Helpful Miami Vacation Info

Jungle Island

Baby Twins

Peanut Butter and Pumpkin Pie, twin girl orangutans were born on December 2, 2003.

Far and away the most exciting city in Florida, Miami is a stunning and often intoxicatingly beautiful place. Awash with sunlight-intensified natural colors, there are moments — when the neon-flashed South Beach skyline glows in the warm night and the palm trees sway in the breeze — when a better-looking city is hard to imagine. Even so, people, not climate or landscape, are what make Miami unique. Half of the two million population is Hispanic, the vast majority Cubans. Spanish is the predominant language almost everywhere — in many places it's the only language you'll hear, and you'll be expected to speak at least a few words — and news from Havana, Caracas or Managua frequently gets more attention than the latest word from Washington, DC.

Just a century ago Miami was a swampy outpost of mosquito-tormented settlers. The arrival of the railroad in 1896 gave the city its first fixed land-link with the rest of the continent, and cleared the way for the Twenties property boom. In the Fifties, Miami Beach became a celebrity-filled resort area, just as thousands of Cubans fleeing the regime of Fidel Castro began arriving in mainland Miami. The Sixties and Seventies brought decline, and Miami's reputation in the Eighties as the vice capital of the USA was at least partly deserved. As the cop show Miami Vice so glamorously underlined, drug smuggling was endemic; as well, in 1980 the city had the highest murder rate in America. Since then, though, much has changed for two very different reasons. First, the gentrification of South Beach helped make tourism the lifeblood of the local economy again in the early Nineties. Second, the city's determined wooing of Latin America brought rapid investment, both domestic and international: many US corporations run their South American operations from Miami and certain neighborhoods, such as Key Biscayne, are now home to thriving communities of expat Peruvians, Colombians and Venezuelans.

Miami City Info

• County:  Miami-Dade
• Land Area:  35.7 square miles
• Radio Stations:  7 AM, 8 FM
• TV Channels:  19

Miami Weather and Climate:

• Average daily temperature — January:  68.9?F, July:  84?F
• Average annual rainfall — 63.7"

Distances to other Metropolitan Areas from Miami:

• Atlanta, GA — 665 miles
• Charleston, SC — 590 miles
• Charlotte, NC — 735 miles
• Chicago, IL — 1,384 miles
• Dallas, TX — 1,317 miles
• Denver, CO — 2,071 miles
• Los Angeles, CA — 2,741 miles
• Memphis, TN — 1,054 miles
• New Orleans, LA — 867 miles
• New York, NY — 1,297 miles
• Pittsburgh, PA — 1,182 miles
• Portland, OR — 3,268 miles
• Raleigh, NC — 806 miles
• Washington, DC — 1,062 miles

Miami Safety Phone # and Major Hospitals:

• Ambulance: 911; Police: 911; Fire: 911
• Anne Bates Leach Eye Hospital (900 NW 17th St)
• Baptist Hospital of Miami Inc (8900 N Kendall Dr)
• Cedars Medical Center Inc (1400 NW 12th Ave)
• Douglas Gardens Hospital (5200 NE 2nd Ave)
• Healthsouth Rehabilitation Hospital (20601 Old Cutler Road)
• Jackson Memorial Hospital (1611 NW 12 Ave)
• Kendall Medical Center (11750 Bird Drive)
• Meadowbrook Rehab Hosp of West Gables (2525 SW 75th Avenue)
• Mercy Hospital Inc (3663 S Miami Ave)
• Miami Children's Hospital (6125 SW 31st St)
• North Shore Medical Center (1100 NW 95th St)
• Pan American Hospital (5959 NW 7 St)
• South Miami Hospital Inc (6200 SW 73 St)
• University of Miami Hospital & Clinic (1475 NW 12 Ave)
• Westchester General Hospital (2500 SW 75th Ave)

Miami Top Tourism Draws and Seasons:

• Venetian Pool
• CocoWalk
• Fruit and Spice Park
• Amelia Earhart Park
• Freedom Tower
• Greynolds Park
• Burr's Berry Farm
• Knaus Berry Farm
• Crandon Beach Park
• Flagler Dog Track & Sports Entertainment Center
• The Boardwalk
• Casino Princesa
• Pro Player Stadium
• IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum
• Port of Miami
• The Coconut Grove Playhouse
• Metrozoo
• Design District
• Miami Museum of Science and Space Transit Planetarium
• Wings Over Miami Museum
• IMAX Theatre at Sunset Place
• Parrot Jungle Island
• American Airlines Arena and Miami Heat NBA Team
• Lummus Park Beach
• Miami Seaquarium

Miami Major Shopping Areas:

• Bayside Marketplace, 401 Biscayne Blvd., 33132
• Miracle Mile Downtown Gables Shopping Center, 224 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables  33134
• CocoWalk, 3015 Grand Ave  33133
• Streets of Mayfair, 2911 Grand Ave.  33133
• Miami International Mall, 1455 NW 107th Ave., Doral Branch, FL  33172
• University Shopping Centre, 998 W. Flagler St.  33130
• Capitol Square Shopping Center, 801 NW 37th Ave.  33125
• Biscayne Plaza Shopping Center, 561 NE 79th St.  33138
• Plaza America Shopping Center, 825 SW 62nd Ave., SW Miami  33144
• Shops at Sunset Place 5701 SW 72nd St, 33143
• Mall of the Americas, 7795 W. Flagler St, 33174
• Prime Outlets, 250 East Palm Dr., Florida City  33034
• Little Havana
• Design District
• Bal Harbour Shops, 9700 Collins Ave.
• Little Haiti
• Downtown Miami

Miami Major Dining Areas:

• Miracle Mile
• Miami Beach
• South Beach
• Bal Harbour
• Downtown Miami
• Coral Gables
• Coconut Grove
• Key Biscayne
• Little Havana
• West Miami
• North Miami/Aventura
• Broward County
• Calle Ocho
• Downtown Miami

Miami Famous Landmarks & Historic Places:

• Coral Castle
• Deering Estate
• John U. Lloyd Beach State Recreation Area
• Sanford J. Ziff Jewish Museum of Florida
• Spanish Monastery
• Everglades National Park
• The Holocaust Memorial
• Biscayne National Park
• Graves Museum of Archaeology and Natural History
• Cape Florida Lighthouse
• Miccosukee Indian Village
• Little Havana
• Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
• Museum of Contemporary Art
• Miami Art Museum

Miami Famous Natives and Residents:

• Henry Flagler -- Flagler was a magnate in the oil industry who created a vast empire with John D. Rockefeller. 
• John Collins --  In 1910, Collins joined with Carl Fisher to take on a daunting task.  He believed that the mangrove swamp he observed on the coast could be profitable.  Together he and Fisher purchased the land, much to the amusement of onlookers.  The tremendous project of transforming that swamp into habitable property was a difficult one, but when completed, the resulting present-day Miami Beach kept Collins amused- all the way to the bank!
• Al Capone — Resident — famous gangster
• Oprah Winfrey — Resident — TV personality
• Jackie Gleason — Resident — TV personality
• Rosie O'Donnell — Resident — TV personality
• Gloria Estefan — Resident — Singer
• Anna Kournikova — Resident — Tennis player
• Lenny Kravitz — Resident — Singer
• Janet Reno — Resident — Former Attorney General
• Shakira — Resident — Latin Singer
• OJ Simpson — Resident — Former NFL Player

Notable Moments in Miami History:

• 1895 — A record freeze enveloped most of the north of Florida, where Henry Flagler's railroads were disgorging thousands of rich and powerful northerners who were coming to stay at his hotels and resorts. The freeze wiped out citrus crops and sent vacationers scurrying. Thousands of people whose livelihoods had been wiped out by the big freeze, including citrus growers and service industry workers like doctors and merchants, began heading down to Miami in anticipation of the boom that was to come.
• 22 April 1896 — Passenger train service to Miami began in that year the city of Miami incorporated and development kicked off.
• WWI years — Miami grew when the US military established an aviation training facility there.
• 1923-25 — After WWI, the first fully-fledged Miami boom was fuelled not just by the area's idyllic beachfront location and perfect weather, but also by gambling and the fact that it never really took to the idea of prohibition - though it was illegal, liquor flowed freely throughout the entire Prohibition era.
• Mid-1930s — A mini-boom saw the construction of Miami Beach's famous Art Deco buildings.
• 1942 — A German U-Boat sank an American tanker off Florida's coast. The ensuing freak-out created a full-scale conversion of South Florida into a massive military base, training facility and staging area.
• 1950s — Miami Beach had another boom, as the area began to be known as the 'Cuba of America': punters and gangsters, enticed by Miami's gambling as well as its proximity to the fun, sun and fast times of Batista-run Cuba, moved in en masse. After the Castro coup in Cuba in 1959 Miami's Cuban population swelled.
• 1965 — The two 'freedom flights' that ran every day between Miami and Havana disgorged over 100,000 Cuban refugees. Tension built up between Cubans and the town's African Americans, who were relegated to an area north of downtown known as Colored Town. Riots broke out and acts of gang-style violence occurred.
• Late 1970s — Fidel Castro opened the floodgates, allowing anyone who wanted to leave Cuba access to the docks at Mariel. The largest flotilla ever launched for non-military purposes set sail in practically anything that would float to cover the 145km (90mi) between Cuba and Florida. The Mariel Boatlift, as it was called, brought 150,000 Cubans to Florida (including 25,000 prisoners and mental patients), and the resulting economic, logistical and infrastructural strain on South Florida only added to still-simmering racial tensions.
• 17 May 1980 — Four white police officers, being tried on charges that they beat a black suspect to death while he was in custody, were acquitted by an all-white jury. When the verdict was announced, fierce race riots broke out all over Miami, lasting for three days.
• 1980s — The Miami area gained prominence as the major East Coast entry port for drug dealers, their product and the unbelievable sums of money that went along with them. A plethora of businesses and buildings sprung up all over Miami, and the downtown was completely remodeled. But it was still a city being reborn while in the grip of drug smugglers: shootouts and gangland slayings by cocaine cowboys were common. The police, Coast Guard, Drug Enforcement Agency, Border Patrol and FBI were in a spin trying to keep track of it all.
• Late 1980s — Miami Beach had risen to international standards of Fabulousness. Celebrities were moving in, photo shoots from all over the world were being shot there, and the Art Deco district was going through a renovation that turned the city into a showpiece.
• 1992 — Hurricane Andrew strikes, but barely affects the tourist industry, which is the city's backbone. And despite highly publicized crimes against tourists in 1993, Miami is now the third most popular American city for international tourists, after Los Angeles and New York.
• 1997 — Miami murder of Gianni Versace.

Interesting facts about Miami:

• Miami-Dade County is the Business Center of the Americas, attracting businesses worldwide that choose to open their Latin American headquarters in South Florida.  During 2003, a total of 1,200 multinational corporations were established in South Florida.
• More than 1.1 million people make up Miami-Dade County's labor force.  Although slightly above the State of Florida unemployment average, the area has an unemployment rate around 7.0 percent.
• A major economic sector driving the local economy is the tourism industry.  The region saw more than 10 million overnight visitors in 2002, who infused approximately $12 billion into the local economy.
• The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach MSA with 5.2 million population ranks as the fifth largest MSA in the United States, trailing only Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia.
• Miami-Dade has the highest percentage of Hispanics of any large county in the nation, outstripping even Bexar County, Texas - home to San Antonio - which took the title a decade ago.
• Immigrants, mostly racial and ethnic minorities, have streamed into Miami-Dade over the past 40 years.  The population of this culturally diverse community is 21 percent non-Hispanic white, 21.6 percent black, and 57 percent Hispanic.

Miami Population and Demographics:

• Population: 362,470
• Males: 180,194 (49.7%), Females: 182,276 (50.3%)
• Median resident age: 37.7 years
• Median household income: $23,483 (year 2000)
• Median house value: $120,100 (year 2000)
• Races in Miami:
• Hispanic (65.8%)
• Black (22.3%)
• White Non-Hispanic (11.8%)
• Other race (5.4%)
• Two or more races (4.7%)
• American Indian (0.5%)
• Ancestries: West Indian (6.3%)
• United States (3.1%)
• Italian (1.4%)
• German (1.2%)
• English (1.1%)
• Irish (1.0%)

Miami Colleges and Universities:

• Miami-Dade Community College (Location: 300 NE 2nd Ave)
• Florida International University (Location: 11200 SW 8th Street)
• Barry University (Location: 11300 NE 2nd Ave)
• Florida Memorial College (Location: 15800 NW 42nd Ave)
• Saint Thomas University (Location: 16400 NW 32nd Ave)
• International Fine Arts College (Location: 1737 N Bayshore Dr)
• Florida Computer And Business School Inc (Location: 1321 SW 107th Ave. Ste 201B)
• Beauty Schools of America (Location: 1176 SW 67th Ave)
• Miami Lakes Educational Center (Location: 5780 NW 158th St)
• Robert Morgan Vocational Technical Institute (Location: 18180 SW 122nd Ave)
• Carlos Albizu University-Miami Campus (Location: 2173 NW 99th Ave)
• National School of Technology Inc (Location: 9020 SW 137th Ave)
• Miami Technical Institute (Location: 7601 W Flagler St)
• Nouvelle Institute Location: 3271 NW 7th St, Ste. 106)
• ITT Technical Institute (Location: 7955 NW 12th St, Ste 119)
• Florida College of Natural Health (Location: 7925 NW 12th St, Ste 201)
• ATI Health Education Center (Location: 1395 NW 167th St)
• ATI Career Training Center (Location: 1 NE 19th St)
• Trinity International University (Location: 500 NE 1st Ave)
• Lindsey Hopkins Technical Education Center (Location: 750 NW 20th St)

Industries providing employment:

• Educational,health and social services (15.0%)
• Arts,entertainment,recreation,accommodation and food services (12.0%)
• Professional,scientific,management,administrative,and waste manage(11.8%)
• Retail trade (11.0%)
• Construction (10.3%)

Miami Hispanic Community Media and Churches:

• El Nuevo Herald, Spanish Newspaper
• El Popular, Spanish Newspaper
• Spanish Radio
• WACC 830 AM
• WAMR Amor 107.5 FM
• WAQI 710 AM Radio Mambi — News-Talk
• WJCC 1700 AM
• WKAT 1360 AM Spanish Standards
• WNMA 1210 AM
• WOCN 1450 AM
• WQBA 1140 AM News-Talk
• WRTO 98.3 FM Salsa 98 — Spanish Salsa
• WXPJ 95.7 FM El Zol 95 — Spanish Tropical
• WWFE 670 AM
• WSUA 1260 AM Caracol 1260 — Spanish AC
• Spanish TV Channels
• WAMI 69 TeleFutura
• WCTV 23 Univision

Hispanic Churches:

• Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana
  (305) 374-2766
  1790 NE 2nd Ct
  Miami, FL 33132
• Renovacion Carismatica Catolica ...
  (305) 631-1007
  500 NW 22nd Ave
  Miami, FL 33125
• Hispanic Project 2000
  (305) 642-3042
  855 SW 22nd Ave
  Miami, FL 33135
• Wesley Hispanic United Methodist...
  (305) 442-9437
  133 Ponce de Leon Blvd
  Miami, FL 33134