There was a headline that did the rounds a couple months back that announced the dethroning of Beverly Hills as the most expensive neighborhood in the U.S. The new king is Coral Gables, with an average home price over $21M, a neighborhood I have lived adjacent to for most of my life. We took walks through Coral Gables; the sidewalks were canopied under grand trees and the neighborhood was just flooded with greenery. It was, and still is, my dream to get a home there. An expensive dream, I know — so how did we get here?
Business
I think we all know the story at this point. Pandemic lockdowns brought local economies across the country to a halt. While New York remained locked down throughout most of the pandemic years, Florida was one of the first to open back up — a risky decision that opened the door to opportunity. Although this catalyzed the southern migration, many thought it would just be temporary. Yet, here we are, 4 years later, and the city is already being dubbed Wallstreet South.
Let’s run down the list. In 2021, Microsoft announced they would open a regional hub in Brickell, Miami’s business district. In 2022, Ken Griffin, the founder of hedge fund Citadel, announced that the company's global headquarters would move from Chicago to Miami. In 2023, IT management company Kaseya expanded in downtown Miami, with a planned hire of over 3,000 new employees. Other companies that have expanded operations include Amazon, Uber, Nvidia, Blackstone, Point72, Apollo, and the list goes on and on. This explosion of growth brings jobs, diversity in industries, talent attraction, tax revenue, etc
.This also means more people, and we have one issue that will definitely get worse: Traffic.
The Miami area loves its cars, and public transportation has never been a great alternative. Some four decades after opening for business, Miami-Dade’s intracounty rail system, Metrorail, has limited coverage and is used by only a fraction of the city’s workers. While some of that is just a reflection of Florida’s “car culture,” it’s also a natural consequence of a system that isn’t large or interconnected enough to work for most people, so Miami has a horrible traffic problem as a consequence. According to data from Inrix, drivers in Greater Miami lose an average of 105 hours a year in traffic (worse than Los Angeles but not quite as bad as New York City) at an economic cost of around $4.5 billion. — Dear Miami, Taking Wall Street From NYC Won’t Be Easy, Bloomberg
The business is coming and so are the workers, but if we truly want to compete with New York, we need better transportation options. And they’re happening, although it takes time. Highways are getting bigger (wider and vertically), the Brightline continues to expand which allows people to live further from the city and commute to work, but I haven’t seen any movement on the metro or even busses for that matter.
Elsewhere, this is all very exciting in terms of growth potential, but we mustn’t forget our identity.
Culture
We all have images that pop into our heads the minute we hear the word Miami. For many foreigners, it’s usually some mix of Miami Vice and Scarface. If New York’s motto is work hard, play hard then Miami’s is simply play. It seems the city has embraced that with ongoing expansions around luxury and entertainment. Just look at the Aston Martin Residences, a 66-story skyscraper in Downtown Miami along the Miami River and Biscayne Bay. It is the tallest all-residential building south of New York City, though it is slightly shorter than the Panorama Tower in nearby Brickell. It’s a behemoth and it’s beautiful. I also have to mention E11EVEN’s expansion:
A tower crane has been installed at the construction site of the E11EVEN Residences Beyond in Park West.
There are now two 65-story E11EVEN towers rising on the same block. The first is already roughly halfway up.
The E11EVEN Residences Beyond, where the new crane was just installed, will include:
558 residential units
7,119 square feet of bar/cocktail lounge/nightclub
21,611 square feet of retail
First Crane Installed At Construction Site Of 65-Story Tower, The Next Miami
If you don’t know what E11EVEN is, please look it up.
This all sounds very expensive, but some want the city to be more than just clubs and luxury:
Billionaire Jorge Perez has spent hundreds of millions of dollars of his real estate fortune to make Miami a magnet for the arts, determined to show there’s more to his town than partying.
Now, he says, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is undoing his efforts with the stroke of a pen. DeSantis, a Republican, stunned the state’s arts community last month by axing all $32 million of funding for a state program that provides grants for music, theater and culture. — Billionaire Perez Slams DeSantis for Eroding Miami’s New Appeal, Boomberg
Another consequence of money coming in is the politics, of course. The city has always been a bit at odds with the state of Florida. Most of it having to do with cultural differences, as hispanics make up a much larger majority of southern Florida versus the rest of the state. It’s a blue city in a red state, which looks to be working pretty well. But back to the culture, one worry is how much of the city’s latino footprint will remain. I’m a bit more optimistic considering that a lot of the money coming in is not just from the north. Miami is essentially the American gateway into the Latin American economy. It would behoove the city to preserve its roots, the risk of losing that significance is much too high. I don’t think anyone has an issue being bilingual.
Thank you
As much as I love New York, and I intend to stay for a while, I know that one day I’ll come home. Watching the city grow has put a smile on my face. I just hope that a lot of the high profile jobs go to the local community. But the only way to ensure that is to invest in education. While it didn’t feel that way when I was in school, recent surveys place Miami-Dade public schools in 8th place across the country. As for colleges, Miami needs it’s own Stanford if it wants to take tech seriously — and I do think FIU and UMiami are on their way. I know I didn’t address the obvious climate question. Could a massive hurricane flood the city at any moment? Yes, but I don’t think we should stall progress waiting for a disaster. There is enough money flowing into the city that I would bet, and hope, it aligns incentives toward solving for climate change. As always, if you have any questions, want more explanations, or strongly disagree, comment below, follow me on Twitter (X), follow me on Instagram, or shoot me an email.
Disclaimer: These views are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization with which I am affiliated with. This article is written with AI assistance.