I heard it on the radio: Forbes Magazine listed Doral second in the nation. of the top 25 towns in America to live well. You could knock me over with a feather.
"Thirteen miles west of downtown Miami, 35,336-population Doral offers mild weather and access to world-class golf courses. It also has one of the nation's highest concentrations of small businesses per capita, especially surrounding aerospace and logistics."
I'm not a big golfer, so the Blue Monster doesn't mean much to me. So I have never, not once, in 20 years living in South Florida, heard anyone say, "Hey, let's go to Doral!" I raised three children in Miami. If something good was happening in Doral, wouldn't they have heard about it? (Daddy, please take us to Doral!)
So what is Forbes smoking, or, what am I missing! The Magazine lists Kendall as #25 just behind Sante Fe, New Mexico. Now there's a coin toss: Sante Fe, one of America's most charming places or Kendall, most charmless. Hmm.
"Strongest categories: Kendall performs well by our sole proprietors and start-ups rankings, where it boasts 0.12 and 0.0041 per capita, respectively. Both scores rank in the top 10." You mean, bodegas? Nail salons? Vitaman shoppes? Strip malls?
"Drawbacks: There isn't a critical mass of high-level research universities nearby, and Kendall does poorly in attracting young and educated people. Venture capital money is scarce, and with an average commute of 30 minutes, residents spend a lot of time on the road." Ya think?!
Here's another place Doral beats out: Santa Monica, CA (#14), Coral Gables, (#9), and Newton, MA (#6). Helloo, Forbes: anybody home?
"Strongest categories: Doral is probably most famous for its world-class golf courses and resorts, but it's also a vibrant center of multinational importing and exporting businesses due to its proximity to the Miami airport. It ranks second for the number of sole proprietors running their own business and third for its share of young and educated workers. Thanks to the resort communities and high-end clientele, it also ranks toward the top for restaurants per capita."
Top restaurants? Shula's Steak House? Knock, knock: anybody home?
Drawbacks: While there is plenty of entrepreneurial and small- business activity in Doral, there aren't many cutting-edge companies developing new technologies or creating new fields. Its rank for venture capital cash and patents are low, despite its third place ranking for start-ups."
Let me tell you what Doral is famous for: major developments by Sergio Pino and Armando Codina. It is close to MIA and to Codina's Beacon Lakes and to his new Hialeah project. It is close to the Graham's Miami Lakes. In Miami-Dade's fragmented, traffic congested, low-tech business climate--mostly a transit hub for tourism and trade and finance-- Doral wouldn't even make it on my top ten places to live in Miami-Dade.
Am I wrong about this?
20 comments:
Maybe there is another Doral?
Ack! Gimleteye, don't make Doral citizens mad at us. Let me make it better:
I love Doral, I just bought a house there. I am raising my family in Doral. Who cares if it takes me almost an hour to get to the beach, I don't swim.
There, now they know the truth. One of us loves Doral.
Isn't Shula's in Miami Lakes? I don't think there are any restaurants in Doral. Let me check:
They have 3 McDonalds, a La Carreta (good), Denny's, Terrazza (never been), Medierrania (never been), the Marriott, Chispa and Bruschetta.
You forgot Shorty's, Checkers and Tony Roma's. And you forgot SHOMA homes. They are developers in Doral.
I think the mistake is in thinking that the Forbes methodology makes any sense. The only thing I would infer about these listings is that I am unlikely to have many points of intersection with the average Forbes reader. Oh, and that the magazine is desperate for free publicity.
The magazine is, frankly, a joke in any case, if only because it's not as if the average American needed another reminder of just how special she or he is. Blerch.
I too heard the Doral story on the radio.
Thought Martians made the evaluations or the Chamber of Commerce paid off Forbes.
When found in Doral, I asked, "Why?".
What is your take on the FairDistrictsFlorida.org petition drive? I was approached by someone collecting signatures, but the wording of the petition sounded like the deceptive, pro-community-sounding language that the business sector uses when they have a stealth campaign and obliquely worded ballot language that is actually opposed to the issue that they are attempting to convince you they're for.
I signed it
VERY GOOD PEOPLE BEHIND IT:
Namely:
Bob Graham
Thom Rumberger
Nat Reed, among others.
We wrote about this Fair District petition April 21st. I knew we would have something. Feel free to use our search at top left. It is very quick and you get our view on most issues.
This is the same magazine that in 2008 ranked Miami as "America's Cleanest City" for its "year-round good air quality, vast green spaces, clean drinking water, clean streets and city-wide recycling programs".
I think that says it all.
Doral is a frustrating concoction of industrial and residential areas that mixes traffic into an evil brew during the workweek. It only becomes tolerable during the weekend when the streets once again become drivable.
You can count non-chain restaurants on one hand and there is no entertainment in the city to speak of, besides the golf, which is overpriced and overrated.
Forbes staff must have gotten drunk there one night and ran into a couple hookers at the Hampton Inn Suites on 41st out near the turnpike.
.
Or, into some fat payola from the local hoi polloi trying to protect their investment with paid for press.
My uncle and his family have lived in Doral for over 10 years. He won't live anywhere else. I actually do think it's a nice place to live especially for families with young children. We recently discovered Doral Park for the kiddies for instance. And when their kids were little, we'd go over there every year for Halloween and had a great time.
I also happen to work in Doral and so I eat there a lot. If I'm reading right it says top for restaurants per capita. Doesn't that mean it has lots of restaurants? Because that is very true.
I don't think it beats Coral Gables (my new home which I love) but it definitely beats Kendall. I don't know what they were thinking with Kendall. I've lived in Kendall. Kendall gives me nightmares.
interesting... did coconut grove end up on the list?
You forgot to mention the #1 Hooters in the USA---Judged by food volume although attractive servers are as good as the food.
Maybe you didn't read the entire passage from Forbes.
I think the entire reference to Doral said: "Doral is one of the Top 25 towns in America if you are Venezuelan, or Columbian".
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I lived in Doral for 3 years - and aside from the obvious problems already stated by other comments (industrial traffic), I found that Doral had so many OTHER problems nobody talks about. Like what? How about the fact that planes fly over head everyday because it is exactly due west of the Airport in the landing pattern? What about the "DORAL BIG LIE"? What is that you ask? The fact that when you ask people that live in Doral about the "STENCH." What stench? The stench caused by that massive DUMP located just north of the Big Monster. I remember laughing every time it got just a little humid or it rained and the area west / south west would stink like crazy, and some people would blatantly lie and say "I never smell it." Yeah right. And the worst of all, if you were unfortunate enough to buy a home close to the Turnpike, you would feel the earthquakes almost every single day during the work week. Most fools are unaware because their homes are empty during the week while they are at work - but believe me, when I went home for lunch - 99% of the time my townhouse WOULD SHAKE. The cause - the explosions/excavating those concrete companies are doing west of the turnpike. Nice.
This is what made me leave Doral. I ended up buying a home in Kendall - and granted, yes yes yes we have problems - mostly due to the poor quality of humans, but at least our homes don't shake, our air doesn't stink, we don't hear planes flying overhead, and we see very little semi-trucks driving all over the place. Other than that, what else does Doral offer? NOTHING. Just overpriced homes which I cannot fathom why on average they are more money to live in that dump.
I have been hearing Kendall-hatred for decades. Old news. Traffic. blah. Cheesy people. blah. Bland stores. Blah. My only purpose here is to let Doral-lovers know that not all of us think your place is nice. We don't. Your secret is out now.
It didn't say "top restuarants." it was tops in restaurants per capita. Sure, McDonalds, Hooters, Chilis, Tony Romas, Ale House. All those spectacular wonderful chain places that make Doral so much different than any other part of the country.
Plus, if it tops in restaurants per people, how come there's always a wait at those places?
To learn more about Doral's ranking on Forbes' top 25 towns to live well list, visit the Doral Florida profile page on ZoomProspector:
http://zoomprospector.com/CommunityDetail.aspx?id=6567&f=1
After the Superbowl, I bet the county commissioners are going to pay the winning quarterback to say to the TV camera, "After this win, I'm going to Doral!"
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