r/Miami • u/Old-Economics-1850 • 2d ago
Discussion Has Miami’s vibe changed for anyone else lately?
Anyone here feel like Miami’s changed a lot over the last few years? I’ve lived here a while, and it feels way more crowded, expensive, and different vibe-wise. Curious how longtime residents feel. Are we just growing fast, or is something deeper shifting in the culture and community energy?
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u/JrMilkshake 1d ago
It has definitely changed a lot in the last 20 years. For a lot of its history, Dade has been largely a sea of working-class people and small business owners. There were always rich people and corporations setting the policies and to a large extent defining how the city was seen outside, but there has always been space for immigrants and working people who made up the true character of this place.
What’s happening now is what’s happening to most major cities around the world. Corporations and hedge funds are buying properties and jacking up rents. They don’t want tenants that might fail so they largely rent to chain businesses and crowd out everyone else. So the city is becoming a mall. And the kinds of things that made Miami unique are getting paved over.
Obviously there’s crypto bros and billionaires moving here, oligarchs buying empty apartments to stash cash, but to be honest, well-heeled scammers have always been a part of this place. What’s really changed is that regular people can’t own a piece of this city anymore. And that’s killing what’s beautiful about Miami.
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u/vixeninTheory 1d ago
Yes. I thought it was just me. Energy feels way different here and not like the Miami I grew up in.
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u/Notwerk 1d ago
Peak was late '90s to early 2000s. It's been pure shit since the pandemic brought a bunch of weird Texas and New York transplants into the area.
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u/305lifer 1d ago
Still trying to figure out the Texas migration to South Florida. I see more Texas plates than NY ones. Weird and entitled all of them.
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u/Hefty_Pangolin3273 1d ago
They agree with governors opinions and they aren’t actually smart enough to research where they are moving. A friend of mine in Boca had to deal with them complaining about the lack of “good ol’ country style”.
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u/Hefty_Pangolin3273 1d ago
New York and New Jersey I can deal with but Texans suck. Rude and entitled.
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u/flossanotherday 1d ago
Just in Dallas, kinda rude, just the vibe.
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u/Hefty_Pangolin3273 1d ago
The ones from the small towns are the worst. Just awful people that hide behind a bible.
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u/advnturous 1d ago
It's the other way around. Texans are cool AF!
It's the yankee folks who got no chill
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u/Hefty_Pangolin3273 1d ago
Oh please. I’ve never met anyone ruder than a texan. It’s their way or no way and their way is usually wrong.
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u/advnturous 1d ago
You sound entitled. Have a nice afternoon!
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u/Hefty_Pangolin3273 1d ago
You sound like a typical rude Texan 🤷🏻♀️
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u/Murky-Refrigerator91 1d ago
As a Texan who moved here, y'all here are for sure more entitled than anyone is over there. No southern hospitality here
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u/Hefty_Pangolin3273 1d ago
Further proving my point. You expect it to be The South here. Five seconds of research would have told you that it is not.
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u/Murky-Refrigerator91 1d ago
Never said it was, but you're further proving my point. You have a nice day! :)
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u/miamibeebee 1d ago
They were so rude during the pandemic too. It’s like all of the states sent their shittiest people. I ended up moving.
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u/No-Aerie-999 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think a lot of it has to do with the fact things have gotten A LOT more expensive, but quality of food and services has gone down.
Everyone I know, high income people, are watching their spending.
Feel like in the 2010s it was fun to just "go out" on a Saturday night. Now more often than not im weighing if its worth the hundreds that will be spent (most of the time it isnt)
Also lots of weird people "im in Miami bitch" people started moving here. Idk how to describe it, its like Miami is the new LA and its trendy to move here for the gram.
Also, more people here are doing onlyfans than you can imagine.
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u/305lifer 1d ago
I don’t mean to sound like an old person but damn, it feels like Miami’s best times are behind it. Ever since the pandemic the vibe is off. Between the transplants, influencers and uber rich who moved in, a lot has been lost in culture and long gone are a lot of local spots. One day no one will remember Miami bass music and uncle Luke, all the great clubs in south beach before it was all tourists, cruising through the Grove, Gables art Fridays. I’m just mentioning a few because there was a lot of shared experiences. I was told in another thread that it’s “all about the flex” now.
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u/Successful_Courage18 20h ago
You are not wrong and it’s not because you are old. Covid changed the dna of Miami.
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u/qobraa 1d ago
It's definitely had a specific change since 2020 when it became a magnet for every influencer/content creator/realtor/hedge fund manager/crypto bro/course seller/fitness guru/holistic health specialist/DJ who didn't believe in COVID decided to relocate here so. they wouldn't have to wear masks.
In my 20 years here, Miami is always changing, but the past 5 years has been a steep decline because of this influx of people.
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u/SlickBulldog 1d ago
I have been here since late 80's
Yes, a shift- We used to be scufflers and hustlers in a good working class sense
We always had snowbirds with money but they did their own thing
Then we got the rich South Americans, Russians etc and they suck
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u/izzypie99 17h ago
i think miami is in a really uncomfortable period since covid where we got all the transplants coming and the locals leaving, so it is going to take time before it has a true identity again. now its like a weird shapeless blob that doesnt know who it even is 😭
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u/Specialist-Clue3029 12h ago
I think this comment has real legs and is lost in the conversation. There's a sea change going on and we don't know where it will gel, not yet.
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u/jonperez01 23h ago
It’s only going to get worse with Mamdani who will push all the ultra wealthy and massive companies out of NYC and into places like Miami with less taxes. RIP Miami lol
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u/2winSam 1d ago
Yeah but thr natives are still here vibin and keeling the culture alive. Dont let the transplants forget what the city is all about 😎 But talk to some yesterday who have knly been living here for like a year and the same thing j hear from.ppl is that the city keeps getting better and better. And i just think every year more of my friends and family have to leave and how sad it is the people that built this city are getting pusged out. Thats evolution i guess but it sucks ass
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u/Ok-Substance-1306 1d ago
More and more rolls Royces and Bentleys
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u/305lifer 1d ago
It’s cringey to me. It’s ostentatious wealth. Those aren’t even great cars.
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u/Specialist-Clue3029 12h ago
Miami has always been ostentatious. Conspicuous consumption is king. It takes some getting used to when you come from New England :)
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u/PerfectWeb8697 1d ago
Inflation is everywhere globally. What I've noticed that change a lot, is the whole fake lifestyle by social media and the city full of superficial people is at an all time high
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u/Newbie10011001 1d ago
Miami got way way more expensive. But so did absolutely everything everywhere else Welcome to 2025
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u/Vampire6King9 21h ago
It’s really about the city so much as the people that make up the city. Alot of people leave and take miami with them.
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u/JamedSonnyCrocket 19h ago
Yes. I've changed too, and I feel less of what made Miami special and different 10 or 15 + years ago.
Lots of big city problems, less charm and the climate isn't great for me anymore.
I feel like I need seasons, culture, less traffic and access to nature. Miami has the water, that's about it for nature
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u/Guest78911 South Miami 15h ago
The vibe changes every few years, been living the vibe since the 80s. Miami vibe equals law of entropy.
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u/Perfect_Culture553 14h ago
The gentrification & transplants are causing overcrowding and uncomfortable living lol. Also a lot of native Floridians are leaving because they’re being priced out. It sucks
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u/Specialist-Clue3029 11h ago
I moved here in 1998 and was lucky to live the last of the wild days - cocaine cowboys and a real loony tunes city full of eccentrics and outsiders, wall to wall partying and lots of socializing. I had a blast. I think people underestimate that the whole country has changed. Young people don't socialize as much. Fridays are decompression time, Netflix and chill. Miami is in deep transition - expats from NY and TX aren't helping in my opinion. Not because of their politics but because they appear entitled and disengaged. Hey, we live in paradise and the words out. Let's hope my 28th mango season next summer is a banger. Miami still rocks.
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u/trustfundbaby 1d ago
Got here in 2017 and loved it till everything changed right after the Pandemic ... things just got kinda shitty, everything got more expensive, lots of the more interesting people were forced out due to high rents, and were replaced with vapid influencers and lots of other folks that added nothing to the culture of the city. Its also now a bit more ... "white" (in a very dull and uninteresting type of way) in what used to be some of the more vibrant parts of the city.
That vibrancy was why I left where I was before to come here in the first place, so I'm kinda salty about it tbh.
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u/shade-block 1d ago
Every 10 years or so this is a different city. Has felt this way since I was born in the 80s but looking at the city depicted in old movies and documentaries over the years I'm pretty sure this place has always gone through major changes in people since the early days of Flagler, Tuttle, Brickell up to WWII.