North Miami is one South Florida’s most diverse communities. The city has been around since the 1920s and over time has developed a strong Jewish community, a mix of college students, and a large base of Haitian American residents. That mix has attracted development on the city’s east side and waterfront communities, as the central and western parts of the city have attracted single families and mom-and-pop stores over the years.
The city has also dealt with some controversy over the years as several politicians have had legal issues and the police department was thrust into the spotlight after the officer-involved shooting of Charles Kinsey in 2016.
In that same time though, North Miami has continued to develop its downtown with popular businesses like Café Creme and through the Museum of Contemporary Art. The Sole Mia project off Biscayne Boulevard is set to be a major mixed-use development, and Florida International University’s campus in the city has attracted national events and thousands of students to the area.
We explored the area and found a coffee shop that happens to serve up some great pizza, a longtime bar loved by regulars and locals, a library offering more than just books, and a restaurant serving up several kinds of cheese.
A reader asked us why North Miami has such an unimaginative name so we decided to figure out why.