New on LowEndTalk? Please Register and read our Community Rules.
All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
Comments
The former “Labor Temple” in Ybor, where unions used to meet, is now a goth nightclub
Yeah, that Goth nightclub, The Castle, used to be a pretty important structure in Ybor City lore. Before Bauhaus-filled nights, the Labor Temple was actually a meeting place for the area’s local cigar and waiter unions.
Magic Mike was filmed in the Tampa Bay area
If you ever get the chance to stop looking at Channing Tatum’s pecks during Magic Mike, check out the locations in the movie, because they’re local spots. The Bricks of Ybor, Fred Howard Park, and Caddy’s on the Beach are just some of the locations featured in the movie. Tatum is also a Tampa native and Tampa Catholic grad.
Nirvana played at Masquerade
Only serious record collectors and live-music junkies showed up for a May 1990 Ybor City performance from the future grunge godfathers (“Smells Like Teen Spirit” wouldn’t hit MTV for at least another year). This spot was Masquerade's first Ybor location, at the opposite end of 7th Avenue from The Ritz, where Zydeco Brew Werks is now. Kurt Cobain would commit suicide almost exactly four years after this show.
No one knows who Jose Gaspar was, or if he was even a real pirate
Gasparilla, that annual party everyone in Tampa uses as an excuse to get wasted, isn’t actually based on any real pirate at all. Jose Gaspar was, by most accounts, at the very least a Spanish Navy Officer, but the rest of his story is mostly just legend. Some say he kidnapped a 12-year-old girl, some say he was even romantically involved with the king of Spain’s daughter-in-law and cheated on her, creating a sticky situation that forced him to go into hiding. So this dude sounds badass, but nobody can verify if any of it is actual fact. But hey, at least we parade beads.
Demarcus Cousins was once involved in a giant bar fight at Drynk
It’s true. In 2016 the Lakers center and his cousin Jaleel (a former USF men’s basketball player) were partying at the now shuttered Drynk SoHo (now Bar Hwrd), when an altercation broke out that resulted in Jaleel getting tased by the Tampa PD and arrested. Luckily, Boogie made it out OK.
PAGE 432 ROLLING ROLLING ROLLING ALONG
It snowed in Tampa in 1977
As unlikely as it seems, real snow has fallen in Tampa. Before the environment got all screwed up by big corporations and greedy executives, it used to actually get cold enough to snow occasionally. Global warming is rad, right?
Florida’s oldest restaurant is the Columbia in Ybor City
That Cuban place that everybody talks about, and always takes out-of-towners, is pretty historic, so much so it’s actually the oldest restaurant in Florida. Yeah, we know, it’s kind of basic, but it’s also necessary.
There’s local swimming pools deeper than Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is incredibly shallow, as its average depth is only 12-feet. But beware, the deepest part is 82 feet.
This is the 1000th comment for today (UTC).
Miami was a popular spot for pirates.
This is surely one of the most interesting facts about Miami. Famous pirates, including Blackbeard, Gasparilla, and Jean Lafitte often visited Miami’s shoreline to bury their treasures. This fact is confirmed by tourists and locals alike who’ve discovered everything from gold and silver to trinkets and jewelry both underwater and underground.
You can discover Miami’s close relationship with Latin America in its ethnic neighborhoods. We highly recommend visiting the Little Havana district that’s just west of Downtown Miami. In fact, we think it’s among the best areas to stay in Miami. It developed as a Cuban enclave within the city. It’s no wonder that close to 35% of the Hispanic population of Miami consists of Cubans. Central Americans are second with approximately 16%, including Nicaraguans, Hondurans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans.
The dominant language in Miami is Spanish. While the official language in the city is English, 60% of Miami’s population speaks Spanish. That’s due to the large waves of immigration of people from numerous Hispanic regions, including Central and South America. That fact makes the Magic City one of the hardest places to work or do business in the U.S. without knowing a foreign language.
The City of Miami is small. The Greater Miami area is huge. The population of the City of Miami is less than 500,000 people. The Miami Metropolitan area – or Greater Miami – which includes the counties of Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach, is more than 5.5 million people. That’s 11 times bigger than the city proper. This fact places Miami in the 7th place in the U.S.
In Miami 16% of the total population is 65+ years of age. That’s nothing spectacular. But what’s peculiar about these people is the fact that they came to Florida to retire from the northern part of the United States. And we can bet our Bulgarian bottoms a big reason for that is Miami’s generous sub-tropical sun.
Miami is one of the most diverse cities worldwide in terms of sports. Very few other cities on a global scale offer a better sports variety than the Magic City. Including professional and nonprofessional, the sports you can practice there include:
Despite its large metropolitan size, Miami received the Forbes award “America’s Cleanest City” in 2008. That’s due to Miami’s vast green spaces, spotless streets, clean drinking water, good air quality all year-round, and its citywide recycling programs.
Miami boasts the third most impressive view in the United States. The Miami Downtown Panorama staggers its visitors with its skyline. According to Architecture and Design Almanac, Miami takes the third place in the U.S. (after New York and Chicago), and the 19th place in the world for its vista.
The whole state of Florida is in the hurricane belt. This means that natural disasters are not a rare occurrence. However, don’t be scared to visit during that time. Svet stayed in Miami at the end of September, and the weather was gorgeous. Still, it’s highly recommended to have travel insurance that will cover you (and your travel companions) in the unfortunate event of a hurricane.
More than 23 million people visited Miami in 2018. The Magic City welcomed a mind-blowing 23.3 million people, including 16.5 million overnight visitors and 6.8 million day-trippers. The tourists spent a whopping $18 billion. The city’s most frequent visitors were international tourists from South America, with Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia at the top.
Miami is the warmest location in the U.S. in winter. There’s a big reason why locals call it the Sunshine City. And that’s because it receives 249 sunny days on average per year. The generous sun rays keep Miami’s winter temperatures between 65 and 75 °F (18-24 °C). So, if you want to get away from gloomy weather, Miami is one of your best bets. Just make sure to stock up on suntan lotion (see the next fact).
560 more to have another record day.
Sunscreen is a Miami invention. With close to 250 days with sun, that kind of makes sense, right? Benjamin Green, a pharmacist from Miami Beach, invented suntan lotion in 1944. He was serving as an airman during World War II and wanted to create a way for him and his fellow soldiers to protect themselves from the scorching rays of the sun. At first, it was red jelly, which was not only thick but also had a bad smell. For that reason, Green added cocoa butter and coconut oil to the mix. That was the formula for the first sunscreen lotion – Copperstone.
June-September is the low season to visit the Sunshine City. However, that’s when the levels of humidity reach insane levels. Plus, June also gets the most rainfall. But if you don’t mind high humidity, and you’d like to save some bucks, that might be your best bet.
It’s the only U.S. city bounded by two national parks. These are the Everglades National Park and the Biscayne National Park. And you can easily visit the Everglades on a day trip from Miami. Add 800 parks inside the city, and you’ll see why Miami is a favorite getaway for millions of people each year.
Miami is a true divers’ paradise. Gorgeous weather? Check. Emerald, crystal-clear waters? Check. 50 sunken ships? Check! The combination of these three facts about Miami makes it a real heaven for scuba divers. Since there are over 50 different underwater wreck sites for divers to explore, the city is often dubbed The Wreckreational Diving Capital of the World.
Records broken everyday!
Miami’s name has tribal origins. The city got its name from one of the native tribes that existed there. The Mayaimi lived on the territory of modern Miami in the 16th and 17th centuries. In Native American, Mayaimi means “big water”. They gave the name to the Miami River that bisects the city and gave it its modern name.
Miami has several nicknames. The Sunshine City for the plenty of sunshine it receives every year. The Magic City because of Miami’s rapid growth. The Capital of Latin America due to it being the biggest city with a Cuban-American plurality. The Gateway to the Americas and the Cruise Capital of the World due to being the largest port on the East Coast of the United States. The Drug Capital of the World because of the armed conflicts in Miami between the U.S. government and the Medellín cartel. This happened in the 1970s and 1980s and was known as the Miami Drug War.
Miami has seen snow once in its official meteorological history. This happened on January 19, 1977. In fact, snow is a big exaggeration for the flurries the city experienced on that day. In other words, the chances of a white Christmas in Miami are slimmer than seeing Trump jogging in bikini. (That would be a cool site, though.)