MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA

'Miami Beach' is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The city was incorporated on March 26, 1915.^[1]
Miami Beach has been one of America's pre-eminent beach resorts for almost a century. The city is often referred to under the umbrella term of "Miami," despite being a distinct municipality, making Miami and Miami Beach two separate cities. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 87,933. 55.5% of the population was foreign born.^[2] A 2005 population estimate for the city was 87,925.^[3]

Contents

Description

Miami and Popular Culture

Geography and climate

Demographics

Languages

Education

Neighborhoods

Points of interest

Sister Cities

References

Gallery

See also

External links

Description

In 1979 Miami Beach's Art Deco Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Art Deco District is the largest collection of Art Deco architecture in the world and comprises hundreds of hotels, apartments and other structures erected between 1923 and 1943. Mediterranean, Streamline Moderne and Art Deco are all represented in the District. The Historic District is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the East, Lenox Court on the West, 6th Street on the South and Dade Boulevard along the Collins Canal to the North. The movement to preserve the Art Deco District's architectural heritage was led by former interior designer Barbara Capitman, who now has a street in the District named in her honor.

Miami and Popular Culture

'South Beach' (also known as 'SoBe', or 'The Beach') is one of the more popular areas of Miami Beach. Topless sunbathing is tolerated on certain designated areas of the beach. Before the TV show Miami Vice helped make the area popular, SoBe was under urban blight, with vacant buildings and a high crime rate. Today, it is considered one of the richest commercial areas on the beach, yet poverty and crime still remain in some places near the area.MSNBC: South Beach: Life imitates art, quite vicely www.msnbc.com
Miami Beach, particularly Ocean Drive of what is now the Art Deco District, was also featured prominently in Scarface.
'Lincoln Road' is a nationally known spot for great outdoor dining, bike riding, rollerblading and shopping.
The Miami Beach environs are home to a number of Orthodox Jewish communities with a network of well-established synagogues and yeshivas. It is also a magnet for Jewish families, retirees, and particularly snowbirds when the cold winter sets in to the north. They range from the Followers to the Modern Orthodox to the Haredi and Hasidic - including many rebbes who vacation there during the North American winter. There are a number of kosher restaurants and even kollels for post-graduate Talmudic scholars. Miami Beach had roughly 60,000 people in Jewish households, 62 percent of the total population, in 1982, but only 16,500, or 19 percent of the population, in 2004, said Ira Sheskin, a demographer at the University of Miami who conducts surveys once a decade.
Miami Beach is home to the Holocaust Memorial on Miami Beach.
According to the ''Morgan Quitno Awards'', Miami Beach is one of the most dangerous small cities (population between 75,000 and 99,999) in the country.^[4]

Geography and climate

Miami Beach is located at (25.813025, -80.134065).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 48.5 km² (18.7 mi²). 18.2 km² (7.0 mi²) of it is land and 30.2 km² (11.7 mi²) of it (62.37%) is water.
It has a tropical climate.^[5]

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 87,933 people, 46,194 households, and 18,339 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,829.5/km² (12,502.1/mi²). There were 59,723 housing units at an average density of 3,280.1/km² (8,491.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 86.74% White, 4.03% African American, 0.23% Native American, 1.37% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 4.05% from other races, and 3.53% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 53.45% of the population. Non-Hispanic Whites were 40.9% of the population.^[6]
There were 46,194 households out of which 14.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 27.4% were married couples living together, 8.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 60.3% were non-families. 48.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.8% had someone living alone who was sixty-five years of age or older. The average household size was 1.87 and the average family size was 2.76.
In the city the population was spread out with 13.4% under the age of 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 38.2% from 25 to 44, 21.3% from 45 to 64, and 19.2% who were sixty-five years of age or older. The median age was thirty-nine years. For every 100 females there were 105.0 males. For every 100 females age eighteen and over, there were 105.4 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $27,322, and the median income for a family was $33,440. Males had a median income of $33,964 versus $27,094 for females. The per capita income for the city was $27,853. About 17.0% of families and 21.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.2% of those under age 18 and 24.5% of those age sixty-five or over.

Languages

As of 2000, speakers of Spanish as a first language accounted for 54.89% of residents, while English made up 32.75%, Portuguese was at 3.38%, French was at 1.66%, German at 1.12%, Italian 0.99%, and Russian was 0.85% of the population. Due to the large Jewish community, Yiddish made up 0.81% of speakers, and Hebrew was the mother tongue of 0.74% of the population.^[7]

Education

Miami-Dade County Public Schools serves Miami Beach.

★ North Beach Elementary

★ South Pointe Elementary

★ Biscayne Elementary

★ Fienberg/Fisher Elementary

★ Nautilus Middle School (which is the only middle school for the Miami Beach area)

★ Miami Beach Senior High School (which is the only high school for the Miami Beach area)
Tertiary education in Miami Beach includes a branch of the National School of Technology

Neighborhoods

★ 'Bayshore'

★
★ Sunset Islands I & II

★
★ Sunset Islands III & IV

★
★ Sunset Harbour

★
★ The Townhomes at Sunset Harbour

★ 'Biscayne Point'

★
★ Stillwater Drive Neighborhood

★ 'City Center'

★
★ Collins Park

★ 'Fisher Island' (A small portion of the island)

★ 'Flamingo/Lummus'

★
★ Flamingo Park

★
★ Flamingo Park West

★
★ North Ocean Drive Area

★
★ South Beach

★ 'La Gorce'

★
★ Allison Island

★
★ Aqua Allison Island

★
★ La Gorce Island

★
★ La Gorce Pine Tree

★
★ Lower North Bay Road Neighborhood

★
★ Middle North Bay Road Neighborhood

★ 'Nautilus'

★
★ Alton Road Neighborhood

★
★ Lakeview/Surprise Lake

★
★ Orchard Park

★ 'North Shore'

★
★ Little Buenos Aires

★
★ Normandy Fountain

★
★ Park View Island

★ 'Normandy Isles'

★
★ Normandie Sud

★ 'Normandy Shores'

★ 'Oceanfront'

★ 'South Pointe'

★
★ SoFi (South of Fifth)

★ 'Star Island, Palm Island, & Hibiscus Island'

★ 'Venetian Islands, including Belle Isle'

★ 'West Avenue/Bay Road'

★
★ Lincoln West

Points of interest

★ Lincoln Road

★ South Beach

★ Holocaust Memorial

★ Miami Beach Botanical Garden

★ Flagler Monument Island

★ Versace Mansion (Casa Casuarina)

★ Wolfsonian-FIU Museum

★ Ocean Drive

Sister Cities

Miami Beach has 9 sister cities^[8]

★ Almonte, Spain

★ Ceský Krumlov, Czech Republic

★ Cozumel, Mexico

★ Fujisawa, Japan

★ Ica, Peru

★ Pescara, Italy

★ Nahariya, Israel

★ Fortaleza, Brazil

★ Santa Marta, Colombia

References

1. 40 Years of Miami Beach, Ruby Leach Carson, , , , ,
2. http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=research_research33a8_sup
3. http://www.census.gov/popest/cities/tables/SUB-EST2005-04-12.xls
4. http://www.morganquitno.com/cit06pop.htm#25
5. Köppen Climate Map Aw=tropical
6. MuniNetGuide.com's Miami Beach Demorgraphics
7. &ea=&order=r Modern Language Association Data Center Results of Miami Beach, FL
8. http://miamibeachsistercities.com/

Gallery

See also

★ Miami Beach Police Department

★ Miami Modern Architecture

★ John S. Collins

★ Carl G. Fisher

★ Collins Bridge

★ Rosie the Elephant

★ Fair Game (1996 film)

★ Doral Hotel

External links

★ City of Miami Beach

★ Miami Design Preservation League – Non-profit Organization for the preservation of Miami Beach Architectural History

★ Photographs of Miami Beach From the State Library & Archives of Florida

★ Miami South Beach Travel Photo Pictures of Miami South Beach published under Creative Commons License