How do I convince my associate to relocate to Miami and not to Houston? (Kendall: rent, public schools)

[planetsurf]

Originally Posted by BCreass

Miami is not a good place to raise a family, period.

Schools here are awful, then you have drivers who will hit a pedestrian, then drive off, leaving them for dead.

The scum of the earth live here...stick to Houston.

Or not.
We think Miami is a great place to raise a family ... period! lol

OUR school is FANTASTIC. We truly love it and feel very blessed. We came from a solid public school in California and we are thrilled.

If your at all interested in your kids growing up with a vibrant, varied and interesting hispanic culture, Miami CAN NOT be beat. If you're more interested in strictly cost of living, possibly Houston.

I've only been to Houston a couple of times, but I personally would never consider living there. Nothing compelling about it to me.

Good luck.

[Rock Newman]

Originally Posted by rogerbacon

If you are not going to WORK in Miami why would you want to live here? The beaches? The Ocean? Come on. ALL of Florida is surrounded by ocean. There must be 100 towns and cities in Florida where the beaches are as good or better and it is MUCH better to raise a family.
My advice is to expand your choices to other cities in Florida. There are probably lots of places you've never heard of that are much nicer than you imagine Miami would be.

Holy Cow .... a post from Mr. Bacon that I finally agree with ... I love Florida , I am just not so keen on Miami especially as a place to live .

[Cougar Beach]

Originally Posted by BCreass

I wouldn't raise children in this city, even if you paid me to. There is no "culture" here, other than the ghetto culture.

You seem like a nice guy though and you probably have the $$$ to send your kids to private school, so I'm sure it'd work out for you.

The suburbs of Miami are just suburbs. They are as boring as suburbs everywhere, with better weather and worse traffic. I never noticed the "ghetto culture" around Palmetto and Killian. Not every school is Northwest High.

If you use the metric of graduation rate, continuing on to college, and the selectivity of colleges that they're accepted at, you cant' argue that there are some good public schools in Miami.

Rather than the nonsense that concerns you, I'm more concerned about practical issues, like school funding.

[Marlin331]

I disagree with nearly all of you. I think Miami-Dade is just as good a place to raise a family as any other metro in this country. I have lived in several places around this country and in Europe and would most certainly choose Miami-Dade over the Houston area. I was raised down there, have plenty of friends raised down there, and many of us have turned out to be successful and well-adjusted people. This idea that a "ghetto" and "third world" mentality and culture pervades Miami-Dade is patently ridiculous and is not descriptive in any way, shape, or form of the great majority of people and neighborhoods. Please let me know if you have any specific questions about cities/areas, schools, or home prices, and best of luck! Both Brickell and Aventura are excellent areas in which to raise a family.

[cuba libre]

Originally Posted by crisp444

I disagree with nearly all of you. I think Miami-Dade is just as good a place to raise a family as any other metro in this country. I have lived in several places around this country and in Europe and would most certainly choose Miami-Dade over the Houston area. I was raised down there, have plenty of friends raised down there, and many of us have turned out to be successful and well-adjusted people. This idea that a "ghetto" and "third world" mentality and culture pervades Miami-Dade is patently ridiculous and is not descriptive in any way, shape, or form of the great majority of people and neighborhoods. Please let me know if you have any specific questions about cities/areas, schools, or home prices, and best of luck! Both Brickell and Aventura are excellent areas in which to raise a family.

You have to practically be a millionaire in order to raise a family in those areas, much less live single and enjoy a dinner out every week. If your family is white and non-Hispanic, with a household income of less than $100,000, it would be hard to squeeze by in Miami's few "white-family friendly" areas, ie Brickell, Key Biscayne, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Miami Shores, Aventura, etc. The reason I say non-Hispanic is because white-American families would never want to be thrust into a barrio like anywhere in Miami not mentioned above. Most American families are not closed minded, nor are they social experimentors.

Where would you recommend a nice, lower-middle class family of white non-Hispanics live in Miami ? (Other than a plot of land in the Redlands or on a sailboat off Dinner Key)

[Marlin331]

Originally Posted by cuba libre

You have to practically be a millionaire in order to raise a family in those areas, much less live single and enjoy a dinner out every week. If your family is white and non-Hispanic, with a household income of less than $100,000, it would be hard to squeeze by in Miami's few "white-family friendly" areas, ie Brickell, Key Biscayne, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Miami Shores, Aventura, etc. The reason I say non-Hispanic is because white families would never want to be thrust into a barrio like anywhere in Miami not mentioned above.

Where would you recommend a nice, lower-middle class family of white non-Hispanics live in Miami ? (Other than a plot of land in the Redlands or on a sailboat off Dinner Key)

Ridiculous. Plenty of middle class non-Hispanic "white" people live in Miami Lakes, Miami Springs, Kendall, Kendale Lakes, Country Walk, Doral, The Crossings, The Hammocks, east/central Cutler Bay, and Perrine. Miami-Dade County has some of the best non-Hispanic white / Hispanic residential integration of any metropolitan area in this country and it is ridiculous to assume that non-Hispanic "white" people are being thrown to the wolves if they choose to live anywhere that isn't upper middle class or wealthy. There are plenty of "Hispanic" people all over Miami-Dade that were born and/or raised in the United States, and most Hispanics in Miami-Dade - regardless of birthplace - are middle class and speak English.

Additionally, the median family income in Aventura is about $60,000 and the median household income* in Brickell is almost exactly $100,000. I say "household income" because I do not have the "family income" statistic. The overwhelming majority of people living in those areas clearly are not millionaires. Though the OP has stated that his income is under $100,000 - he said $90,000 I believe - he can most certainly afford to rent a nice 3 bedroom apartment in Brickell, and he can without a doubt rent something similarly nice in Aventura.

[cuba libre]

Originally Posted by crisp444

Ridiculous. Plenty of middle class non-Hispanic "white" people live in Miami Lakes, Miami Springs, Kendall, Kendale Lakes, Doral, The Crossings, The Hammocks, east/central Cutler Bay, and Perrine. Miami-Dade County has some of the best non-Hispanic white / Hispanic residential integration of any metropolitan area in this country and it it ridiculous to assume that non-Hispanic "white" people are being thrown to the wolves if they choose to live anywhere that isn't upper middle class or wealthy. There are plenty of "Hispanic" people all over Miami-Dade that were born and/or raised in the United States, and most Hispanics in Miami-Dade - regardless of birthplace - are middle class and speak English.

Have you been to Kendall lately? El Dorado furniture on 137th ave/88th street had to desperately search for a salesman who spoke English for me. How pathetic! Even then, it was a struggle for the guy they paired me with. People like myself are a dying breed in Kendall. Why do I keep on bringing up Kendall? I think Kendall is a good bellwether of what is happening in middle class Miami.

Funny you said "thrown to the wolves..." That's good wording! It shows that you can see exactly what it would be like!

[cuba libre]

Originally Posted by crisp444

it is ridiculous to assume that non-Hispanic "white" people are being thrown to the wolves if they choose to live anywhere that isn't upper middle class or wealthy.

It would almost be a social experiment if a white family unfamiliar with Miami moved to a place like Hialeah, Opa Locka, or Westchester. White people's dwindling presence in the middle-midddle, middle-lower class areas you just mentioned undermines your claim that whites in Miami are "fine and dandy".

Miami is in turmoil. Just last weekend, 1,000 fire fighter applicants showed up downtown to fill 35 positions. Not everything is hunky-dory as you claim.

[Marlin331]

Originally Posted by cuba libre

Have you been to Kendall lately? El Dorado furniture on 137th ave/88th street had to desperately search for a salesman who spoke English. Even then, it was a struggle for the one they paired me with. People like myself are a dying breed in Kendall. Why do I keep on bringing up Kendall? I think Kendall is a good bellwether of what is happening in middle class Miami.

Funny you said "thrown to the wolves..." That's good wording! It shows that you can see exactly what it would be like!

The last time I was in Kendall was in early January and I will be back in mid-March. Between the time we were children (though you didn't grow up in Miami I think you said once that you were only born two years before me) and now, the demographics of the West Kendall area have changed considerably. For all practical purposes, over the last twenty years, the West Kendall area as a whole (everything west of SW 127th Avenue between 152nd and 72nd-ish) has gone from about 30-35% Hispanic to about 75% Hispanic today. One of the primary reasons has been the arrival of middle class immigrants from Venezuela and Colombia. The middle/upper middle class Cubans/Cuban-Americans are still there, and so are the non-Hispanic whites, but just in lower numbers than before. With all of this said, I really have heard few complain about the "quality of life" there going down. It's still middle class, it's still safe, about the only thing that seems to have gotten worse is the TRAFFIC!

Central Kendall has changed a little (immigrants from Venezuela and Colombia), but the two largest groups there are still Cubans/Cuban-Americans and non-Hispanic whites. East Kendall hasn't really changed much, there are still plenty of Jewish Americans, Anglo-Americans, and Cubans/Cuban-Americans with some new South American residents.

I cannot argue that the non-Hispanic white population is proportionally lower now than it was when I was a child. However, you say it as if it is a bad thing. Though I would not recommend to a middle class family areas like Sweetwater, Medley, or eastern Hialeah, I would certainly recommend most of the middle class majority-Hispanic areas that were majority non-Hispanic twenty years ago.

[Marlin331]

Come on, Westchester is really not that bad. Opa-Locka is a totally different story; it is lower-income and high-crime. And so people don't accuse me of dancing around the issue, it's black, and middle class white non-Hispanic/Hispanic people in the Miami area tend not to live in black areas; the dissimilarity index numbers show that.

Honestly, middle class non-Hispanic white don't have to worry about anything because there are plenty of nice places to live with - gasp! - many other non-Hispanic white people. They won't be in the (ethnic) majority, but if they are okay with that, they'll be fine. Lower middle class is a bit harder; I would have to recommend either a new gated community in east Homestead or an older apartment building in West Kendall or the Coral Terrace area.

If you are looking for a majority-Anglo lower middle class area, I must say that outside of a few pockets of Cutler Bay and Homestead, they do not exist in Miami-Dade County. Try Broward or parts of the Keys (not overall lower middle class, but there are certainly lower middle class majority-Anglo areas), I guess.