Miami’s Bayside
Miami is probably the only city of its kind where you can go fishing right down town and not have to worry about the usual downtown “industrialness” you get in other cities. (pollution, stench and dirtiness) While not totally exempt from some of this, it’s still one of the prettiest big-city downtowns you’ll ever visit.
Miami has done a lot to make its downtown area “big-business commercial” with a dizzying array of skyscrapers. If you work downtown, you’re within a nice walk to Miami’s Bayside park, scene of the annual Winter Music Conference, and the Bayside Mall, just north of the heart of Miami’s downtown .
The view looking north from just south of Bayside from the Suntrust complex, showing the Bayside marina, buildings, and Bayfront Park adjacent south
Not real easy to see in this photo, but Miami's Bayside mall is right at the bottom of this shot.
Miami has a number of residential high-rises, mixed right in with commercial.
Most of the residential high rises are less than 10 years old, many a part of the real estate boom and bust of the past 3 years. (You can get a nice high-rise condo downtown now at very reasonable prices.)
Miami’s downtown past wasn’t so pretty however, and a good portion of South Florida’s tourism was ceded to Fort Lauderdale, or to the Keys. Miami got a nasty reputation as a cruel place where you’d get mugged or murdered. Good folk coming from the north saw Miami as a dangerous place. That’s beginning to change as Miami cleans up its image.
It’s been a slow process, and one of the nicest enhancements in the past 20 years to the downtown landscape is Miami’s Bayside which was built in 1987. Featuring a marina, restaurants, and tourist shops, dive tours, and boat tours of the bay and surrounding areas.
Bayside’s got a food court like you’ll find in most downtown areas, with a great mix of local flavor, and of course a plethora of bars where you can get plenty to drink.
There's a Mambo but no Joomla or Drupal
You can get drunk and go boating (slow or fast) and leave the driving to professionals.
You can also check out a local installment of the Hard Rock Cafe franchise.
Not far away just to the west of Bayside is Miami's Freedom Tower, its copolla seen here in a silhouette at sunset
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