Before You Go. Miami is in Florida. It's frequently hot, even during the Winter. And it's frequently rainy. The game will be indoors, but you will be outdoors at several points in your trip. So dress lightly, wear a hat, keep hydrated, and you should probably bring an umbrella. The Miami Herald website is predicting low 80s for next Friday afternoon, and low 70s for evening.
Florida is a former Confederate State, and parts of Miami sure seem like a foreign country. But you won't need to bring your passport or change your money. And it's in the Eastern Time Zone, so you won't have to fool with your timepieces.
Tickets. The Heat are averaging 19,609 fans per home game last season, a sellout. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are gone, but they have kept the sellouts going.
Tickets in the Lower Level, the 100 sections, can be purchased for $250 between the baskets and $125 behind them. In the Upper Level, the 300 sections, $65 between and $90 behind. In the Balcony Level, the 400 sections, which only has seats behind the baskets, $40.
Getting There. It's 1,283 miles from Times Square in New York to downtown Miami. Knowing this distance, your first reaction is going to be to fly down there. This is not a horrible idea, but you'll still have to get from the airport to wherever your hotel is. If you're trying to get from the airport to downtown, you'll need to change buses – or change from a bus to Miami's Tri-Rail rapid transit service. Nonstop flights, lasting 3 hours, can be had for $536 round-trip.
The train is not a very good idea, because you'll have to leave Penn Station on Amtrak's Silver Star at 11:02 AM and arrive in Miami at 5:58 the next day's evening, a 31-hour ride. The return trip on the Silver Meteor will leave at 8:10 AM and return to New York the next day at 11:00 AM, "only" 27 hours – no, there's no time-zone change involved. Round-trip, it'll cost $680 -- more than flying. And the station isn't all that close, at 8303 NW 37th Avenue. Fortunately, there's a Tri-Rail station there that will take you downtown.
How about Greyhound? There are 5 buses leaving Port Authority every day with connections to Miami, only one of them nonstop, the 10:45 PM to 7:30 AM (2 days later) version. The rest require you to change buses in Richmond and Orlando. (This is not fun, but, since New York to Miami should be straight down and back up I-95, it's also pointless. Resting the passengers, changing the driver and refueling the bus all make sense; making passengers change buses, twice, doesn't.)
The ride, including the changeovers, takes about 33 hours. Round-trip fare is $520, but it can be cut by more than half to $240 with advanced purchase. The station is at 4111 NW 27th Street and, ironically, is right across 42nd Avenue from the airport. Of course, going from New York to Miami on Greyhound, you might be reminded of the end of the movie Midnight Cowboy, and nobody wants to be reminded of that.
If you want to drive, it'll help to get someone to go down with you, and take turns driving. You'll be going down Interstate 95 (or its New Jersey equivalent, the Turnpike) almost the whole way. It'll be about 2 hours from the Lincoln Tunnel to the Delaware Memorial Bridge, 20 minutes in Delaware, and an hour and a half in Maryland, before crossing the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, at the southern tip of the District of Columbia, into Virginia. Then it will be 3 hours or so in Virginia, another 3 hours in North Carolina, about 3 hours and 15 minutes in South Carolina, a little under 2 hours in Georgia, and about 6 hours and 15 minutes in Florida before you reach downtown Miami – maybe a little under 6 hours if you get a hotel near the stadium.
Given rest stops, preferably in one in each State from Maryland to Georgia and 2 in Florida, you're talking about a 28-hour trip.
Once In the City. A lot of people don't realize it, because Miami is Florida's most famous city, but the most populous city in the State is Jacksonville. However, while Miami has about 453,000 people within the city limits (the separate city of Miami Beach has 88,000 permanent residents), there are 6.4 million living in the metro area, making it far and away the largest in the South, not counting Texas.
Because Florida is so hot, and air-conditioning didn't become common until the mid-20th Century, Miami was founded rather late by the standards of the East coast, in 1825, and wasn't incorporated as a city until 1896. The name is derived from the Mayaimi tribe of Native Americans. Miami Avenue is the east-west divider, Flagler Street the north-south. The city has no beltway.
The Herald is the only major newspaper left in the city, but the Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale should also be available. And, considering how many ex-New Yorkers are around, you might also be able to get the Times, the Daily News, or, if you're really desperate (or really conservative), the Post.
The sales tax in Florida is 6 percent, but it's 7 percent within Miami-Dade County. ZIP Codes in Miami start with the digits 330, 331 and 332; in the Fort Lauderdale area, 333; and in the Palm Beach area, 334 and 349. Florida Power & Light runs the Miami area's electricity.
No longer thought of as a haven for retired Jewish New Yorkers, Miami is the most Hispanic city east of Texas: 70 percent, with 34 percent (half of that) being of Cuban origin, many of them refugees from the 1959 Castro Revolution and their descendants. The city is 19 percent black, 10 percent white, and only about 1 percent Asian. Miami-Dade County as a whole is about 65 percent Hispanic, 17 percent black, 15 percent white, 2 percent Asian, and 1 percent Middle Eastern. North of the river is mostly black, and a few miles north of that mostly white; while south of the river is mostly Hispanic.
Since 1984, Miami has had a rapid-transit rail service, Metrorail, and a downtown-only smaller service, Metromover. Both above-ground, sort of like Chicago's El and the Detroit People Mover, if they were in the same city. The fare for the Metrorail and the Metrobus is $2.25.
Metrorail above, and the smaller Metromover below
Tri-Rail has run commuter rail service since 1989, linking 3 Counties: Dade (Miami), Broward (Fort Lauderdale) and Palm Beach.
A Tri-Rail train
Starting in early 2018, Brightline service will connect Miami with Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, with an extension to Orlando, hoping to open it in 2020.
Going In. The American Airlines Arena opened on Millennium Eve, December 31, 1999, with a concert by hometown heroes Gloria Estefan & the Miami Sound Machine. Two days later, on January 2, 2000, the Heat played their 1st game there, beating their geographic rivals, the Orlando Magic.
A3, with the landmark Freedom Tower behind it
The arena -- sometimes called the Triple-A or the A3 -- is located downtown at 601 Biscayne Blvd. (U.S. Routes 1 & 41), between NE 6th and 8th Streets. It's across Port Blvd. from the Bayside Marketplace shopping center (not exactly their version of the South Street Seaport) and the Miami outlets of Hooters, the Hard Rock Café and Bubba Gump Shrimp. It can be reached via the Freedom Tower station on Metromover. If you're driving in, parking can be had for as low as $9.00.
Since moving in, the Heat have won the NBA Championship in 2006, 2012 and 2013, and also reached the NBA finals in 2011 and 2014. The '06 and '11 Finals were confusing because they played the Dallas Mavericks, whose arena is named the American Airlines Center. At least American Airlines is based in Dallas, so buying the naming rights to their arena made sense. Not so much in Miami.
Since the arena is essentially on a pier on Biscayne Bay, you will almost certainly be entering from the west, along Biscayne Blvd. The court is laid out east-to-west.
Food. With a great Hispanic, and especially Cuban, heritage, and with all those ex-New Yorkers and ex-New Jerseyans who know their basketball and their food, you would expect the basketball team in Miami to have great food at their arena. Here's a guide from the arena website.
Team History Displays. Until Dwyane Wade arrived in 2003, the Heat had mixed results. They'd won 4 straight Atlantic Division titles (1997 to 2000) and made the Playoffs in half their seasons (7 out of 14), which is better than some teams have done. But their best finish was getting pounded by the Chicago Bulls in the 1997 Eastern Conference Finals. Since Wade arrived (he has since departed), they've made 6 Conference Finals, reached 5 NBA Finals, and won 3 NBA Championships.
The 3 retired numbers of players who actually played for the Heat are 10 for guard Tim Hardaway, 32 for center Shaquille O'Neal, and 33 for center Alonzo Mourning. Hardaway played for the Heat teams of the 1990s, while Mourning not only played for them then, but returned in time for their 2006 title, on which Shaq and Wade played.
They've announced that forward Chris Bosh, will be the 1st honoree from the 2010s team to have his number retired, 1, although a date has not yet been set. Presumably, Wade's 3 and LeBron James' 6 will be retired after they hang up their sneakers. None of those numbers is currently being worn, suggesting that they're already "unofficially retired."
Shaq, 'Zo and guard Gary Payton, who was only with the team for 2 seasons but 1 was the 2006 title season, are the only Hall-of-Famers who have played for the Heat. LeBron and Wade will probably join them, and Bosh might as well.
In another unique distinction in the NBA, the Heat hang banners for their Olympic Gold Medalists: Hardaway, Mourning, Wade, James.
The Florida Sports Hall of Fame is located at Lake Myrtle Sports Park in Auburndale, 232 miles northwest of downtown Miami. As yet, there are no Heat players inducted.
Stuff. The Miami HEAT Store (apparently, the ALL CAPS is official) is located on the ground floor of the west end of the arena, along Biscayne Blvd.
Despite having built some history the last few years, there aren't many books about the Heat. Josh Anderson wrote the Heat's entry in the NBA's On the Hardwood series in 2013, in time for their most recent title. Rick Leddy has written the most recent LeBron biography, LeBron James: King of the Game, including his "re-rat" from South Beach back to the North Coast. Most confusing of all is that there are at least 2 books titled Miami Heat, but they're both, uh, "romance novels."
There's no 20th or 25th Anniversary video, but there are DVD collections of their 2006, 2012 and 2013 titles.
During the Game. A November 13, 2014 article on DailyRotoHelp ranked the NBA teams' fan bases, and listed the Heat's fans 13th, a little better than average. It gives them credit for coming even after LeBron left, and for coming before he came and while Wade was injured.
South Florida is loaded with people who came from elsewhere, including ex-New Yorkers. The stereotype is that, when a New Yorker gets old, if he has enough money to do so, he moves to Miami. Especially if he's Jewish. Or Italian. As a result, you may see a lot of Knick fans.
However, the Knicks-Heat rivalry means a lot more to Knick fans than it does to Heat fans. South Floridians save their animus for teams from North and Central Florida: The University of Florida, Florida State, the Jacksonville Jaguars (being in the AFC means Dolphin fans hate them more than they hate the NFC's Tampa Bay Buccaneers), the Tampa Bay Rays, the Tampa Bay Lightning, and, in basketball, especially the Orlando Magic.
Between Heat fans not really hating the Knicks, local Knicks fans being on hand, and downtown Miami being safer than some other parts of town, you shouldn't face any rough stuff. You and, if you drove in, your car should both be safe.
Of the 4 visits by the New York teams, only 1 will feature a promotion: The January 31 visit by the Nets, which will be Blue Cross Blue Shield Heat Team Poster Night.
Julia Dale, just 16 years old and introduced during the 2011 season, is the National Anthem singer for both the Heat and the Marlins. The Heat use the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" as a fight song. The Heat's mascot is Burnie, a big furry orange fat thing with a green basketball for a nose, and really needs to burn some calories.
But he still does well with the ladies.
After the Game. Miami has some rough areas, but the area around the arena should be as well-policed as that around Yankee Stadium or Madison Square Garden, so you should be safe.
As for where to go after the game, I can't be sure. I checked for area bars where New Yorkers gather, and found one for each of the city's NFL teams.
J.C. Wahoo's Sports Bar and Grill is supposedly the home of the South Florida fan club of the Giants. But it's at 3128 N. Federal Highway (yes, the same U.S. Route 1 that goes through The Bronx and New Jersey), between Northeast 31st and 32nd Streets, 40 miles north of downtown -- further north than Fort Lauderdale, or even Pompano Beach, almost up to Boca Raton. It's not even all that close to the stadium.
The South Florida Jets Fan Club meets at Hammerjack's, at 5325 S. University Drive in Davie, a bit closer to the stadium, but still 24 miles north of downtown.
Don't bother looking for Dan Marino's restaurants: They've all closed. He's had financial setbacks, partly due to paying his extramarital baby mama millions of dollars in hush money.
If you visit Miami during the European soccer season (now drawing to a close but starting again in mid-August), the Fado Irish Pub chain has an outlet downtown, at 900 S. Miami Avenue. Brickell on Metrorail, Tenth Street Promenade on Metromover. Another possibility, especially if you're a Liverpool fan, is Churchill's Pub, at 5501 NE 2nd Avenue, 4 miles north of downtown, in Little Haiti. Bus 9.
Sidelights. Miami's sports history is long, but aside from football, it's not all that involved.
* Hard Rock Stadium. Probably best known under its original name, Joe Robbie Stadium, the Dolphins' home was named for their longtime owner, who had it built for them and for a hypothetical MLB team that became the Marlins. It's 15 miles north of downtown Miami, in a location that's been called, at various times, Miami, Miami Lakes, Miami Gardens, Carol City and Opa-Locka. Sounds like a bad variety show sketch.
The Stadium is between 199th and 203rd, and between the Turnpike and 27th Avenue, across 203rd and Snake Creek from Calder Race Course. The exact address is 347 Don Shula Drive, for the coach who won the Dolphins' 2 titles and the record number of NFL coaching wins he has.
Public transportation there is a bit tricky. You'd have to take Metrorail from downtown to M.L. King Rail Station, then transfer to the Number 27 bus, riding that to NW 199th Street & NW 27th Court. And then you'd have to walk down 199th for about 15 minutes and turn into the parking lot. Not exactly ideal. (Somehow, I don't think a situation like this, especially with a transit station with his name on it, was part of Martin Luther King's dream. But he certainly would have approved of a racially mixed crowd watching racially mixed teams playing each other.)
The stadium has been home to the Dolphins since 1987; the Orange Bowl game in 1996, 1997, 1998 and since 2000; the University of Miami football team since 2008 (their games were the last thing the Orange Bowl stadium hosted before its demolition to make way for Marlins Park); the Marlins from 1993 to 2011; and the Champs Sports Bowl from 1990 to 2000.
It's hosted 5 Super Bowls: XXIII (1989, San Francisco over Cincinnati), XXIX (1995, San Francisco over San Diego), XXXIII (1999, Denver over Atlanta), XLI (2007, Indianapolis over Chicago, and the only Super Bowl that's yet been rained on) and XLIV (2011, Green Bay over Pittsburgh). It's been chosen as the site for Super Bowl LIV (2020).
It has hosted 6 college football National Championship games: 1997-98, Nebraska over Tennessee; 2001-01, Oklahoma over Florida State; 2004-05, USC over Oklahoma; 2008-09, Florida over Oklahoma; 2012-13, Alabama over Notre Dame; and 2015-16, Clemson over Oklahoma. It will host the title game again for the 2020-21 season.
The stadium is also a premier U.S. soccer venue. On August 4, 1989, London's Arsenal played Argentine club Independiente, each team coming off winning its national league title. Arsenal won, 2-1, but only 10,042 fans came out to see it in the oppressive August Florida heat. (Perhaps this is why Arsenal did not play in North America again for 25 years, coming to Red Bull Arena in 2014.) Other major club teams to play there include Mexico's Chivas of Guadalajara; England's Chelsea of London, Everton of Liverpool and Manchester United; Spain's Real Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia; and Italy's AC Milan, Internazionale and Juventus.
The U.S. national team has played there 4 times: A 1-0 loss to Colombia on April 22, 1990; a 1-1 draw with Bolivia on February 18, 1994; a 3-1 loss to Sweden on February 20, 1994; and a 1-0 win over Honduras on October 8, 2011.
* Site of Orange Bowl/Marlins Park. The home of the team that became known as the Miami Marlins when they moved in for the 2012 season was built at the site of the stadium known as the Miami Orange Bowl. It will be a long time before it builds up anything of history, but it will never match the history of the classic horseshoe with the palm trees at the open east end.
Opening in 1937, and known as Burdine Stadium until 1959, it hosted the Orange Bowl game on (or close to) every New Year's Day from 1938 to 1995, and once more in 1999 when the Dolphins made the Playoffs to make their new stadium unavailable; the University of Miami football team from 1937 to 2007 (famed for its fake-smoke entrances out of the tunnel); the Miami Seahawks of the All-America Football Conference in 1946 (they moved to become the Baltimore Colts after just 1 season, but this was arguably the 1st "major league" team in any of the former Confederate States); the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl (a game involving the 2nd-place teams in each of the NFL's divisions from 1960 to 1969, also known as the Playoff Bowl, a game so lame that Vince Lombardi once called it "the only game I never want to win" – and he didn't); the Dolphins from 1966 to 1986; and the Miami Toros of the North American Soccer League from 1972 to 1976, including the 1974 NASL Final, in which the host Toros lost on penalties to the Los Angeles Aztecs.
And it hosted 5 Super Bowls, most notably (from a New York perspective) Super Bowl III, when the Jets beat the Colts in one of the greatest upsets in sports history, on January 12, 1969. It also hosted Super Bowls II (1968, Green Bay over Oakland), V (1971, Baltimore over Dallas), X (1976, Pittsburgh over Dallas) and XIII (1979, also Pittsburgh over Dallas). All subsequent South Florida Super Bowls, including the one the Giants won in 2012, Super Bowl XLVI, have been held at the Dolphins' stadium.
The Orange Bowl game hosted de facto National Championships for the seasons of 1938-39, Tennessee over Oklahoma; 19556-56, Oklahoma over Maryland; 1971-72, Nebraska over Alabama; 1981-82, Clemson over Nebraska; 1983-84, Miami over Nebraska; 1987-88, Miami over Oklahoma; 1990-91, Colorado over Notre Dame; 1991-92, Miami over Nebraska; 1993-94, Florida State over Nebraska; and 1994-95, Nebraska finally getting revenge over both Miami and their own history in the building.
The Orange Bowl was where the Dolphins put together what remains the NFL's only true undefeated season, in 1972. The Canton Bulldogs had gone undefeated and untied in 1922, but there was no NFL Championship Game in those days. The Chicago Bears lost NFL Championship Games after going undefeated and untied in the regular seasons of 1932 and 1942. And the Cleveland Browns went undefeated and untied in the 1948 AAFC season, but that's not the NFL.
The Dolphins capped their perfect season by winning Super Bowl VII, and then Super Bowl VIII. And yet, despite having reached the Super Bowl 5 times, and Miami having hosted 10 of them, the Dolphins have never played in a Super Bowl in their home region. (They've done so in Los Angeles twice, and once each in New Orleans, Houston and San Francisco.) They also haven't been to one in 30 seasons, or all of their history in their new stadium. "The Curse of Joe Robbie," anyone?
The Orange Bowl hosted a lot of soccer games, including Arsenal's 1st visit to North America, on May 31, 1972, beating the Miami Gatos 3-2. Only 4,725 fans saw it, which is what you get for scheduling a soccer game in Miami on Memorial Day Weekend.
1501 NW 3rd Street, between 7th Street, 14th and 16th Avenues. Number 11 Bus west on Flagler Street from downtown, then 3 blocks north on 15th Avenue. Be careful, this is in Little Havana.
* Comfort Inn. This hotel, across 36th Street from the airport, was the site of the Playhouse, once considered one of South Florida's finest banquet halls. It was here, on January 9, 3 days before the Super Bowl, at a dinner organized by the Miami Touchdown Club, that Joe Namath of the Jets was speaking, and some drunken Colts fan yelled out, "Hey, Namath! We're gonna kick your ass on Sunday!" And Joe said, "Let me tell you something: We got a good team. And we're gonna win. I guarantee it!" He was right.
NW 36th Street between Curtiss Parkway and Deer Run. MetroRail toward Palmetto, to Allapattah Station, then transfer to the 36 Bus.
* Site of Miami Stadium. Also known as Bobby Maduro Stadium, this was the home of the original Miami Marlins, of the Florida State League. Seating 13,000, it was known for its Art Deco entrance and a roof that shielded nearly the entire seating area, to protect fans from the intense Miami weather. The FSL team that played here was known as the Sun Sox from 1949 to 1954, the Marlins from 1956 to 1960, the Marlins again 1962 to 1970, the Miami Orioles 1971 to 1981, and the Marlins again from 1982 to 1988. These teams won FSL Pennants in 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1978 -- giving Miami 7 Pennants, counting those won by the NL Marlins.
Miami Stadium was the spring training home of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1950 to 1957, the Dodgers in their 1st season in Los Angeles in 1958 (it can be said that "the Los Angeles Dodgers" played their 1st game here, not in California), and the Baltimore Orioles from 1959 to 1990.
It was demolished in 2001, and The Miami Stadium Apartments were built on the site. 2301 NW 10th Avenue, off 23rd Street. It's just off I-95, and 8 blocks north and east from the Santa Clara MetroRail station.
* Site of Miami Arena. This was the home of the Heat from 1988 to 1999, the NHL's Florida Panthers from 1993 to 1998, and the University of Miami basketball team from 1988 to 2003. When the Overtown race riot happened in January 16 to 18, 1989, in the week before Super Bowl XXIII, area residents took great pains to protect this arena from damage, and succeeded.
* BB&T Center. This has been the home of the NHL's Florida Panthers since 1998, and there's a reason the team is called "Florida" instead of "Miami": The arena is 34 miles northwest of downtown Miami, and 14 miles west of downtown Fort Lauderdale, in a town called Sunrise. 1 Panther Parkway, at NW 136th . If you don't have a car, you'd have to take the 195 Bus to Fort Lauderdale, and then the 22 Bus out to the arena.
* Fort Lauderdale Stadium and Lockhart Stadium. Built in 1962, the Yankees moved their spring training headquarters to the 8,340-seat Fort Lauderdale Stadium after being assured that, unlike their spring home of St. Petersburg at the time, their black players could stay in the same hotel as their white players. The Yankees remained there until 1995, by which point Tampa was not only long since integrated, but was willing to pretty much anything city resident George Steinbrenner wanted, including build him a new spring home for the Yankees.
Built in 1959, Lockhart is a 17,417-seat high school football stadium, across 55th Street from Fort Lauderdale Stadium. It's been home to 4 different teams called the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, including the original NASL's version from 1977 to 1983, and the new NASL's version from 2011 until 2016, and MLS' Miami Fusion from 1998 to 2001.
For both stadiums, take MetroRail to Tri-Rail, then Tri-Rail to northbound to Cypress Creek. From there, it's about a 10-minute walk.
The current plan for the Major League Soccer team that retired English soccer star David Beckham wants to bring to Miami is for a 25,000-seat stadium in the Overtown section, bordered by 6th and 8th Streets and 6th and 7th Avenues, all NW. That's about a mile northwest of downtown. Bus 77. They still have to clear land-purchase and rezoning hurdles, but it looks like they have the proper ownership lined up. It looks like they will begin play in 2019, although it may take until 2020 for the stadium to open, in which case they may have to play their 1st (or even 2nd) season at Marlins Park.
Florida International University is at 11200 SW 8th Street, 16 miles west of downtown. Its Riccardo Silva Stadium, formerly FIU Stadium, opened in 1995 and seating 23,500, is at 11310 SW 17th Street. Bus 8. It is home to Miami FC, the largest team in the area until the Beckham team finally takes the field, if it ever does.
* Hialeah Park Race Track. The other great thoroughbred course in Florida (South or otherwise) opened in 1922, closed in 2001, and reopened in 2013. It also hosts a warmup for the Triple Crown, the Flamingo Stakes. 2200 E. 4th Avenue in Hialeah, about 10 miles northwest of downtown. MetroRail to Hialeah.
* Miami Beach Convention Center. Opened in 1957, it seats 15,000 people. The American Basketball Association's Miami Floridians played here from 1968 to 1972. The 1968 Republican Convention, and both major parties' Conventions in 1972, were held here. (The Republicans nominated Richard Nixon each time, and the Democrats nominated George McGovern.) Why? Simple: They wanted to be away from any city's downtown, putting water between themselves and wherever the hippies and another antiwar demonstrators were staying.
"Float like a butterfly, sing like a Beatle!"
* Site of Coconut Grove Convention Center. This former Pan Am hangar, attached to the Dinner Key Marina in 1930, was used as a Naval Air Station, a convention center, a concert hall, a 6,900-seat sports arena (the Floridians played a few home games here), and as the indoor-scenes studio for the USA Network show Burn Notice.
It's also been known as the Dinner Key Auditorium. Under that name, on March 1, 1969, The Doors gave a concert here, and lead singer Jim Morrison supposedly committed an indecent act there. (Yeah, he told the crowd, "I'm from Florida! I went to Florida State! Then I got smart and moved to California!")
It was demolished in 2013, and a park is being built on the site. 2700 S. Bayshore Drive, at Pan American Drive & 27th Avenue, in the Coconut Grove section of town. Number 102 Bus to Number 48.
* Gusman Center for the Performing Arts. Formerly the Olympic Theater, Elvis sang here on August 3 and 4, 1956. 174 E. Flagler Street, downtown.
On March 26, 1960, Elvis taped a segment for The Frank Sinatra Timex Show, subtitled Welcome Home Elvis, in the ballroom of the Fontainebleau Hotel. It was his 1st TV appearance since his discharge from the Army 3 weeks earlier.
Frank was not initially a fan of Elvis, but his 2-year peacetime-but-Cold-War hitch for Uncle Sam -- further emphasized by the fact that an ear condition left Frank himself 4-F, meaning he didn't serve in World War II -- convinced a lot of grownups that he was all right after all, and Frank and his fellow Rat Packers were now happy to go along -- down to Frank's daughter, 15-year-old Nancy (6 years from becoming a star in her own right), being the first "name" he saw when he got off the plane.
Elvis sang both sides of his 1st post-service single, "Fame and Fortune" and the soon-to-be-Number 1 hit "Stuck On You." Then he sang Frank's "Witchcraft," and Frank sang his "Love Me Tender," and they closed the latter song together. They remained friends for the rest of Elvis' life.
The Fontainebleau, then as now, was the most famous hotel in Miami, in Florida, indeed in the entire Southern U.S. 4441 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach.
In addition to the preceding, Elvis sang in South Florida in Fort Myers at the City Auditorium on May 9 and July 25, 1955; in West Palm Beach at the Palms Theater on February 20, 1956 and the West Palm Beach Auditorium on February 13, 1977; and in Hollywood at the Sportatorium on February 12, 1977.
Several TV shows have been set in Miami. A restaurant called Jimbo's Place was used to film scenes from Flipper and Miami Vice, and more recently CSI: Miami and the aforementioned Burn Notice. It's at 4201 Rickenacker Causeway in Key Biscayne, accessible by the Causeway (by car) and the 102 Bus (by public transportation).
Greenwich Studios has been used to film Miami Vice, True Lies, There's Something About Mary and The Birdcage. It's at 16th Avenue between 121st and 123rd Streets, in North Miami, and often stands in for Miami Beach for the TV shows and movies for which it's used. 93 Bus.
The penthouse used by the Kardashian Sisters to tape Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami is on Ocean Drive between 1st and 2nd Streets in Miami Beach, but I don't think they use it anymore, especially since Kourtney and Kim have now "taken New York."
If you're a fan of The Golden Girls, you won't find the house used for the exterior shots. It's actually in Los Angeles. The address mentioned on the show was 6151 Richmond Street, but that address doesn't exist in Miami.
The largest college in the area is, as you might have guessed, the University of Miami. Its new Donna E. Shalala Student Center, named for the former University President and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton, is at 1330 Miller Drive, about 7 miles southwest of downtown. University Station on Metrorail.
Florida International University is at 11200 SW 8th Street, 16 miles west of downtown. Its FIU Stadium, seating 23,500, is at 11310 SW 17th Street. Bus 8. It should not be confused with Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Its 30,000 FAU Stadium is at FAU Blvd. & N. University Drive. Tri-Rail to Boca Raton station. On October 14, 2014, the U.S. soccer team had a 1-1 draw with Honduras at FAU Stadium.
No President has ever been born in Florida, or grew up there, or even had his permanent residence there. Two men who served as Governor ran for the Democratic Party's nomination for the office, but neither came particularly close to the nomination: Reubin Askew (served 1971 to 1979) dropped out after the 1984 New Hampshire Primary, and Bob Graham (1979 to 1987, U.S. Senate 1987 to 2005) didn't even make it to calendar year 2004, much less the Iowa Caucuses.
Nevertheless, Miami has a key role in Presidential history. On February 15, 1933, President-elect Franklin Roosevelt and Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak were at a rally in Bayfront Park, when Giuseppe Zangara started shooting. FDR was not hit, but Cermak was, and he died on March 6, just 2 days after FDR was inaugurated. Bayfront Park station on Metromover.
More recently, the building where the votes for Dade County were supposed to be counted in the 2000 election was besieged by protesters, hired by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, so Miami was ground zero for the theft of the election by the George W. Bush campaign. The Stephen P. Clark Government Center, 111 NW 1st Street, downtown. Government Center station.
The Watsco Center, formerly the University of Miami Convocation Center, hosted a Presidential Debate between Bush and John Kerry in 2004. 1245 Dauer Drive, in Coral Gables. Tri-Rail to University. And Lynn University in Boca Raton hosted a Presidential Debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in 2012. 3601 N. Military Trail. Tri-Rail to Boca Raton, then Bus 2.
The Kennedy family had a compound in Palm Beach, but sold it in 1995. It's still in private hands, and not open to the public. Also in Palm Beach is the Mar-a-Lago Club, a hotel and members-only club built in 1927 by cereal company heiress and socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post. In 1985, it was bought by Donald Trump, and he's turned it into his "Southern White House," disgracing the nation there every other weekend. 1100 S. Ocean Blvd. Bus 1 from downtown West Palm Beach will get you to Dixie Highway & Southern Blvd. (U.S. Routes 1 & 98), but you'd have to walk almost 2 miles over Southern Blvd., across Lake Worth Lagoon and Bingham Island, to get to the sandbar on which Palm Beach sits.
There was a "Little White House" in Key West (111 Front Street), used by Harry Truman (and, to a lesser extent, his immediate successors Dwight D. Eisenhower and Kennedy), and it's open to tours. But that's a long way from Miami: 160 miles, with no public transportation between the 2 cities, and Greyhound charges $110 round-trip for a 4 1/2-hour ride.
Miami's top 2 museums are the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), at 1103 Biscayne Blvd., Museum Park station on Metromover; and the Patricia and Philip Frost Museum of Science, at 3280 S. Miami Avenue, Vizcaya station on Metrorail.
For the moment, the tallest building in Miami, and in the entire State of Florida, is the 800-foot Four Seasons Hotel and Tower, which opened in 2003 at 1435 Brickell Avenue. Financial District station on Metromover. But the city's building boom, including the bayfront "Biscayne Wall" is going so quickly that it's about to be surpassed by the 868-foot Panorama Tower, at 1101 Brickell Avenue. Tenth Street Promenade station on Metromover. And that won't last long as the tallest, since it will be surpassed in 2020 by the 1,005-foot One Bayfront Plaza, at 100 S. Biscayne Blvd. Bayfront Park station on Metromover.
The tallest of Miami's older buildings is the Freedom Tower, built in 1925 as the home of the now-defunct Miami News. It now houses Miami-Dade College and a Museum. 600 Biscayne Blvd., downtown, across from the American Airlines Arena. Freedom Tower station on Metromover.
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You don't have to be old to be a New Yorker in Miami -- but it helps to be a sports fan. You should be able to enjoy yourself, even if neither the Knicks nor the Nets currently seem to be good enough to, pardon the pun, beat the Heat.
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