This weekend Miami Herald editorial writer Ana Veciana-Suarez wrote about the paradox of living in Miami, and continuing to do so despite all the problems of a place that burned its quality of life by worshipping at the altar of development. Those are my words, not hers.
Here is what she said, "Yes, traffic is horrible, summer insufferable and the cost of living too high, but this is home. My children and grandchildren live here, as do my father and dozens of other relatives." The writer ponders, as I do, the results of a recent Gallup poll funded by the Knight Foundation that claims, "... despite its many warts, Miami had a bigger jump in community attachment over the past year than the other big cites surveyed. This despite a harsh recession, a battered real estate market and enough political shenanigans to fuel several new Carl Hiaasen novels."
The Foundation report, "Soul of the Community", says the increase in positive feelings about community "... was largest amongst African-Americans, those living in lower-income, urban areas." That is interesting, because it is also the demographic that is hardest hit by the worst economy since the Depression. To what does one attribute this reported phenomenon? The Knight Foundation study doesn't explain.
Another study by Children's Health Magazine, out of 100 urban areas rated for "the best and worst places to raise a family", ranks Miami at 99. We're better than Detroit. Its metrics aren't available ("We considered more than 30 factors that parents deem vitally important, including crime and safety, education, economics, housing, cultural attractions, and health. When we crunched the numbers, these were the cities that best complemented family life."), but having raised three children in Miami, I can tell you this is a very, very tough place. Despite our living here, I'm not sure my children are coming back. Jobs? Traffic congestion makes us virtual prisoners in our neighborhoods. If you don't have access to nearby parks, places to play, the beach; it is very expensive in terms of time to get from here to there. Miami's newest suburbs are desperately fragile and dismaying places, too. The poverty of landscape, imagination, and politics seems to cry out from every strip mall and thrown-together subdivision.
Veciana's editorial concludes, "When others talk about pulling up stakes, I wonder: Won't you miss stopping at a friend's to shoot the breeze on Saturday afternoon? Can you really forgo the easy jaunt across the highway to check up on a new grandbaby? I've never been a great adventurer, the kind to push into uncharted territory with only a new job and an open address book in hand. For some of us, the best discoveries wait just around the corner, where appreciation makes the old seem new again."
What does that mean? It is a serious question, and I don't ask it to be cynical or snarky. One of Miami's biggest problems is parochialism. Beneath all the glitz and glamor the spin doctors have created out of South Florida, Miami is virtually defined by its parochialism: love family and God and don't care so much what happens in the outside world, or outside your block, neighborhood or district. Maybe I'm misreading Veciana, but I have my own experience to speak. I'm sure our readers have other opinions, and I'd like to hear them.
2 comments:
It seems that the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" is getting wider.
Who enjoys seeing firemen with no college degrees making $300,000 per year and retiring after 20 years with a pension of $280,000 per year?
The average income in Miami-Dade County is maybe $40,000, and that person has no pension.
As a somewhat young lad, I am dead set on leaving Miami b/c of the lack of opportunities, terrible traffic, & high living expenses. Miami has all this potential but seems to pulled through the mud at every turn. The mind set here is also very linear and almost non-progressive to a tee. Everyone always says miami is the next big thing but I don't see it happening anytime soon..Speaking from my own experiences, all of my friends have left and none of them have plans to return except to visit family..
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