Miami

"Welcome to Miami! ¡Bienvenido a Miami!"

—"Welcome to Miami", by Will Smith

You may wonder why we're quoting a Will Smith song. One, it's a song that one associates with the city (CSI: Miami itself used it once). Two, it sums the bilingualism of the city pretty nicely. Miami is the most Latin city in the U.S.- with 66% plus of the residents speaking Spanish as their first language. 34% of the city's population are of Cuban descent (The majority of Cuban-Americans who have acquired citizenship vote Republican - many of them really don't like the Castro regime. Until retiring in 2009, the sole Latino Republican in the US Senate sat for Florida; another, Marco Rubio, was elected in 2010).

Miami is another US media centre, especially for Spanish-language media. It's also known for music.

Miami is felt to be an intrinsically cool city - MTV loves the place, it's associated with the whole US Spring Break tradition and the number of factual TV shows set there are quite a few. Not to mention this is where Dave Barry lives, which instantly ups the cool level a bit.

The city also has a darker underbelly, being a common location for The First 48 and the second most dangerous metropolitan area in the USA. Only in Florida, indeed.

Miami in fiction

There are three prime-time US series currently set in Miami:

A lot of movies have been set and filmed here, along with a number of past TV series, including a rather obvious one involving Ray Bans.

Vice City in the Grand Theft Auto series is basically Miami on an island with the serial numbers filed off.

Miami is either an area of glitz and glamour, a seedy inner city- or both.

With the pretty warm climate (this comes at a price as the city is also in Hurricane Alley, and thus sees a hurricane every few years in average), Fan Service is inevitable. On the other hand, Miami is a popular destination for "snowbirds", old men and women (frequently Jewish) from colder climes who buy condominiums and live there for the winter months. Depending on which beach you frequent, you may be exposed to Fan Disservice instead.