UO > Community Profile > Miami, Florida

Paul Katz, MD, represents the typical 21st century Miami resident. He spent a majority of his rheumatology career in Washington DC—and the new millennium brought an opportunity to take an administrative position as senior vice president and chief medical officer at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida.

“I didn’t have any ties or connection to the area other than, like most people, spending time down here on meetings or vacation. But I liked the job and fell in love with what the area has to offer,” he says.

Dermatologist Loretta Ciraldo, MD, understands the attraction implicitly. She was a New Yorker for the first 30 years of her life, but moved to the beach when her husband accepted a two-year fellowship with the University of Miami. That was in 1983. “We were so lured by the tremendous opportunities of living here, we never left,” she says.

Both physicians found a Miami that contrasted with their perceptions. For starters, it’s no longer a place where the old folks go to spend their last days in the sun. Katz’s statistics reveal the mean age of residents in the Miami Beach section is a mere 40 years old—a far cry from the Medicare scene. “The resurgence of South Beach and the MTV Music Awards are now showing that this is a much younger and more vibrant community that it was years ago,” Katz says. “That was the biggest surprise to me.”

Ciraldo’s surprise came from a different angle. From watching hit prime-time dramas like Miami Vice and later CSI: Miami, she assumed the city was a danger zone. While the 2004 FBI Crime Report statistics do show Miami is worse than the national average in murders and robberies, it scores safer than average in rapes. And the average resident doesn’t have any of these statistics on his radar screen. “I feel very safe living here,” says Ciraldo.

Today, many of the physicians these professionals recruit to the area also arrive with a misperception of the ethnic mix. For one thing, physicians don’t need to speak Spanish to communicate with their patients. Katz admits he’s certainly tongue-tied when it comes to second languages. “It can be helpful, but there are a lot of very, very successful physicians here whose Spanish is non-existent,” he notes. “Fortunately, for those of us who are not conversant, the vast majority of Spanish-speaking people are very fluent in English. They can usually take care of those of us who don’t speak it so well!”

Of course, specific neighborhoods do look for specific bi-lingual candidates, says Martin Osinski, the president of Miami-based American Medical Consultants, a health-care recruitment and consulting firm, but in some cases French or Haitian is the magic word. That’s because Miami’s population roughly consists of one-third Caucasian, one-third Latin and one-third African American. Ciraldo is from an Italian background, and is proud to announce Miami-Dade County is home to 60,000 of her countrymen. “There’s a very nice mix of ethnicity,” she says.

City officials say all cultures are finding a niche in the area. For instance, the Royal Palm Crowne Plaza Resort, an oceanfront property opened in May 2002, is the first African-American owned and operated resort hotel in the United States. Urban Beach Week, held over Memorial Day weekend, transforms South Beach’s famous Art Deco district into a hip-hop paradise, while events like the Bahamas Goombay Festival bring the party—complete with costumed junkanoo groups—into Coconut Grove’s Grand Avenue streets for a week in June.

Miami in 2006 reflects the good life. Statistics at the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation reveal that the number of people employed in the leisure and hospitality market increased monthly during 2005. As of August 2005, Miami-Dade County’s taxable restaurant sales reached $2.3 billion for the year, a 9.8-percent increase over 2004.

The culture of entertainment reigns in many parts of the city. Hotel pools, restaurants, stores, and nightclub dance floors are no strangers to celebrities like J Lo, Oprah, Tobey Maguire, Cher, Leonardo DiCapro, Mick Jagger, Jack Nicholson, Will Smith, Al Pacino, Harrison Ford, Lenny Kravitz, Cameron Diaz, Rene Russo, Tim Allen, Tyra Banks, Andy Garcia, and Denzel Washington.

According to the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, commercial shoots alone generated an economic impact of more than $36 million in 2003. They included spots for Wendy’s, Daimler-Chrysler, Nestea, McDonald's, Mercedes Benz, and Verizon. In 2003, movies including 2 Fast 2 Furious, Bad Boys II, Out of Time, and Stuck on You shot on location here hauled in another $185 million in revenue.

The Miami International Film Festival is attracting international prestige. The former co-director of the Sundance Film Festival now serves as its director. But it’s just one in the mix: The Brazilian, Latin American, Gay and Lesbian, Jewish, and Made in Miami film festivals also draw cineastes.

Then there’s the modeling allure. In February, look for the crowds on Ocean Drive straining to get a peek at the Ford, Elite, Wilhelmina, and Next models competing in the Dodge Volleypalooza Model Volleyball Tournament.

And don’t forget the music stars. Ricky Martin, Jon Secada, Enrique Iglesias, and Gloria Estefan own homes in this city; Sony, EMI, WEA, and Polygram each have Latin American offices in Greater Miami. No wonder an AOL-Travel & Leisure poll recently ranked Miami the number one city in America not only for the singles scene, but also for Latin beat.

Classical culture also manifests itself here. Downtown Miami will soon throw open its doors to a new symphony hall and cultural center for orchestra, opera, and ballet performances. And in true South Florida style, Carnival Hall won’t be just any venue—designers bill it as one of the largest performing arts centers in the world, thanks to its three state-of-the-art performance venues, an education center, expansive outdoor plaza, and a historical landmark 1929 Art Deco tower.

Play time is high time for residents, and the outdoor fun is endless. Wildlife aficionados take advantage of everything from hunting alligators from airboats in the Everglades National Park to ooohing over the 3,000 exotic animals at Parrot Jungle Island. The Miami Seaquarium (yes, the same one made famous by the 1960s television show Flipper), Metrozoo, and Monkey Jungle also feed human’s appetites for watching the animal kingdom up close and personal.

Natural Health magazine dubbed Miami the healthiest city in America in 2002, in large part due to the sheer number of golf, tennis and sporting facilities in the area. The more adventuresome might take up kitesailing, a relatively new sport, which involves manipulating a massive kite as it pulls you across the water. One moment you’re surfing, the next you’re airborne, hang-gliding over boats. Those who value their bones stick to parasailing, yachting, snorkeling, and diving. Fifteen years ago, the city supported one major sports team. Now it hosts four: the Heat (basketball), the Dolphins (football), the Marlins (baseball), and the Panthers (hockey).