On a Tuesday afternoon in mid-May I returned to Miami for the first time since the summer before 9/11, flying into Miami airport for the first time in even longer. From the plane you could see - on the left - Miami Beach and Key Biscayne, then the bay, and - on the right - the mainland - Miami, Coral Gables, and all. More mainland appeared seconds later.
The Miami airport was of course full of Spanish. I quickly made my way to the passenger pick-up area where my friend Andrea (high school runner, journalism, and Latin student who was classmates with Penny whom I visited - with her husband Christoph and frequently her mother Dede - when Andrea and Christoph lived in Minneapolis - before I had a job up there - on Thanksgivings.
Out from under the parking garage in Andrea's mini-SUV, the sunshihe returned and palm trees appeared.
Andrea, a lawyer who has worked federal judges in St. Paul and Miami, actually had her eyes open while she drove.
The Miami skyline sppeared.
We passed some probably Florida's Turnpike toll booths but Andrea had a Sun Pass which automatically deducts money from her bank account - or something like that - so we didn't have to stop.
The skyline loomed larger.
And larger.
Andrea was going back to work. There's apparently lots of security around federal buildings, and Andrea said she was surprised this security guard, whom she knew, didn't go ahead and search through my luggage for bombs, etc.
I meet three of Andrea's colleagues, including the federal magistrate, or judge, a Latino man roughly our age, for whom she works. On the way in there were TV vans set up. That afternoon - in the third such trial - a federal jury had convicted the Liberty City Six - like St. Paul (MN) defendants I had read in Abby's journal's rough draft the week before - people who federal agent-provocateurs had essentially entrapped to be involved in bombings and the like - but they never got very far before being arrested. Two previous juries had deadlocked, but the third jury convicted five of the six men - African Americans from nearby Liberty City. Andrea had actually been tangentially involved in the case - as the judge she works with had ruled on some defense lawyer motions to suppress federal evidence - When I mentioned the critical article in Abby's journal, Andrea conceded that there were questions about the federal case. But she had done her job, and five of the men had been convicted. I did mention to Andrea that I had posed the question to the author of the draft article: Even if it's not fair to the individual defendants, let's say there were would-be terrorists out there who were rational in that they wanted to succeed. Isn't it true that if there was a good chance that whenever they tried to plan such an attack with others the others were federal agents who would ultimately foil their plans and get them imprisoned - would that discourage would-be terrorists because it would be unlikely that they could succeed (unless tying up all of these government resources was a key objective of theirs).
Andrea showed me several of the downtown Miami courthouse and federal buildings - including the one in which she works - on our way out of the area.
Below may be the buiding that includes the federal prison holding cells where the Liberty City Six were being held on the nights of the trial.
In the middle of the picture below is a track for the old People Mover, one of three Miami area passenger rail systems. This is a kind of monorail that goes around the downtown and costs nothing. It reminds me a bit of the train around downtown Detroit, but I think it's more used. I rode it during my book research trip. A more conventional commuter rail - a little like the subways in Washington - I took later in the trip. Two unusual features: it's got no underground section, and there is only one line - north-south - kind of like the subway in Pusan, South Korea. The third cog in this wheel is also a single north-south line that runs along the freight and AMTRAK lines west of town from northern Miami/Hialeah all the way past West Palm Beach, partly along Interstate 95. My transportation planner friend Kurt had criticized this line 10 years ago for going so west of town, but I imagine this is the only place they could find affordable, already laid out and available tracks. I had never seen it until I took it later in my trip.
When I visited Miami for my book research 10 years, a very new pink arena - home of the NBA expansion team the Miami Heat - sat several blocks from the bayfront, on the north end of downtown - along the People Mover path - near the border of downtown and the historically African American Overtown neighborhood (south of what is now Liberty City). Early in the 1990s a riot that a book I taught several times - "City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami" - analyzes took place in Overtown. Over that, many Anglos wouldn't go to Overtown or Liberty City - and so the arena was just 2-3 blocks too far north and west. So Miami leaders managed to have a whole new arena built just a few blocks away - but on the bayfront - providing a great picture of the city for those watching basketball games on TV - in the new American Airlines arena. Now, Miami's other professional sports teams, the NFL's Miami Dolphins and Major League Baseball's Florida Marlins, had already fled Miami-Dade County for Broward County, the next county up. But Pat Riley, the former Lakers coach who had just left the New York Knicks to manage and coach the Heat, said: It's the MIAMI Heat - We're staying. And so the Heat left Overtown and moved 3-4 blocks to the bayfront, staying in Miami. Below - in front of Andrea's SUV - is the new arena (white).
Seconds later we were driving by "Freedom Tower," the former "Miami News" where refugees from Cuba were processed for many years after the arrival in South Florida.
And larger.
Andrea was going back to work. There's apparently lots of security around federal buildings, and Andrea said she was surprised this security guard, whom she knew, didn't go ahead and search through my luggage for bombs, etc.
I meet three of Andrea's colleagues, including the federal magistrate, or judge, a Latino man roughly our age, for whom she works. On the way in there were TV vans set up. That afternoon - in the third such trial - a federal jury had convicted the Liberty City Six - like St. Paul (MN) defendants I had read in Abby's journal's rough draft the week before - people who federal agent-provocateurs had essentially entrapped to be involved in bombings and the like - but they never got very far before being arrested. Two previous juries had deadlocked, but the third jury convicted five of the six men - African Americans from nearby Liberty City. Andrea had actually been tangentially involved in the case - as the judge she works with had ruled on some defense lawyer motions to suppress federal evidence - When I mentioned the critical article in Abby's journal, Andrea conceded that there were questions about the federal case. But she had done her job, and five of the men had been convicted. I did mention to Andrea that I had posed the question to the author of the draft article: Even if it's not fair to the individual defendants, let's say there were would-be terrorists out there who were rational in that they wanted to succeed. Isn't it true that if there was a good chance that whenever they tried to plan such an attack with others the others were federal agents who would ultimately foil their plans and get them imprisoned - would that discourage would-be terrorists because it would be unlikely that they could succeed (unless tying up all of these government resources was a key objective of theirs).
Andrea showed me several of the downtown Miami courthouse and federal buildings - including the one in which she works - on our way out of the area.
We drove on some regular streets to get between the federal buildings.
Below may be the buiding that includes the federal prison holding cells where the Liberty City Six were being held on the nights of the trial.
We also drove through some downtown Miami streets. Somehow I don't think I had ever driven through much of this during my previous Miami visits, including the 4 1/2 day visit for research for my Florida book for youth and young adults. Much of the downtown was deserted but eventually we got to some stores that were still open and a little pedestrian activity.
In the middle of the picture below is a track for the old People Mover, one of three Miami area passenger rail systems. This is a kind of monorail that goes around the downtown and costs nothing. It reminds me a bit of the train around downtown Detroit, but I think it's more used. I rode it during my book research trip. A more conventional commuter rail - a little like the subways in Washington - I took later in the trip. Two unusual features: it's got no underground section, and there is only one line - north-south - kind of like the subway in Pusan, South Korea. The third cog in this wheel is also a single north-south line that runs along the freight and AMTRAK lines west of town from northern Miami/Hialeah all the way past West Palm Beach, partly along Interstate 95. My transportation planner friend Kurt had criticized this line 10 years ago for going so west of town, but I imagine this is the only place they could find affordable, already laid out and available tracks. I had never seen it until I took it later in my trip.
A high rise in one of the two pictures below, Andrea told me, was part of a big new downtown hotel project that the recession has slowed down.
When I visited Miami for my book research 10 years, a very new pink arena - home of the NBA expansion team the Miami Heat - sat several blocks from the bayfront, on the north end of downtown - along the People Mover path - near the border of downtown and the historically African American Overtown neighborhood (south of what is now Liberty City). Early in the 1990s a riot that a book I taught several times - "City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami" - analyzes took place in Overtown. Over that, many Anglos wouldn't go to Overtown or Liberty City - and so the arena was just 2-3 blocks too far north and west. So Miami leaders managed to have a whole new arena built just a few blocks away - but on the bayfront - providing a great picture of the city for those watching basketball games on TV - in the new American Airlines arena. Now, Miami's other professional sports teams, the NFL's Miami Dolphins and Major League Baseball's Florida Marlins, had already fled Miami-Dade County for Broward County, the next county up. But Pat Riley, the former Lakers coach who had just left the New York Knicks to manage and coach the Heat, said: It's the MIAMI Heat - We're staying. And so the Heat left Overtown and moved 3-4 blocks to the bayfront, staying in Miami. Below - in front of Andrea's SUV - is the new arena (white).
Seconds later we were driving by "Freedom Tower," the former "Miami News" where refugees from Cuba were processed for many years after the arrival in South Florida.
-- Perry
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