understand the sad realities of the Ghetto that is Miami today, you should view the Video: The Two Faces of Miami. You can google the Vid.

Best wishes.

There are plenty of middle class people in Miami, were just dragged down by a crazy cost of living. And seriously, Miami has always had an economic and racial divide, it is just more dramatic these days since there are a lot more rich people now. As someone pointed out in the comments section of that video, almost all cities in America have some ghetto neighborhoods and some luxurious ones. It is hardly unique to Miami. Not even the corruption here is unique, as sad as that is. What is unique about this place is the demographics, culture, and history. Not the economic/racial divide, crime, or corruption.

[TooLoud]

Originally Posted by FlyMIA

Miami is FAR from Paradise and you will see that in my post. There are way to many flaws to list right now. Income inequality is one of them. But Miami is also far from a third world country. I see that saying a lot, and I get what people mean when they say it, but its just not true if viewed a literal sense.

I'd argue that income equality isn't that big of a deal in Miami, on account of the fact that were constantly taking in immigrants. When you're constantly taking in penniless immigrants, you're always going to have income inequality. What matters is, do the people on the low end of the scale gradually climb up over the years? I recall an economist talking about how several studies were done on "Mexicans" and their social mobility in America but depending on how you define a "Mexican" you either saw that Mexicans were moving up in income or going down. That is, Mexican (Americans) who were born here or have been here for many years moved up in income but if you count Mexican strictly as an ethnic label, they were losing income because of the amount of poor immigrants moving in.


So yeah, as long as we continue to take in immigrants, we will have income inequality. To make it clear, I'm not saying it's not an issue, I'm saying it is more than just looking at statistics and seeing there is a divide. There is a story behind it.

[T.Winter2001]

Originally Posted by Miserere

I guess that for many people, a prosperous city controlled by Latins is just a slap in their face. Also an insult for hispanics that are underdogs in most American cities except Miami and a few others.

Prosperous city? Or you mean a city built from laundered drug money? Miami is the most corrupt city in all North America including Canada, fact ... look it up online. It is common knowledge there is a direct link between the Mexican and Colombian drug cartels to Panama Banks to Miami's downtown Brickell developments. So yes, it is a slap in the face to all native Americans because the immigrants in Miami don't assimilate in to American culture, nor do they speak english, they don't even try. Many of the those newly arrived immigrants are illegal and taking American jobs and sending that money back home to Colombia, Cuba, Brasil, etc. They are only hurting themselves because as long as they stay in their hoods of Miami, speaking only spanish, they will never move up in the world so they deserve what they get. The good news is some have decided to educate themselves, learn fluent english and move out of Miami to bigger and better things. But they are the minority, sadly.

[FlyMIA]

Originally Posted by T.Winter2001

Prosperous city? Or you mean a city built from laundered drug money? Miami is the most corrupt city in all North America including Canada, fact ... look it up online. It is common knowledge there is a direct link between the Mexican and Colombian drug cartels to Panama Banks to Miami's downtown Brickell developments. So yes, it is a slap in the face to all native Americans because the immigrants in Miami don't assimilate in to American culture, nor do they speak english, they don't even try. Many of the those newly arrived immigrants are illegal and taking American jobs and sending that money back home to Colombia, Cuba, Brasil, etc. They are only hurting themselves because as long as they stay in their hoods of Miami, speaking only spanish, they will never move up in the world so they deserve what they get. The good news is some have decided to educate themselves, learn fluent english and move out of Miami to bigger and better things. But they are the minority, sadly.

Never move up in the world? I know countless amounts of immigrants doing very well in Miami and around the country. My parents and grandparents included.

When you say "native Americans" I assume you mean white Americans? Or families who have been here for more then 3 generations and not actual Native Americans right?

And I almost never need to speak Spanish. Yet I remarkably do just fine in Miami.

And just a FYI: no such thing as an illegal immigrant who is Cuban.

Your tone doesn't put your opinion I the best of light I must say. What you said does have some truth to it but its over exaggerated.

[T.Winter2001]

Originally Posted by FlyMIA

I know countless amounts of immigrants doing very well in Miami and around the country. My parents and grandparents included.

More power to ya but you are in the minority.

[valicky]

Originally Posted by T.Winter2001

Prosperous city? Or you mean a city built from laundered drug money? Miami is the most corrupt city in all North America including Canada, fact ... look it up online. It is common knowledge there is a direct link between the Mexican and Colombian drug cartels to Panama Banks to Miami's downtown Brickell developments. So yes, it is a slap in the face to all native Americans because the immigrants in Miami don't assimilate in to American culture, nor do they speak english, they don't even try. Many of the those newly arrived immigrants are illegal and taking American jobs and sending that money back home to Colombia, Cuba, Brasil, etc. They are only hurting themselves because as long as they stay in their hoods of Miami, speaking only spanish, they will never move up in the world so they deserve what they get. The good news is some have decided to educate themselves, learn fluent english and move out of Miami to bigger and better things. But they are the minority, sadly.

If it's a fact, why can't I find it online? I did a search for "most corrupt city in North America and I didn't get Miami in the results. Mostly, I saw Chicago listed. There was one result where Miami made the top ten, but it still wasn't the MOST corrupt. Please link to that "fact."

[bale002]

The degree of corruption in Miami is about average for any human community since the year one. Corruption is built into the human organism, there is no escape. For anyone.


I do not notice that Miami is "controlled" by "Latins", whatever those two words mean.

The Board of Miami-Dade Commissioners seems to fairly represent proportionally the county's ethnic make-up. The same goes for the Board of Education and the Board of Miami International Airport, probably also for PortMiami (haven't checked it lately), probably even ZooMiami, etc.

Typical US-style group politics, then, for better and for worse.

If you do the research, you find that most of the financing for Miami's major public and private infrastructure, including the ports, water management, rail transportation, commercial real estate, and municipal bonds, comes from New York and Washington and other financial/power centers in the US northeast, just as it has done since the 1890s. The insurance market is largely still re-insured through London.

To be sure, "Latins" have a large hand in managing day-to-day operations and they have played a decisive role over the past 40 years in making Miami a hemispheric gateway and major nexus in the global network of economic relationships (trade, direct investment, temporary and permanent migration, tourism, exchange students, in that order).


Miami is a prosperous city, it has a promising future, it's main risks are natural and political, the latter largely with respect to economic relations with Latin America, but it is possible to manage and mitigate both risks.

[Miserere]

Originally Posted by NeverBeingBoring

I find your post interesting. Why would a prosperous city controlled by people of Latin and South American derivation be a slap in the face for many people? And why an insult for other people of Latin and South American heritage in other parts of the country?

Because it goes against their weltanschauung.

[Miserere]

Originally Posted by valicky

If it's a fact, why can't I find it online? I did a search for "most corrupt city in North America and I didn't get Miami in the results. Mostly, I saw Chicago listed. There was one result where Miami made the top ten, but it still wasn't the MOST corrupt. Please link to that "fact."

I read somewhere that Miami was the most corrupt city during the 20's and 50's. Miami and New Orleans were always on top. Before Las Vegas, there was Miami.

The most violent period, the prohibition. The largest scam in the US...selling swampland to northeners back in the 20's.

The entire state was run by the porkchoppers.