Opinions of Downtown Miami differ. Grand from a distance, the financial district’s skyscrapers are not particularly people-friendly when confronted close-up. Travelers can be disoriented by the downtown area’s seeming lack of a centre or a unifying social current. There is no Boulevard St.-Germain here, no Upper West Side to stroll on weekends; and comes evening, downtown sidewalks become deserted and not the safest place to wander.

There is less disagreement bout downtown’s dimensions. Within 28-block-wide embrace lies a district that cash be rewarding to those who explore it on foot. You will find street vendors selling brewed coffee and Caribbean-style pastries, cakes, juices, and fruit drinks. Spanish-language music radio blares from the entrances of low-priced emporiums occupying sidewalk-level storefronts, creating a peculiar blend of North and Latin American retailing Venture a few blocks west of Biscayne Boulevard and you find yourself in a cultural mélange.

Downtown is polyglot; Spanish is ubiquitous and Creole is heard often, as are Hebrew and Brazilian Portuguese. On some streets, Rastafarians brush elbows with Orthodox Jews, and their sidewalk shops occasionally adjoin. It is a city evolving toward a cosmopolitan character that holds a vision of a uniquely American future.