More from the series
The new Miami: a series of villages
Not so long ago, Miami-Dade was a story of east — the sprawling Beach — and a mainland of undifferentiated suburbs, centered by a central business district that shut down at 5 p.m. Today the county increasingly is coalescing around a series of urban villages or centers — compact, pedestrian-friendly places where people can live, shop or dine out, even work or go to school, with few or mercifully short trips by car. Here’s a look at some of the county’s burgeoning neighborhoods.
Expand All
In South Florida, Kendall is synonymous with split-personality suburbia – peaceful bedroom community by night, “Mad Max Fury Road” car wars by day.
Yes, traffic is notoriously bad in Kendall, a census-designated, 16 square-mile place that stretches west from US 1 to the Florida Turnpike. But to those who live there, the neighborhood is a much broader swath informally known as West Kendall, encompassing Kendale Lakes, The Crossings and The Hammocks and Kendall West.
Most people who live in Kendall don’t work there, since the primary industries are medical, restaurants and retail. But despite the soul-crushing rush hour traffic jams that can add more than an hour to workers’ commutes (Kendall Drive is currently in the midst of a year-long…
