A tour of the "no speakie English" ghetto (Miami: rentals, lawyers)

[vpcats]

Originally Posted by crisp444

I often use "working class" to refer to lower-middle income people with (usually) blue-collar jobs. Most of Hialeah is working class. "Middle class" refers pretty much exclusively to income (meaning income that is neither very low nor very high, as measured by household income statistics per the US census), as one can be middle class who owns a lanscaping company, teaches HS science, or is an accountant. Much of SW Miami-Dade is middle class.

Established Cubans and Cuban-Americans tend to be middle-class, upper-middle class, or upper class; newly-arrived Cubans tend to be more working-class. Clearly there are exceptions to this rule (I can name a few!)

I would be glad to give you all of the statistics on median income, upper quintile, upper 5%, etc. but I prefer not to do it here because it is usually a hot topic and people like to "disagree" with the statistics I post, claiming that economic class is measured by what you can buy and not by your earnings related to others. Please PM me if you would like me to explain what I mean by this.

Well, not because we'd be going "off topic" though.

[Marlin331]

Originally Posted by vpcats

Wonder where I am. I have to work. I have to pay bills and I never have enough play money. and my collar is non-existent.

Actually I don't think the breakdown is accurate. There is a hugenormous (like that word?) amount of Cubans who have been here forever who don't have a pot to wiwi in.

I'll PM you later this week with the statistics.

Regarding my generalization about Cubans and income, you're right. That's why I said that I was generalizing, because there are plenty of cases on both sides of the fence that don't fit the mould.

[gymbuff]

Originally Posted by cuba libre

Best thing you have said in months. West Miami-Dade is the heart and soul of Miami nowadays, and this will continue if current immigration trends continue. West Miami is cookie cutter, treeless (for the most part), Spanish language dominant, and muchos carros in the yards come night time. Unfortunately, Hispanics like to wall themselves off (if they have any money) or "bar" themselves off if they live in enclaves like Little Havana, Westchester, Sweetwater, or Hialeah, where barring windows is both vogue and convenient. Actually, barring windows extends beyond the cities I mentioned; I have seen bars on windows in both Coral Gables and the Redlands.

Getting back to the iron bars, I think it's also a generartional thing. Like have said in previous posts, a younger person buying in a "no speakie English" area will remove the burgalr bars and put new windows. I know because I have seen it. The bars around a property, yes that's hit or miss. I do see that alot, and I like it if it is well done, and only on a corner property or a property that sits far from the street.
Another thing, I have friwends who live in Belle Meade, definitley not a no speakie English area; in fact, quite an afffluent area in North East Miami. You will be suprised to the the amount of bars that were there from the ORIGINAL owners, who were not hispanic.

[Leovigildo]

Crisp

Cubans arriving now are "marginal".
They are the "New Man" (Hombre Nuevo).
They are rejects, failed machinery of the system.
The Nomenklatura (in some ways quite similar to 60's Cubans) are still there.
They are not poor.
They will end up there as soon as the country implodes.
Thre are 200.000 or so.

[PBCboy]

Originally Posted by crisp444

The reason Weston probably looked so "white" to you is because you can't tell from looking at most of the Weston "Hispanics" that they are "Hispanic." Weston is probably 80-85% + "white"

That could definitely be it. I've seen more white Hispanics in Miami than any other part of the country though. Oddly enough though if you go a little east to Pembroke Pines you will see more of these "brown" Hispanics (though white ones as well) than out in Weston.

[Marlin331]

Originally Posted by PBCboy

That could definitely be it. I've seen more white Hispanics in Miami than any other part of the country though. Oddly enough though if you go a little east to Pembroke Pines you will see more of these "brown" Hispanics (though white ones as well) than out in Weston.

Good observations... you're right on all counts. I speak Spanish with a couple of my friends in NYC and when we're on the subway the young Brooklyn/Bronx mulatto Ricans and Dominicans look at us like we have five heads. Most "Hispanics" here aren't white, and the ones that are tend to either live in wealthy neighborhoods of the City (Downtown Manhattan, Eastside Manhattan, UWS, Brooklyn Heights, Forest Hills, etc.) or in the suburbs. I met someone who told me that he had never met a white Hispanic person until he was 18 (this was after him insisting that this person only "looked white" because if you're Hispanic you can't be white... you know the deal)

[Marlin331]

This thread is hilarious. It's very characteristic of the Miami City-Data forum...
-Sprawl
-No speakie English
-Ghetto
-Barred Windows
-Cubans
-Mariel
-White Hispanics
-Tiny lots and no open space
-NC is paradise
... but where our are "rude people" haters?!?

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by gymbuff

Getting back to the iron bars, I think it's also a generartional thing. Like have said in previous posts, a younger person buying in a "no speakie English" area will remove the burgalr bars and put new windows. I know because I have seen it. The bars around a property, yes that's hit or miss. I do see that alot, and I like it if it is well done, and only on a corner property or a property that sits far from the street.
Another thing, I have friwends who live in Belle Meade, definitley not a no speakie English area; in fact, quite an afffluent area in North East Miami. You will be suprised to the the amount of bars that were there from the ORIGINAL owners, who were not hispanic.

Burglar bars were acutally mostly put up in the 1980s to keep burglars out. Like you said, younger owners tend to remove them regardless of ethnic origin.

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by crisp444

This thread is hilarious. It's very characteristic of the Miami City-Data forum...
-Sprawl
-No speakie English
-Ghetto
-Barred Windows
-Cubans
-Mariel
-White Hispanics
-Tiny lots and no open space
-NC is paradise
... but where our are "rude people" haters?!?

I don't see crime either! Just burglar bars.

[vpcats]

Who wants some mangos from MY very own tree in my very own yard?
Cat not included.

The mangos are actually very tiny here. The picture is more than a month old and they're much bigger now.