welcome to Miami a sign and the sea and
the sand they call Miami the Magic City
Miami's known for its cultural diversity
given its close proximity to Latin
America but it's also a rapidly
expanding metropolis with deep roots and
art music and everything excess this
unique mashup of coexisting cultures
creates an energy that can't be found
anywhere else will travel along Biscayne
Boulevard the main artery to the city
stretching north to south as it takes us
through neighborhoods is marvelous and
as strange as the city itself along the
way we catch up with the people who give
Miami its vibrancy from big-budget
property developers to international DJs
former drug traffickers and street
artists and get to see what makes Miami
and its energy so distinct this is
streets by vice to begin to understand
the continuous growth of Miami is to
understand the city's drug trade history
during the late 1970s and 80s the
Medellin Cartel from Colombia headed by
Pablo Escobar trafficked an estimated 38
billion dollars worth of cocaine into
Miami this massive influx of money
changed the face of the city forever we
headed north on Biscayne to the
legendary Steve's pizza to chat with one
of Escobar's primary smugglers Mickey
Munday Mickey's the last surviving
cocaine cowboy a term which refers the
city's drug trade warriors during
Miami's Wild West years of the 1980s
after the cocaine Empire in Miami fell
in the late 80s
Mickey served 10 years in prison for
drug trafficking and went on to become
an informant for the FBI why do you
think cocaine specifically did so well
in Miami it did so well everywhere when
the rest of the country was going to
hell we had so much money and it started
growing 1978 the economy
was getting bid at everywhere and the
interest rates were through the roof the
Bahamas cut off fishing for lobster so
you had a whole lot of Cuban fleet here
of boats so they just changed what they
were doing federal agents in Florida
today talked up the nation's largest
coke bus ever more than four tons of
cocaine hidden in hollowed-out boards of
a cargo ship boxcar and there was no
enforcement I mean there was but there
was so little compared to the amount
that was coming in you couldn't do it I
mean it was right in front of everybody
South Florida has a huge coastline you
got all this Everglades out here to the
west of us with all these little canals
you can land an airplane there so it's
really just a great landscape for import
and export yes how quickly did things
around here start changing once drug
money started to come in even if you
weren't in a drug business you were
affected by it
you could be four or five steps away
from the actual drug money but you were
getting something out of it this town
became more and more attractive the town
is grown and grown South Florida is
basically a pyramid you have to keep
getting more people so you keep building
more if the building stops everything
stops and the economy really falls apart
large influxes of money come into miami
in different ways these days so in
Wynwood basically the face of Miami's
arts district it really is the kind of
place that shows directly on its walls
how much Miami's been changing it's
become a hotbed for international
big-money buyers and dealers last year's
art basel offered up over three billion
dollars worth of collectors thankfully
the international art market has taken
notice of Miami locals if you walk
through Winwood and take a look at its
walls you'll probably see Dave a whole
sniffs clue honest cos T's work his art
is present throughout the entire city
the next day we meet up with him one of
his murals where Biscayne intersects the
art district I guess
important one for some people is
graffiti vs. street art the way I see it
though is it you know there are two
totally different things
somebody that just paints a one
broad daylight or whatever it's not
really graffiti in my opinion we're I'm
saying yeah like I'm not the the Oracle
of graffiti that's for sure
so this is like I would consider it a
mural can you tell me about some of the
characters on here
yeah like this is a self-portrait of me
this is a character by Dahmer IMAX it's
like some ghetto ass dude smoking a
blunt gettin head that's one of my
characters she's like a seahorse mermaid
type of chick but Miami's had like an
ill scene for like a long time
they're still seen in Miami me and my
brother first-generation Cubans born in
Miami when you're growing up a certain
way and like you know you're infused
with the that your parents
were accused with you know saying so
like the Cuban culture is very special
it's very unique
when did your parents come over uh well
my dad came around the time of the Peter
Pan stuff and then my mom came a little
bit before that a-holes family were part
of a massive exodus of Cuban children to
Miami in the 1960s as Castro's communist
revolution began to engulf Cuba parents
became desperate to not give up their
parental rights to the newly instated
government a Pharisee on Pedro pond or
operation Peter Pan was a mass exodus of
14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors to the
United States between 1960 and 1962 when
arriving to Miami Cubans came to the
Freedom Tower one of his canes oldest
and most iconic buildings in order to
receive medical services and get the
documentation required for their new
lives in the United States we met a
Luisa a cassava who liked a-holes family
came to Miami when she was just 13 with
her younger sister during operation
Pedro Pan she walked me through how
significant the impact of Cuban
immigration has been on the city the
first fatal bond children came on the
flight on December 26 1960 as newcomers
came to the Freedom Tower they were sent
to camps around Miami these quickly
filled up in El Luisa and her
eight-year-old sister were sent to an
orphanage in Buffalo New York
waiting to reunite with their parents
when we reunited with our parents here
in Miami we became our parents parents
we had to like help them we already knew
some English so we had to go with them
to translate if they had to call the
telephone company The Electric Company
we had to get on the phone and translate
for them we was very fast it's
impossible today to imagine what it
would be like to have to flee your
country leave your parents leave your
life in order to start new in another
place entirely equally impossible to
think about the government teaming up
with the church to facilitate the escape
safety and integration of 14,000
children cuban-americans account for
over 34 percent of Miami's population
making Cuban culture and the Cuban
experience intrinsic to the story of
Miami it's everywhere you look from the
music to the fashion to the food we're
here in Wynwood just down the street we
would walls to visit la fama cafeteria a
local joint that serves some of the
finest in sweet and savory hams fried
foods and coffees that'll knock you on
your ass
hola
ah quiero una Mae anoche una Cola even
passed Alito from Huawei caso so they
all know the classic Cuban same English
Cuban bread pressed with a healthy
combination of pork ham cheese and
special pickles and mustard but a little
less known and possibly more influential
is the many anoche comes on an egg bun a
little sweeter personally things a
little more delicious
that's it it's on sweet its salty it's a
little sour but you get from the mustard
and the pickles gotcha this is what's
gonna get me through the rest of the day
true Cuban coffee a colada cortadita is
some of the strongest that you'll find
there's a ton of sugar in it it's it's
brutally dark it's smoky it's rich and
it'll get you caffeinated influence from
the Caribbean it's not just found in the
food here but the music as well
this city is responsible for the global
phenomenon known as Miami bass Miami
bass helped to further cement the
relentless party culture that still
exists in the city today we met up with
Walshy fire a de facto Miami native and
member of the International DJ group
Major Lazer
while she works while she works Pro
these rooms are as big as you stand up
next to this town next to that man what
I did 36 some X is ridiculous
so a little bit about your background in
the Miami bass scene um when did you
first encounter it and how did you find
your way into it when I first moved to
America everybody in my neighborhood was
also a third world or like myself you
take a dominican person and merengue and
how fast that is you let like their son
do something with that give it a little
bit of a hip-hop flavor Ida a de way to
it and then you know saying you start to
see the early beginnings of Miami Bass
you got to think about it man if it's
not ignorant little ow door ignorant Li
showing off don't
with it here so it's like hey we want
some we want some you know I'm
saying and so you know you listen to
songs like that nowhere else in America
would make a song like that you know I'm
saying has to be some that as soon
as you leave Florida
they just won't get it
so we're here at Dogma this place always
looked like this this is your product of
gentrification right here I'm saying
this was a bad Street to be on would you
ever walk it
no never this was crackheads century you
know Biscayne from 79th to maybe 62nd it
was all motels nothing but motels that
run up and down the street I think
within the next decade gentrification is
going to be people are not gonna believe
how cleaned up the city's gonna be one
of the most visible examples of this
rapid gentrification in Miami is the
vagabond groups overnight transformation
of a series of motels on Biscayne we're
here on Biscayne Boulevard and northen
74th streets talk to average a founder
of the Vagabond group and recreator of
hotel developers often get cast as the
villains and the story that is
gentrification can you talk to me a bit
about this game which is you know such a
transitional Avenue for him what is
gentrification change is good
look what happened to Biscayne Boulevard
we came in and we helped change it so
that became became the safe place that
was we did the historic restoration but
as a result of that property prices go
up that creates price pressure on rents
and things like that and people get
kicked out the minute that we started to
do something everybody took notice
quickly in one reason why they took
notice quickly is because a lot of
people travel up and down the scheme
Boulevard the scheme Boulevard was Main
Street it was in fact it was the only
way to what they call quote the magic
City Miami was called the Magic City
because it happened so quickly overnight
and this game Boulevard was the
connection growing up you could not find
a motel on here that didn't have a
police car or three parked in the
driveway
a lot of the motels house the drugs and
the prostitution everything so you you
would see the working girls on the
street there's no doubt we realize that
if you took away the place where people
were doing those types of businesses you
would change the neighborhood although
what Audra is doing is essentially
making old Miami new again rapid new
property development in Miami is
definitely causing a shift in some
populations in neighborhoods one of
those neighborhoods currently feeling
the displacing effects of gentrification
is Little Haiti home to nearly four
generations of Haitian immigrants we
want to get down barber shop in Little
Haiti to meet with our friend j-dog a
local entrepreneur a native of Little
Haiti
little Haiti is really getting smaller
now a lot of people saw their property
and moved out raise the taxes on the
property the people can't pay the taxes
on it they have to sell so then you have
these investors and all these other
people coming out coming with sweet
deals but at the tail end it's not
really a sweet deal you're losing your
house that you stayed in for so long and
you're really not getting the top value
for the house can you talk to me a bit
about the history of Little Haiti
Haitians first came over here this is
was one of the places most Haitians
migrated settled in the immigrant
experience is what makes Miami along
with immigrants comes new traditions in
the case of Little Haiti it was voodoo
every arm culture practice some type of
Voodoo but the Haitians that you know
they have their own that they worship or
do what they do they call it spiritual
cleansing you know that's what they call
it and you know some people even if some
people don't say someone like me wanted
to get spiritual cleansing where would I
go those that do it they don't talk
about it this mad that I know um no you
can get it done with them and you have
an experience that you won't forget
whatever you need in mind me can get
done that's one thing about laying the
religion of Voodoo started in the
Caribbean as a way for African slaves to
practice their traditional religion
under the rule of their French masters
who are trying to impose Christianity
onto them its modern-day incarnations
are rooted in the belief that certain
voodoo rituals performed before the
Haitian Revolution of 1791 led the
slaves to successfully overthrow their
French rulers voodoo has long been
misrepresented in popular Western
culture
so after j-dog mentioned he could
introduce me to a voodoo priest I wanted
to learn more we're in Little Haiti
we're about to head over to a Botanica
to pick out some supplies living in
Miami there are boat Anika's in almost
every neighborhood you visit these
brightly colored shops sell folk
medicines religious candles and other
products regarded as magical or
alternative medicines after we gathered
our supplies from the Botanica we headed
to the priests house to begin
the cleanse ceremony started off with
the priest calling in the spirits to
help cleanse me my shoes the tying of a
scarf around his waist represented that
he had been possessed by the spirit the
spirit then greeted me and began to
reveal my luck I don't know even moves
left bangla so this one this is pushes
south say you have a very luck on to
help change my apparent bad luck and
provide spiritual protection he prepared
a special batch of powder oils and
Haitian rum and proceeded to dwell
cleanse me he also insisted on cleansing
my entire crew
I just got out of our foodie ceremony
involved a bunch of different since the
rest of us we're gonna drive us probably
gonna want to drive with the windows
down so he smell pretty pungent I
decided to head out for the night to see
if my newfound luck really worked my
first stop was over to Miami Beach for
drinks with Tara Solomon known to Miami
residents as the queen of the night Tara
helped revolutionize the nightlife scene
in Miami so she talked me through how
the city became one of the premier party
destinations in the world Cheers
and you were drinking the Cosmo which
was developed in Miami Beach back then I
think we were experimenting with Miami
Beach and nightlife and we really
invented the bottle service it did not
exist in other parts of you know the
world basically and also the DJ as a
celebrity and other cities including Las
Vegas took that concept and ran with it
you know we're New York's kind of
gentler crazier cousin
Tara's right about Miami's unique
nightlife ready to experience this for
myself I met up with the reigning queen
of nightlife in Miami
Veronica Jessa Hey Veronica's been
hosting some of the wildest parties in
Miami for years now if the music's right
that's really what drives you to like
alright well we gotta go cuz DJ's
playing or this bands playing and we're
gonna go cuz there's just so much
good music out there every night you
could literally go to five different
places and the night sometimes does not
end tonight Winwood's we're taught dive
bars dance parties and strip clubs are
only a few blocks away from each other
we Club hopped from grounds for their
weekly reggae and dancehall night then
to the electric pickle for some
old-school house music before making our
way downtown
as a club 11 if you want to keep the
party going all night club 11 is where
you want to be it's a mega club with the
24-hour liquor license and some of the
Best Exotic entertainment in the country
despite the rapid growth and constant
change
Miami's future looks brighter than ever
the future success of Miami is never
forgetting its soul
Miami's always been a city in flux but
it's the unique blend of different
communities that give the city its true
soul Biscayne Boulevard and the
different neighborhoods it runs through
reflect just how diverse and special
Miami really is it's called the Magic
City for a reason and it can be felt in
every dance club painted wall corner
Botanica and accent