In Miami’s tourism-centered economy, any crisis that might lead to visitors intentionally avoiding the metro area could quickly snowball into a full-scale economic catastrophe. Thankfully — so far at least — the zika virus outbreak doesn’t seem to be having that effect. A study released yesterday by the University of Florida…
Contrary to the crotchety reporters who say millennials are immature slouches who hate responsibility, plenty of youngsters want to own homes — they simply can’t afford them. Especially in Miami. Case in point: A study released yesterday by the housing-research website Zumper found that 93 percent of Miamians say they’d…
It’s no secret that Miami’s high cost of living is one of the biggest problems in the metro area. With median rent for a one-bedroom apartment at nearly $2,000, the county’s millennial population has largely fled. A 2012 study found that Miami is the least affordable city in the entire country…
Since the 1980s, Miami residents have been able to judge their city’s relative economic health just by counting the number of cranes in the sky. More than 10? Congrats, the city’s in the midst of a housing bubble. Zero? Recession. Right now, the downtown Miami skyline is absolutely flooded with…
Do you have cash to burn and no conscience about gentrifying historically poor, majority-minority areas of town? Good news! The website RealtyTrac has just finished a study on where to start buying up property. The site found that the zip code 33150, which encompasses parts of Little River, Little Haiti, and…
The conflict over this neighborhood’s name remains tense and loaded with complicated issues of race and poverty.
There are three stages in the life cycle of every “hip” urban neighborhood. First, broke artists move into an economically depressed area of town, setting up studios and slowly making it cool — and often pushing out longtime residents as rents climb. In stage two, the full-on explosion arrives. The…
The real-estate tracking website Zumper today released a map of what an average one-bedroom apartment will run you in every Miami-Dade County neighborhood this summer. And — surprise! — You basically can’t afford to live anywhere. Granted, Zumper’s map shows median prices, which means half of the apartments in every ‘hood…
Today, the Miami City Commission will finally decide whether to allow the RCI Group, a prominent development firm based in Miami Beach, to raze Miami’s historic marina on Virginia Key, formerly the county’s only “black” beach during segregation, and build a gleaming, $100 million facility in its place, complete with…
The American Dream is alive and well in Miami — provided that you aren’t actually trying to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. In that case, this city is most certainly not for you. Please find the nearest exit. Not only are rents astronomically high all over the place, but it’s almost…
When the City of Miami changed Wynwood’s zoning codes last year to make it easier for people to live in the area, everyone knew it was just a matter of time before a huge condo complex landed in the heart of the uber-hip neighborhood. That time is now, if developer East…
After 52 years on a quiet Wynwood side street, King Automotive, a family-run repair shop owned by Leon Wegman, will close its doors today. Wegman recently sold his property in the booming arts neighborhood for more than 100 times what he paid for it decades ago. King Automotive was one…
If you wake up each morning and stroll out to the balcony of your luxury downtown condo in nothing but a silk robe to leisurely spend the morning checking your E-Trade account and making reservations for the night at Prime 112, you may, in fact, think Miami is the best…
There’s no question that Miami was one of the cities hardest hit by the housing market collapse, but can the City of Miami actually sue big banks over it? The U.S. Supreme Court will decide next year. Back in 2013, the City of Miami sued Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and…
If a Gap or Urban Outfitters popped up in Wynwood anytime soon, many local would decry it as the official death of the neighborhood. The fear is that in less than 15 years, Wynwood would have transformed from genuine art district into an outdoor suburban shopping mall full of the…
Plans for SkyRise Miami, the much talked about planned observation tower near Bayside Marketplace downtown, continue to trudge on. The biggest question left is how the project’s mastermind, developer Jeff Berkowitz, is going to pool together the estimated $430 million price tag to build it. Well, today Berkowitz announced that SkyRise…
Richard Florida, the country’s most famous urban studies scholar, and the FIU-Miami Creative City Initiative came out today with a major, in-depth and incisive report on the state of the Miami and what we must do to truly become a global city. Dubbed “Miami’s Great Inflection: Toward Shared Prosperity as a Creative…
A few things Tremont Towing is well known for: pissing off South Beach drivers, accusations of shady business practices, tight political connections, and enriching us all with hilariously scripted “windmill roundhouse back flips” on the since-canceled reality show South Beach Tow. Some things Tremont Towing is not particularly well known for: improving…
The annual WalkScore rankings always include Miami in the top ten. In the latest edition, Miami was ranked America’s fifth most walkable city. Which inevitably leads to lots of locals shaking their heads. How could this city, with its gridlocked highways and sorely lacking public transit infrastructure, ever be considered walkable? …
The Southeast Financial Center is the crown jewel of Miami office towers and downtown’s skyline. When it was built in 1983, it not only became Miami’s tallest building but the highest skyscraper south of New York and east of the Mississippi. It still remains Miami’s second tallest building and its tenants…
Residents on Miami Beach’s exclusive La Gorce Island have a new neighbor: retired boxing champ Floyd Mayweather. The pugilist recently bought up a newly built home on the island and paid its $7.7 million price tag in cold, hard cash. The modern home makes liberal use of white surfaces, steel and…
Tons of Miamians start their own businesses. Many maybe dream of running worldwide empires out of corner offices in Brickell office buildings. Turns out few of those would-be empires ever grow to employ more than 5 people. Back in August, The Kauffman Index crowned Miami America’s second hottest metro for…
