Visiting the Miami Library

As a visitor to Miami, Florida, I found myself seeking community & information about the city.

What better place to find it in then the main branch of the city’s library?

I reached the library via a combination of kickscooter and the Metromover–a fare-free, automated lightrail system:

Across from the library’s entrance there is a museum which was unfortunately not open when I visited:

It was fascinating to see the social services being provided on the main floor of the library, where those seeking help from social services queued up to be matched with a social worker (volunteer?) who sat with them at a table.

I did not eavesdrop on the conversations to understand the extent of help that is provided.

I have not seen California libraries used in this fashion.

Proceeding to the second floor, I dug into the over-sized collection of photography books:

Photos, unrelated to Miami but fascinating none-the-less:

Then I progressed to the Florida-specific sections of the library:

The books were fascinating:

There were also some overhead photos (presumably captured from airplane), showing the Miami area in 2004 (~20 years ago) illustrating how sprawling and classically suburban the land uses are:

This last photo was memorable enough for me to be able to locate in my phone’s map app:

The downtown at the time is pretty modestly developed–but is now being built out more:

There were some archived magazines, with fascinating dated advertisements–some advertising suburbia, others advertising urbanity:

There were some mind-blowing well-aged documents on regional transportation initiatives:

In 1984, Florida performed due diligence on creating a high-speed rail connecting Tampa-Orlando-Miami:

They performed more studies over the years, like this one in 1994:

Several decades later this project was in fact realized by Brighltine (a public-private partnership).

Interest in real estate speculation and how to do it has been documented in Miami for a century:

Having reached my fill of reading I exited the library and made my way back home, passing the county courthouse:

If you want to know a city then make your way to its library.

Do not drive.

Walk, bike, scooter, take public transit.

You will learn more than you can imagine.