Shockingly, Miami not as Awesome to Many Floridians If you have spent your entire Floridian existence living in Dade or Broward County, the one thing you may find yourself lacking is statewide perspective. Sure, there are many of us who regularly travel the state for work or pleasure, but at best all you get is a visitor’s perspective. And this is fine, because aside from a few beaches and scattered historical areas, you ain’t missing much. But once you move to a part of Florida north of West Palm, you learn that the rest of the state isn’t too big on our beloved Miami. THE ONE COMPARISON TO LA YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO MAKE  Growing up in Northern California, I was taught from an early age that Los Angeles was a disgusting, awful place populated by smog, traffic and miserable people. And after finally moving there as an adult, I learned that this was 100 percent true. But until I took up temporary residence in the quintessential college town of Gainesville, I had no idea the Sunshine State has a similar opinion of Miami. “Oh, God Miami?†exclaimed one kid I met from some Florida city with too many vowels, “That place is disgusting. I’ve never even been there. Don’t want to.†“That place is insane,†one girl from Lake Worth told me. “Nothing but drugs and immigrants. Just filthy.†“How do you DRIVE down there,†one of my students once asked me. “They don’t even have left turn lanes. Or streets with more than 4 lanes.†Not sure what part of town this particular individual was talking about, but as with so many things perception is far more important than reality. “I don’t ever cross the Dade-Broward line unless I have no other choice,†said one girl from Davie. STATE UNIVERSITY GRADS NOT FLOCKING TO THE STATE’S BIGGEST CITY  And unlike in some states, where the “Big State School†graduates all aim to move to the state’s big city to start their careers, I’ve met countless recent UF grads looking for jobs in Orlando rather than in Miami. The common sentiment the children of Florida develop of Miami equivocates to my childhood perceptions of Los Angeles. The difference, of course, is that many of them have never been here. Despite my constant complaining about this city, all of my gripes about Miami come from my experiences actually living here. My perceptions before my arrival were all positive, as I had been exposed to little outside of the Travel Channel and “The Golden Girls.†So naturally, I figured we were the envy of the rest of the state, as backwoods and nasty as much of it seems to be. MIAMI IS NOT AS COOL TO EVERYONE AS IT IS TO ME  But apparently I was wrong. Apparently the swampy rednecks and northern transplants that populate the rest of this state do so for a reason: They don’t like Miami. Many of the young adults I’ve talked to in Gainesville are also children of White Flight. Their parents lived in Miami before it became “unlivable,†and have had the evils of Dade preached to them from an early age. But as our reputation nationwide seems to be a little better than it was 20 years ago, Floridians seem to have much longer memories. Of course, the negative opinion is a good thing in my eyes. Simply put, the population is down and the traffic lighter. But it comes as a wakeup call to those who rarely spend extended time in the rest of the state. Apparently the rest of Florida doesn’t think the city is a cool as its residents think it is. This must be how New Yorkers feel.
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11 Comments on"Shockingly, Miami not as Awesome to Many Floridians"
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Aaron in Miramar says:
It’s hard to respect the opinion of anybody that speaks with a twang. That being said, I’d tend to disagree with your statement about people going to Large State U and then looking for a job in the biggest city in said state. That may be the case on the west coast with LA but not so much on the east coast. People tend to stay within regions more than states.
Other than that, F everybody north of Palm Beach. This state would be Georgia south if we didn’t exist. Think about that for a second. Tampa would be you cultural and economic center-‘nuff said. Good luck building another school for you kool-aid stained, dirty sockless foot, inbred kid without our tax revenue.
Posted on 09/16/2009 at 1:27 PM