Because it is close to the United States

American Express to UPS from Danone, Kraft, the television channel HBO, Club Med, American Airlines, Hewlett Packard, Porsche. In addition, observes John Price, "the Miami-based entities have more responsibilities." "They were sales offices, was now entrusted the marketing".

Housing boom

Demography of greater Miami explains to a large extent the economic proximity to the South of the continent. Frank Nero, the Chairman of the Beacon Council, Miami-Dade promotion business association, readily recalled the famous joke in the region: "why the Cubans like all Miami." Because it is close to the United States. "In fact, almost 60 of the 2.2 million inhabitants of the greater Miami are of Hispanic origin, and among them, half of Cuban origin. Having fled the Communist regime after the takeover by Fidel Castro in 1959, they extend their influence beyond the very tourist Little Havana, this street of Miami City serving coffee very tight on wooden posts. The community is now so well integrated that it takes power. The Mayor of Miami City, Manny Diaz, the Miami-Dade, Carlos Alvarez, and many of their staff, and Senator of Florida Mel Martinez are of Cuban origin.

Other Hispanic populations beginning, also to be a place in this democratic city. Single brake more mountaineering, Federal restrictions on immigration. "Many Latin American businessmen are denied visas and complain about not being able to conduct their affairs as they see fit," said the consul of the Venezuela.

Explanation of the economic boom in Miami the last factor is, of course, the explosion of real estate, result of a thriving tourism and trade with Latin America growing. Wealth creation has been spectacular: the price of the Stone Rose twice more than the average national. It might indeed that this is the Achilles heel of the city. "Miami is overexposed to a reversal of the market," said Alan Berube of the Brookings Institution. This would explain the appeals of the foot that local authorities are business. If brought together at lunch, on this day of spring, at the Biltmore Hotel, known for the gigantic pool in any Florida, a meeting of potential investors is that they would see to continue the economic miracle that has changed Miami. To do this, they spare no efforts. "As a local community, we must above all be"business-friendly"; "it's the new idea in fashion", believes so candidly Mayor of Hialeah, Florida, one of the municipalities of greater Miami.

Prestigious cultural projects

Whatever happens, economic development has caused a radical in the face of Miami, all the more rapid change that he accompanied a fight against corruption and crime. "After the killing, in the early 1990s, two German tourists, the City Hall attacked this problem and Alex Pinellas, Mayor of Miami-Dade from 1996, so local Giuliani the Ostpolitik of New York City known for its policy of zero tolerance against crime, continued these efforts," says Robin Bachin, Professor of history at the University of Miami.

Today, therefore, the business district, which can contemplate from the fast lane overlooking the Bay, change as that transport and media specialists and financial institutions expanding their settlements. More residential areas, luxurious towers are multiplying. The richest nearby towns began, they also allow multinationals.

Miami is globally renowned architects and also heavily invests in culture. Performing Art Center, a project more $ 400 million, will host soon operas and ballets, while takes place already in Miami Beach the greatest American art fair. The city even recruited to loud a renowned curator of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, Terence Riley, to boost its Museum. Types of thuggish neighbourhoods previously here have emerged. Thus the design District, where successive zen furniture shops lines edited. This more leaves much room for pensioners, whose Miami has long been the paradise. Now, they are hiding in the North of Florida, including Fort Lauderdale.

This renaissance is not the first known city. And it has its hidden face since the proportion of poor y very high (18, compared to 12 in the whole of the country). Alan Berube says also that the middle class has difficulty to prosper in this town, which limited its future. For two reasons: rising rents weighs on the standard of living and "trades offered in most areas (services, distribution...)". "that pay low wages."

Finally, real estate pressure and growth activity impacts on the environment and traffic, become the number one of the inhabitants concern. "The city is squeezed between the sea, to the East, and the wetlands of the Everglades national park, says Professor Greg Bush, of the University of Miami." Developers are lobbying insisting to back up the border of the constructible area to the Everglades, and if corruption has become more discrete in Miami, it would be surprising that the real estate sector is completely free. "Famous"cops"probably still have something to bring to their city...