Overbuilt, Crowded and Poor

Trip Photos..

Minnesotans are, generally, spoiled by our beautiful, still wide open spaces. We live in a densely populated neighborhood in the Twin Cities, but we seem to have more trees than people, and the tall buildings in Minneapolis look like Superman's Metropolis in the distance. It's all so comfortable and clean that we forget our Twin Cities poverty rate of about 22%, and I tend to look on Miami with an overly critical eye.

Yesterday we took the convenient and free Metrorail to a stop not far from our Bayside Marketplace destination. We walked through the park beside the water, where many homeless people seem to congregate. A woman on a bench near us fled as a police car approached. All around us, the tall buildings had stolen that should have been beach. All beautiful in many shades of white, in sun or shadow. The city is mostly well maintained and clean.

We walked to the marketplace along a curvy path. The people around us spoke Spanish, mostly. A French Canadian woman tried to get her husband to put away his camera and move along. "Le temps file", she said impatiently. That was enough for me to go over to his spot and take a few pictures of my own.

Bayside Marketplace is full of restaurants, all blaring different music, including Christmas carols. Hawkers everywhere, selling boat rides and bus tours. I knew right away that we had been here before. An entertainer with hardly any audience performed gamely on a stage. When we visited Miami in 2008, we heard a Cuban group playing dance music for many couples. The experience was kind of magical.

I felt sorry for all the people who have to eke out a living in that noisy place. The entire area was shabby and dated, in screaming need of a makeover. Soon!