Welcome to Miami!

My spousal unit pushed me to consider moving to Miami for several years. I resisted. We sold the business, and he tried again. Nope. Then we sold our house. I continued to resist even the thought of Florida so much that I traveled the entire United States to find an alternative, preferring to be “housing deficient” rather than live in Miami. I’ve written about those exploits in other posts.

No, I didn’t find that alternative. While living on a boat, we took multiple trips across Florida to hunt for a house, and I reluctantly agreed to Miami as our U.S. base. Basically, he wore me down, and I anticipated the worst a state and a city could be. I won’t talk about politics here, but you’ve seen the same things I have. There are really bad things happening in Tallahassee.

Now that we’ve been here a year, I thought it time to take a long walk and determine why I was so unexpectedly happy. We found a place we both liked, but it is more than that. If you’ve read anything I’ve written, you know everything for me is a “vibe.” I will either feel that it’s right or it’s wrong. If I push myself into thinking the opposite of my feelings, it always results in disaster.

What Is Miami?

When you mention “Miami” to most of the world, the image in their mind will be something like this:

This is an excellent place, but it’s Miami Beach, a separate city, and many days, a half hour away in traffic and tourists. (You should know by now how I feel about tourists.) Miami Beach is part of a larger conglomeration of cultures that constitute the area people visualize as “Miami.”

The area consists of neighborhoods that stretch from Cutler Bay (or even Homestead) in the south to way above Aventura in the north, from Downtown, Edgewater, Brickell, Calle Ocho, and Wynwood on or near the Atlantic Ocean, to Doral, Kendell, and other neighborhoods to the west where the wildlife preserves begin. And, as is with Miami Beach, some of those neighborhoods are also separate cities. But having visited many cities in the past two years, even though all neighborhoods are distinctive, Miami’s are even more so.

Brickell is only one neighborhood, one part of such a diverse Miami, that I am taking the entire city neighborhood by neighborhood to explore. If there is a small part of Miami you think I might unintentionally miss, drop me a note or an email. I want to see it all.

A Walk Around My Neighborhood

Below is Brickell in its glitzy dressed-up” I’m going out tonight” view.

The next photo is the daytime view of a different part of Brickell. This area is the financial center of Miami and has a serious night vibe. If you visit Brickell, bring these, as you’ll need them if you’re a light sleeper like me. No, not every part of Brickell is noisy, but it is one of Miami’s most popular entertainment areas. (Hint: If you visit and expect to get into the most popular bars/nightclubs, then dress like you mean it. Do your research and know the dress code. I’d hate for you to stand in line for an hour and have the guy at the door who looks like a linebacker for the Dolphins shake his head and send you away.)

Sometimes It Makes Me Crazy

Brickell is a noisy, busy place that rocks Reggaeton to the classics from the passing boats and blasts so many other types of music from the passing cars that I must learn a new world of music. Recently, the boats went through a Bollywood music phase for a month or so. I have no idea what that was about.

Miami is not just a city. Miami is its own country. Walking down the street, you will immediately hear English, Spanish, and Portuguese, but I'm never sure what I hear with so many dialects and other languages. Much like the music, there are languages I cannot identify and faces from all over the world floating around me, with the predominant language being a blanket of Spanglish. Having been married to a Turk for thirty years, I know what living in a foreign country is like.

This is a foreign country.

Miami has that element of “anything goes,” similar to New York. It doesn’t matter what I wear or what I do. Of course, certain people dress to be seen in the latest streetwear or the most fashionable might-as-well-be-naked workout clothing. Seeing so many beautifully sculpted bodies was daunting for the first weeks after we moved here. For the first time, I was happy to be in my invisible age and released from the constraints of trying to be physically perfect in the age of Instagram.

Life here is very pleasant as long as I’m reasonable, polite, and exceptionally patient at the Starbucks in Brickell City Center. I’ve read the Facebook groups’ complaints of the too rich, too loud, too extra, and too everything else in Brickell, the comments about “Miami isn’t what it used to be,” etc., but I’ve met only polite and helpful people.

The business world works as it should, professional for the most part and doing what they say. As with any city, some folks will cheat you if you’re not watching closely. There is no “Latin time” as there is “Turkish time.” People here arrive on time for appointments and expect you to do the same. Socially, it is a bit more relaxed, and sometimes (again, looking at you, SBUX Brickell CC), things will move very slowly when you least expect it. But, well, sometimes that’s also Miami.

What else do I like?

#1. The Green

This area of town (and many others) has incorporated as much green as possible. There are trees planted and lush landscaping everywhere. Because Miami is subtropical, everything is easier to grow here, so they do—in massive quantities.

#2. It’s Walkable

I can walk to the grocery store and to shop, ride the clean, fast Metrorail train to the airport, and take the train or the little metro mover around most of the city (I’m an unapologetic train nerd). Every basic need is within walking distance.

A car is necessary when you head west, however. For example, you will be in Doral if you have to select tile, closet doors, kitchen and bathroom fixtures, and other things for renovation like I’m doing now. The public transportation goes north and south, but there is nothing west past the airport except the bus. It’s a definite need that must be addressed at some point soon. Will that happen? My friends here aren’t sure it will ever happen.

The best part of walking here is the mental health aspect. I am near water (a family requirement) daily. I’m building up to five miles daily, and the stress relief of the water is a definite benefit.

#3 The Water and the Weather

It’s everywhere and a fabulous color with natural living things like rays, manatees, and seaweed. From November to May, the weather is beautiful. The summer is hot and rainy. Locals have told me there are two seasons: Dry and Rainy. After a year, I understand and agree.

Storm days are just as beautiful as sunny days. The wind gets to me, just as on every other island where we’ve lived. On the Atlantic, the storms can be fierce, and the wind is something I may never get used to. And no, because of this, I don’t live here during hurricane season.

#4 The Architecture

This isn’t my first experience living in a city. It is, however, the first of living in a modern city like this where every building competes spectacularly with the one beside it. Since a picture serves as a thousand words…here you go.

Parking in the majority of the new buildings is above ground, on the first six floors. Some parking lots, such as the one for Brickell City Center, are underground. Given the exceptional architectural talent here, I am curious how the city’s talent will handle the rising sea level. I envision the city will be like New York, as vividly described in New York 2140, with boats being the primary form of travel. But I digress…(we will talk about the seawater pushing out of the storm drains at high tides another time, okay?)

#5 The Extra

In Texas, they have big hair, big trucks, and really big cattle with the most ridiculously large horns I’ve ever seen. In Miami, they have large boats and fast cars. there are huge yachts and very expensive, loud, and stupidly fast cars. I haven’t decided whether I like all this, but it is entertaining.

(Sorry for the chopped car photo. They move too fast for me to take a decent photo.)

I’ll leave you with this: For months, I have been awakened at 3:00 a.m. by a Lamborghini racing north up Brickell Avenue, the engine revving as it crosses the Miami River bridge (honestly, at the speed it’s going, I think the driver is actually jumping the bridge), downshifting to make the curve onto Biscayne Boulevard Way, then exploding the two blocks into a downshift slide into the curve where Biscayne Boulevard begins. I hold my breath at this point every night and wait for him or her to nosedive into the Polsinelli building—or make the curve—but slam into the concrete column holding up the Metro Mover tracks just before the Bayfront Park Station.

I’m still waiting, wondering if our mayor will have his way for the Formula race to be downtown again and if this driver will qualify.

While I love cars, this is more my speed.

Welcome to Miami.