visionaries, crooks, and con men who built miami envisioned many different kinds of paradise. a new jerusalem in the seemingly infinitely expanding real estate, just fill in where there s water and you ve got property. or as in coral gables, a new venice. complete with grand canals. gondolas to ferry their new seekers to their palazzos in the sun. the dream was as expandable as the space. where there was water, there was now magically, terra sorta firma. and in the 80 s where there was decline, a vacuum, suddenly there was a new and vibrant
infinitely expanding real estate, just fill in where there s water and you ve got property. or as in coral gables, a new venice. complete with grand canals. gondolas to ferry their new seekers to their palazzos in the sun. the dream was as expandable as the space. where there was water, there was now magically, terra sorta firma. and in the 80 s where there was decline, a vacuum, suddenly there was a new and vibrant economy, one that raised all boats, filled miami with new
thing? women: you know what really pisses me off? i walk down the street and i say hi to people, because that s how i am. anthony: right. women: and i don t get a hi back a lot here anthony: to what do you contribute this? women: the transient part of it. people don t feel rooted. they are from south america, central america. their whole plan is to come here to their family to live in the home of their dreams and then go is great. i would probably do the same thing. anthony: if i were to think about coming to florida to live, what would seem attractive to me, and i mean this absolutely, find some place on the beach and descend into my crocodile skinned, late area george hamilton phase, walk up and down metal detector, with shorts up to here, but that would be me. people who go to live that dream, they don t go to the beach. women: ask me when the last time i went to the beach was. anthony: when was the last time i went to the beach? women: about a year and a half ago.
buildings, shiny cars, swanky nightclubs, floods of cash, and a new reputation for murder, and criminality to go with it. cocaine, say what you will, cocaine altered the skyline of miami forever. it made, for better or worse, miami sexy again. anthony: going back to the very beginning, was miami always a criminal enterprise? [ laughter ] but i mean that in a good way. outlaw culturism a very deep part of american culture. man: in florida, we don t produce or manufacture anything but oranges and handguns. there is no indigenous industry. we sell sunshine. the only jobs we have are in hospitality or in restaurants. man 2: real estate. man: real estate. it is all to sell the dream to the next people. anthony: in 1981 the fbi called miami the most violent city in america. the drug industry brought in an
20th centuries by this guy. henry morrison flagger, the tycoon largely credited with big the father of modern florida. his dream was the florida east coast railway, which would run from jacksonville to key west connecting the ports of miami to along its route new towns, new cities, new edens where america s rising middle class could frolic and play. he also agreed to lay a foundation for the city on both sides of the miami river. as more and more whites moved in, segregation took hold and much of the bahamian community was forced into the black neighborhoods like overtown and liberty city. if you re looking for old miami, miami. original miami you re looking for a great extent, black miami. these days liberty city is