Miami Miscellaneous

[pahonu]

4 hours ago, Paul Veres said:

Definitely a tricky subject. For example, I'm surprised Indian Creek didn't make it - the gated island community near Miami Beach where Jeff Bezos now owns not 1, not 2, but 3 lots/mansions. Homes there probably average at some $40 million. 

I disagree on the zip code approach though. Often neighborhoods will have very defined architectural and social fabric, into which a zip code would tear or add "unnecessary" homes. For example in Dade county, some highways separate moderately affluent areas from some pretty rundown relatively dangerous places, though they might have the same zip code. Averaging home prices across such zip code would misrepresent home values in both areas (up in one, down in the other). Though the most expensive zip codes might sometime coincide with the most expensive neighborhoods, it would be despite the zip code's administrative borders, not thanks to them. 

I agree that a clear definition of what a "neighborhood" is would definitely help with such rankings. I certainly faced that problem when working on my own ranking of Miami-Dade neighborhoods by price. Indian Creek didn't make it into my list either, because there are so few homes and therefore so few deals, there is just not enough data to calculate an average, even though I defined it as a neighborhood of its own (after all, they are their own incorporated unit, not just part of the county).

Zip codes are far from ideal, but a gated community isn’t close to being a neighborhood.  There need to be schools, stores, parks, libraries, etc…  In very populous urban areas there are multiple zip codes, I believe 7 in my home of Long Beach.  Zip codes may be overly broad, but finding a very high priced zip code would seem to indicate more general affluence.  Using a gated community as the measure seems more about bragging rights than anything to me.  There’s such a community in Orange County called Coto de Caza.  It’s nothing but multimillion dollar homes.  But they all go into Newport Beach to shop and eat, etc…

[Paul Veres]

1 hour ago, pahonu said:

Zip codes are far from ideal, but a gated community isn’t close to being a neighborhood.  There need to be schools, stores, parks, libraries, etc…  In very populous urban areas there are multiple zip codes, I believe 7 in my home of Long Beach.  Zip codes may be overly broad, but finding a very high priced zip code would seem to indicate more general affluence.  Using a gated community as the measure seems more about bragging rights than anything to me.  There’s such a community in Orange County called Coto de Caza.  It’s nothing but multimillion dollar homes.  But they all go into Newport Beach to shop and eat, etc…

I see what you're saying, yes, if we to define neighborhoods as having o have certain infrastructure and services (which makes sense), a lot of these gated communities won't qualify. Now I wonder if not all zip codes will qualify either! So it's all about a neighborhood definition. 

[Paul Veres]

Virgin Island stilt walkers at the seafood festival at Deering the other day.

 

 

 

(Please let me know if videos don't load. Not sure what to do differently then, but in the past some folks had them not loading.)

[airtommy]

30 minutes ago, Paul Veres said:

Please let me know if videos don't load. Not sure what to do differently then, but in the past some folks had them not loading.

Nothing in Firefox, only audio no video in Edge.

[Dadrian]

54 minutes ago, Paul Veres said:

Virgin Island stilt walkers at the seafood festival at Deering the other day.

 

 

 

(Please let me know if videos don't load. Not sure what to do differently then, but in the past some folks had them not loading.)

Worked on my iPhone fine. Didn’t see any lady coming out of the bushes wearing a dress though.  

[Paul Veres]

1 hour ago, airtommy said:

Nothing in Firefox, only audio no video in Edge.

Dang it, I'm sorry, I have no idea how to fix it on my end, it works fine for me... Here are a few screenshots at least.

The whole place was packed with people and vendors. Everybody brought chairs and blankets and filled the whole central lawn and really everything else around.

They even pulled in a couple of cars, I think it was an ad for a auto shop.

[Paul Veres]

Did some quick data work today, ended up with this picture. If they were shooting Definitely Miami today, Callie would need a bigger ice cube.

[Dadrian]

2 hours ago, Paul Veres said:

Did some quick data work today, ended up with this picture. If they were shooting Definitely Miami today, Callie would need a bigger ice cube.

Maybe 3 bottles of Perrier?  

[jpaul1]

Tamiani trail 1901

[pahonu]

On 4/12/2024 at 3:31 PM, Paul Veres said:

I see what you're saying, yes, if we to define neighborhoods as having o have certain infrastructure and services (which makes sense), a lot of these gated communities won't qualify. Now I wonder if not all zip codes will qualify either! So it's all about a neighborhood definition. 

Interestingly, this recent article from Architectural Digest just came into my newsfeed:

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/most-expensive-zip-codes-in-the-united-states
 

Miami Beach is number two, California has the most, then New York, and there are a couple of surprises.

[jpaul1]

Miami most expensive house

 

[miamijimf]

Where exactly is it?

[Paul Veres]

2 minutes ago, miamijimf said:

Where exactly is it?

10 Tarpon Isle, Palm Beach, FL 33480

It's not gonna sell for that money, these numbers are arbitrary... will go for few tens of millions less probably.

[Matt5]

I was disappointed in my recent trip to Miami Beach  coming into town from California - it has become such a party town . No respect for the show that started the town again in the 1980s. 
What suprised me was the fighting on Ocean Drive — groups of girls fighting and cops everywhere, really rough. 
I love this city it’s in my heart but there should be more class like North Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Key Biscayne and Lauderdale by the Sea. 

Edited April 21 by Matt5

[Kalci]

15 hours ago, jpaul1 said:

Miami most expensive house

 

Fantastic place. Heaven on earth is for me something like that. But short of garages for me only 5-6 is not enough for a car guy. Something like 10 is more comfortable I would say Of couse this is NOT THE ONLY reason I won't buy it

Edited April 21 by Kalci

[Paul Veres]

9 hours ago, Matt5 said:

I was disappointed in my recent trip to Miami Beach  coming into town from California - it has become such a party town . No respect for the show that started the town again in the 1980s. 
What suprised me was the fighting on Ocean Drive — groups of girls fighting and cops everywhere, really rough. 
I love this city it’s in my heart but there should be more class like North Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Key Biscayne and Lauderdale by the Sea. 

Actually Miami Beach declared this year as a total success in tampering the rowdy crowds during the spring break and  thus turning the South Beach reputation around, following their draconian measures. So ostensibly this year should be better than the past 5-10 years!

[Matt5]

Our city , 1982 — two years before Miami Vice started filming in March 1984.  
( source - Miami Herald ). 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 21 by Matt5

[pahonu]

4 hours ago, Kalci said:

Fantastic place. Heaven on earth is for me something like that. But short of garages for me only 5-6 is not enough for a car guy. Something like 10 is more comfortable I would say Of couse this is NOT THE ONLY reason I won't buy it

Did you notice the multiple AC units high on the walls in the garages?   Don’t want the cars getting sweaty in the humidity! 

[jpaul1]

most of collectors don't do it for passion, they do it for investment reasons. in such cases we're talking often of dozens of millions dollars cars. a single stain can deprecate the price in large widths. especially if the part has to be replaced by a non original one

having a well closed, and well vented garage may also mean that you have to drive the car less often to maintain it in good condition. but we would need a garagist opinion on that one. i couln't affirm it. but i have a cousin who works in the (luxury) car industry, and he told me there's nothing worse for a car than not to be running/driven

Edited April 21 by jpaul1

[jpaul1]

On 4/5/2024 at 9:36 AM, Tom said:

They filmed some ghetto driving scenes in "The good collar" at the Liberty Square Housing project. Other than that they never used that area and only rarely Liberty City (the cemetery in El Viejo) or even Allapattah (most other ghetto scenes in The good collar were filmed around NW36 Street). All other "ghetto" scenes in the series were staged somewhere else, mostly downtown or Miami Beach (e.g. Love at first sight when they arrest Chou Chou). A second episode with lots of ghetto scenes is "Childs´play" with lots of filming in downtown near 1000 block of N Miami Ave.

But I can confirm first hand that Miami was a much more dangerous place 30 years ago than it is now. There are still bad hoods, but very confined. In the 80s/early 90s you could not even get off the Airport expressway while crossing downtown and even police cars did not dare to let the windows down while driving through Overtown. Not saying that it is all safe now, but Miami is not THE drug inflow center of the US anymore and it shows. Overtown is quite safe now and Wynwood north of Overtown which was a regular combat zone in the 80s is an art district now with lots of galleries and fancy go out places.

i will answer the topic i'd like to answer one by one, as if not i''ll forget what i wanted to say . yeah i can confirm that Miami was pretty criminalilty infested in the 80s. as during my short (one or two weeks) holiday there with my parents we were victim of a car door robbery (not sure of the english word). as my dad was paying the gas for the rental car at the gas station he had the inadvertance of letting his bag into the car. another car came fast and stole the bag. which contained our passports, a good amount of cash my dad had for the trip, and a couple of (colombian) esmeralds. the thief(s) probably tracked us down from the hotel, with the rental car.

I remember the cop who took my dad declaration was not on duty at the time of incident, but still in a cop car. and my dad called him as he was inside the traffic, and he kindly took our declaration. another proof if needed that cops don't count their hours. we were lucky he was a latino, and my dad could talk to him in spanish. my dad being fluent in spanish. luckily i found back the ticket. it's incredible, but it's one of the rare things i still have of my south american life

89 is the incident year

[Tom]

vor 30 Minuten schrieb jpaul1:

i will answer the topic i'd like to answer one by one, as if not i''ll forget what i wanted to say . yeah i can confirm that Miami was pretty criminalilty infested in the 80s. as during my short (one or two weeks) holiday there with my parents we were victim of a car door robbery (not sure of the english word). as my dad was paying the gas for the rental car at the gas station he had the inadvertance of letting his bag into the car. another car came fast and stole the bag. which contained our passports, a good amount of cash my dad had for the trip, and a couple of (colombian) esmeralds. the thief(s) probably tracked us down from the hotel, with the rental car.

I remember the cop who took my dad declaration was not on duty at the time of incident, but still in a cop car. and my dad called him as he was inside the traffic, and he kindly took our declaration. another proof if needed that cops don't count their hours. we were lucky he was a latino, and my dad could talk to him in spanish. my dad being fluent in spanish. luckily i found back the ticket. it's incredible, but it's one of the rare things i still have of my south american life

89 is the incident year

Sorry that happened to your family!

But unfortunately this and even worse was a frequent occurrence back in the late 80s. I personally remember from my time in Miami several fatal incidents with European tourists who received their rental cars at the airport and drove to Miami Beach, but took the wrong exit and ended in Overtown or other dangerous areas. There they mostly stopped, rolled down the windows and asked for directions. That was often enough to trigger a robbery, car theft or even worse. I remember that Miami reacted by removing rental tags on license plates, adding big „To Miami Beach“ signs and patrol cars on all crucial routes from the airport. That was big news on TV at that time. 

Luckily I never had any trouble. Maybe because I blended in with the neighborhood, spoke American accent and avoided bad areas.

But being too fearful and deeming all others as potential risks can also create unjustified prejudice. I remember walking with a friend 2 miles to the Metrorail station in South Miami as no cabs there and we had not enough cab money to spend anyway. On our route a bunch of afroamerican guys played basketball in a front yard of a modest house and we started getting nervous walking by when they recognized us and started talking to us. But they only cordially invited us to join the game (we declined politely with a joke as they were all >6,5“ tall and we looked like hobbits against them).
 

Later I was ashamed of my immediate preconditioned thought they would attack us, simply based on the initial vibe of the situation. But it was hard to tell at that time who had good intentions.

In recent years most areas of Miami got much safer and overall crime rates plummeted. I spent lots of time there with my family  in the last 20 years and we never had any nasty situations. 

 

Edited April 21 by Tom

[jpaul1]

Thanks for the kind words Tom. but no one was hurt, and we weren't traumatized by it. my dad had a good situation back then, and the prejudice wasn't unbearable. on a side note i still remember the model of the rental car. it was a super, mega awesome Chevy Beretta. a really nice comfy american car

 

@Paul Veresthe documentary about Anthon Samuel was really powerful. Thanks for sharing

Edited April 21 by jpaul1

[Paul Veres]

1 hour ago, Tom said:

Sorry that happened to your family!

But unfortunately this and even worse was a frequent occurrence back in the late 80s. I personally remember from my time in Miami several fatal incidents with European tourists who received their rental cars at the airport and drove to Miami Beach, but took the wrong exit and ended in Overtown or other dangerous areas. There they mostly stopped, rolled down the windows and asked for directions. That was often enough to trigger a robbery, car theft or even worse. I remember that Miami reacted by removing rental tags on license plates, adding big „To Miami Beach“ signs and patrol cars on all crucial routes from the airport. That was big news on TV at that time. 

Luckily I never had any trouble. Maybe because I blended in with the neighborhood, spoke American accent and avoided bad areas.

But being too fearful and deeming all others as potential risks can also create unjustified prejudice. I remember walking with a friend 2 miles to the Metrorail station in South Miami as no cabs there and we had not enough cab money to spend anyway. On our route a bunch of afroamerican guys played basketball in a front yard of a modest house and we started getting nervous walking by when they recognized us and started talking to us. But they only cordially invited us to join the game (we declined politely with a joke as they were all >6,5“ tall and we looked like hobbits against them).
 

Later I was ashamed of my immediate preconditioned thought they would attack us, simply based on the initial vibe of the situation. But it was hard to tell at that time who had good intentions.

In recent years most areas of Miami got much safer and overall crime rates plummeted. I spent lots of time there with my family  in the last 20 years and we never had any nasty situations. 

 

I believe today a rental car is easy to identify by a large bar code on the rear door window (used to scan by the rental company staff).

[Tom]

Miami Beach looking west in 1987

 

[Paul Veres]

36 minutes ago, Tom said:

Miami Beach looking west in 1987

 

Wonder what the North Beach Oceanside Park looked like back then. Also, it seems the Altos Del Mar development took out for mansions a whole block of mature trees (second block from the left below), while redeveloping even more trees (first left) into a park.