They got a good taste during the Cuban Mariel invasion and the 70s and 80s drug wars.
What happened is that during the 50s and much of the 60s Miami still lived in an age of relative innocence with very little violent crime. I remember Ralph Renick going into a fury every so often about the illegal sale of Bolitos (non-government lottery tickets) but that was about it. Things changed swiftly after the Mariel boatlift in 1980. You can see some of that in Scarface where blissful Miami Beach went into a steep violent crime wave. Also most of the retirees living there reached the end of their natural lifespans with few to replace them.
Anyway, the Mariel boatlift people were eventually mostly gone (Read Elmore Leonard for a sense of what was going on during that era). And the TV show "Miami Vice" brought back a lot of tourism (especially from Europe) that was lost before. Now when you go to the hotels in Miami Beach, most of the visitors are from South America.
In many ways, Miami has been revitalized so that is a positive. However, that age of 1950s innocence in which slot machines and risque "Girly Show" signs were at the forefront of a "crime wave" is Gone With The Wind. Check out "Surfside 6" shows to get a bit of a feel of old innocent Miami.
“They got a good taste during the Cuban Mariel invasion and the 70s and 80s drug wars.”
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I was living in Miami from 1960 through 1999.
From 1972, I was in CSI. Later moved to “ballistics” (Now known as “Forensic Ballistics”).
Drug/murder crime drove our lab from three examiners in 1978 to ten by 1990.
The County’s original name (Dade County Sheriff’s Office) changed a few times, to where it is now known as the “Miami-Dade Police Department”.
Assisted NEW State Attorney Janet Reno (appointed by (D) Governor Bob Graham) in her first case, known as the “Round Table Restaurant Police Shootout”. She failed to get a Grand Jury indictment against the Coral Gables officer (who was hired from Egypt, btw).
In retirement now, spending leisure time six hours north (and six hours south) of Miami.
Draw a line across from Sarasota to Stuart, and you’ll find English is in a severe decline throughout South Florida.
:(