Editing Miami Beach, Florida (section)

== History ==
[[File:John s. collins floridamemorycom item 5607.jpg|thumb|[[John S. Collins]], founding developer of Miami Beach]]
[[File:Collins Bridge Miami FL.jpg|thumb|The opening of [[Collins Bridge]] in 1913, the longest wooden bridge in the world at the time]]
[[File:Carl G Fisher 1909.jpg|thumb|[[Carl G. Fisher]] in 1909]]
[[File:Aerial view of the Flamingo Hotel - Miami Beach, Florida.jpg|thumb|An aerial view of the [[Flamingo Hotel, Miami Beach|Flamingo Hotel]], {{Circa|1922}}]]
[[File:Roney Plaza Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida.jpg|thumb|Roller skating waitresses at Roney Plaza Hotel in Miami Beach in 1939]]
[[File:Temple Emanu-El in Miami Beach, one of the nation's few beaches open to Jews when the synagogue was built in 1947. Miami Beach, Florida LCCN2011634589.tif|thumb|Only a few beach areas were open to Jews in 1947 when Temple Emanu-El was built]]
[[File:Temple Menorah Miami Beach.JPG|thumb|Temple Menorah was developed from an earlier Jewish Center built in 1951.]]
In 1870, father and son Henry and Charles Lum purchased land on Miami Beach for 75 cents an acre. The first structure to be built on this uninhabited oceanfront was the Biscayne House of Refuge, constructed in 1876 by the [[United States Life-Saving Service]] through an executive order issued by [[Ulysses S. Grant|President Ulysses S. Grant]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Biscayne House of Refuge |url=https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=75990 |website=HMdb.org |access-date=15 November 2019 |archive-date=October 17, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017085436/http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=75990 |url-status=live }}</ref> at approximately 72nd Street. Its purpose was to provide food, water, and a return to civilization for people who were shipwrecked. The structure, which had fallen into disuse by the time the Life-Saving Service became the [[U.S. Coast Guard]] in 1915, was destroyed in the [[1926 Miami Hurricane]] and never rebuilt.

Miami Beach then initiated the planting of a coconut plantation along its shore in the 1880s, led by [[New Jersey]] entrepreneurs Ezra Osborn and Elnathan T. Field, but the venture failed.<ref>{{cite web |title=Elnathan T. Field |url=http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/ingraham/expedition/FieldE.htm |website=University of Florida Library |access-date=4 November 2019 |archive-date=November 4, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191104225502/http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/ingraham/expedition/FieldE.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> One of the investors in the project was agriculturist [[John S. Collins]], who achieved success by buying out other partners and planting different crops, notably avocados, on the land that would later become Miami Beach. In fact, the pine trees on today's Pinetree Drive served as an erosion buffer for Collins' plantations.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cary |first1=William H. |last2=Anderton |first2=Shannon |last3=Klepser |first3=Caroline |title=Pinetree Drive Historic Roadway: Miami Beach Historic Site Designation Report |url=https://www.miamibeachfl.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Pinetree-Drive.pdf |website=City of Miami Beach |publisher=City of Miami Beach Planning Department |access-date=1 February 2022 |archive-date=February 1, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220201022410/https://www.miamibeachfl.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Pinetree-Drive.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Meanwhile, across Biscayne Bay, the City of Miami was established in 1896 with the arrival of the railroad and developed further as a port when the shipping channel of [[Government Cut]] was created in 1905, cutting off Fisher Island from the south end of the Miami Beach peninsula.

Collins' family members saw the potential in developing the beach as a resort. This effort got underway in the early years of the 20th century by the Collins/Pancoast family, the Lummus brothers, both bankers from Miami, and [[Indianapolis]] entrepreneur [[Carl G. Fisher]]. Until then, the beach here was only the destination for day-trips by ferry from Miami, across the bay. By 1912, Collins and Pancoast were working together to clear the land, plant crops, supervise the construction of canals to get their avocado crop to market and set up the Miami Beach Improvement Company.<ref name="wolfsonianfiulibrary">{{cite web |url=https://wolfsonianfiulibrary.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/return-in-time-to-the-lincoln-hotel-miami-beach-late-january-1921/ |title=RETURN IN TIME TO THE LINCOLN HOTEL, MIAMI BEACH, LATE JANUARY, 1921 |date=October 24, 2012 |website=wolfsonian-fiu library |access-date=March 2, 2017 |archive-date=October 14, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161014083833/https://wolfsonianfiulibrary.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/return-in-time-to-the-lincoln-hotel-miami-beach-late-january-1921/ |url-status=live }}</ref> There were bathhouses and food stands, but no hotel until Brown's Hotel was built in 1915 (still standing, at 112 Ocean Drive). Much of the interior landmass at that time was a tangled jungle of mangroves. Clearing it, deepening the channels and water bodies, and eliminating native growth almost everywhere in favor of landfill for development, was expensive. Once a 1600-acre, jungle-matted sand bar three miles out in the Atlantic, it grew to 2,800 acres when dredging and filling operations were completed.<ref>{{citation |title=Florida. A Guide to the Southernmost State |date=1939 |place=New York |author=Federal Writers' Project |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=210}}</ref>

With loans from the Lummus brothers, Collins had begun work on a 2½-mile-long wooden bridge, the world's longest wooden bridge at the time, to connect the island to the mainland. When funds ran dry and construction work stalled, Indianapolis millionaire and recent Miami transplant Fisher intervened, providing the financing needed to complete the [[Collins Bridge]] the following year in return for a land swap deal.<ref name="wolfsonianfiulibrary"/> That transaction kicked off the island's first real estate boom. The Collins Bridge cost over $150,000<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=http://www.floridahistorynetwork.com/june-12-1913-with-first-bridge-miami-beach-is-open-for-business.html|title=June 12, 1913: With first bridge, Miami Beach is open for business|access-date=March 21, 2021|archive-date=April 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413080123/http://www.floridahistorynetwork.com/june-12-1913-with-first-bridge-miami-beach-is-open-for-business.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and opened on June 12, 1913.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://eastofcollins.com/news/?p=109|title=John S. Collins, Founding Developer of Miami Beach|access-date=March 21, 2021|archive-date=April 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415163617/http://eastofcollins.com/news/?p=109|url-status=live}}</ref> Fisher helped by organizing an annual speed boat regatta, and by promoting Miami Beach as an Atlantic City-style playground and winter retreat for the wealthy. By 1915, Lummus, Collins, Pancoast, and Fisher were all living in mansions on the island, three hotels and two bathhouses had been erected, an aquarium built, and an 18-hole golf course landscaped.

The Town of Miami Beach was chartered on March 26, 1915; it grew to become a City in 1917. Even after the town was incorporated in 1915 under the name of Miami Beach, many visitors thought of the beach strip as Alton Beach, indicating just how well Fisher had advertised his interests there. The Lummus property was called Ocean Beach, with only the Collins interests previously referred to as Miami Beach.{{sfn|Carson|1955|p={{page needed|date=August 2020}}}} In 1925, the Collins Bridge was replaced by the Venetian Causeway, described as "a series of drawbridges and renamed the [[Venetian Causeway]]".<ref name="auto"/>

Carl Fisher was the main promoter of Miami Beach's development in the 1920s as the site for wealthy industrialists from the north and Midwest to and build their winter homes here. Many other Northerners were targeted to vacation on the island. To accommodate the wealthy tourists, several grand hotels were built, among them: The [[Flamingo Hotel, Miami Beach|Flamingo Hotel]], The Fleetwood Hotel, The Floridian, The Nautilus, and the Roney Plaza Hotel. In the 1920s, Fisher and others created much of Miami Beach as landfill by dredging Biscayne Bay; this human-made territory includes Star, Palm, and Hibiscus Islands, the Sunset Islands, much of Normandy Isle, and all of the Venetian Islands except Belle Isle. The Miami Beach peninsula became an island in April 1925 when Haulover Cut was opened, connecting the ocean to the bay, north of present-day [[Bal Harbour, Florida|Bal Harbour]]. The great [[1926 Miami hurricane]] put an end to this prosperous era of the [[Florida Boom]], but in the 1930s Miami Beach still attracted tourists, and investors constructed the mostly small-scale, stucco hotels and rooming houses, for seasonal rental, that comprise much of the present "[[Art Deco]]" historic district.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Carl and Jane Fisher {{!}} American Experience {{!}} PBS |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/miami-carl-and-jane-fisher/ |access-date=2023-11-04 |website=www.pbs.org |language=en |archive-date=November 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231104102710/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/miami-carl-and-jane-fisher/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Carl Fisher brought Steve Hannagan to Miami Beach in 1925 as his chief publicist.<ref>Ross, Edward Ellis; interview notebook; source: New York University Archives; p. 79.
</ref> Hannagan set-up the Miami Beach News Bureau and notified news editors that they could "Print anything you want about Miami Beach; just make sure you get our name right."<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |url=http://miamibeach411.com/news/selling-miami |title=Selling Miami With Sex And Celebrities Is Nothing New |website=Miamibeach411.com |access-date=March 1, 2022 |archive-date=March 1, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220301195455/http://miamibeach411.com/news/selling-miami |url-status=live }}</ref> The News Bureau sent thousands of pictures of bathing beauties and press releases to columnists like Walter Winchell and Ed Sullivan.<ref name=":0" /> One of Hannagan's favorite venues was a billboard in Times Square, New York City, where he ran two taglines: "'It's always June in Miami Beach' and 'Miami Beach, Where Summer Spends the Winter.'"<ref>Fisher, Jane (1947); ''The Fabulous Hoosier''; Robert M. McBride & Company; New York; p. 147.</ref>

Antisemitism was rampant in the 1920s and into the 30s. Developer Carl Fisher would sell property only to gentiles so Jews were required to live south of Fifth Street. As recently as the 1930s, hotels refused to accept Jews.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/remembering-miami-beachs-shameful-history-of-segregation-and-racism-8306647|title=Remembering Miami Beach's Shameful History of Segregation and Racism|access-date=March 20, 2021|archive-date=March 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210322202207/https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/remembering-miami-beachs-shameful-history-of-segregation-and-racism-8306647|url-status=live}}</ref> As the 1930s developed, the "dismantling on Miami Beach of restrictive barriers to Jewish ownership of real estate" was underway; many Jews bought properties from others.<ref name="jewishmiami.org">{{cite web |url=https://jewishmiami.org/about/federation/miami_jewish_history/ |title=A Brief History of the Jewish Community of Greater Miami |access-date=March 21, 2021 |archive-date=April 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415192743/https://jewishmiami.org/about/federation/miami_jewish_history/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 

By the 1940s and 50s, an increasing number of Jewish families built hotels. The first "skyscraper" was the 18-story Lord Tarleton Hotel built in 1940 by Samuel Jacobs. The Jewish mobster [[Meyer Lansky]], who ran some  "carpet joints" (gambling operations) in Florida by 1936,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-mar-27-la-na-hometown-south-florida27-2010mar27-story.html |title=South Florida is 'open territory' for organized crime |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=March 27, 2010 |access-date=March 20, 2021 |archive-date=April 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415163559/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-mar-27-la-na-hometown-south-florida27-2010mar27-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and eventually controlled casinos in Cuba and Las Vegas, retired in Miami and died in Miami Beach.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/spoiled-by-mobsters-daughter-of-meyer-lansky-recalls-family-men-not-killers/2184266/|title=HOW JEWS SHAPED MIAMI BEACH|access-date=March 20, 2021|archive-date=April 12, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412213520/https://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/spoiled-by-mobsters-daughter-of-meyer-lansky-recalls-family-men-not-killers/2184266/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/meyer-lansky|title=Meyer Lansky Biography|access-date=March 20, 2021|archive-date=March 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302115448/https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/meyer-lansky|url-status=live}}</ref> 

During [[World War II]], Jewish doctors were not granted staff privileges at any area hospitals so the community built [[Mount Sinai Medical Center (Miami)|Mount Sinai Medical Center]] on Miami Beach.<ref name="jewishmiami.org"/> The North Shore Jewish Center was built in 1951 and became Temple Menorah after an expansion in 1963.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.remiamibeach.com/citywide/temple-menorah/|title=temple menorah|access-date=March 20, 2021|archive-date=April 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413011937/https://www.remiamibeach.com/citywide/temple-menorah/|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Post–World War II economic expansion]] brought a wave of immigrants to South Florida from the Northern United States, which significantly increased the population in Miami Beach within a few decades. After [[Fidel Castro]]'s rise to power in 1959, a wave of Cuban refugees entered South Florida and dramatically changed the demographic make-up of the area. In 2017, one study named zip code 33109 ([[Fisher Island, Florida|Fisher Island]], a 216-acre island located just south of Miami Beach), as having the 4th most expensive home sales and the highest average annual income ($2.5 million) in 2015.<ref>{{cite web |last=LaBorde |first=Lauren |title=Miami Beach Is Among America's Priciest Zip Codes |website=Neighborhoods.com |date=March 21, 2017 |url=https://www.neighborhoods.com/blog/miami-beach-is-among-americas-priciest-zip-codes |access-date=March 27, 2017 |archive-date=March 28, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170328195049/https://www.neighborhoods.com/blog/miami-beach-is-among-americas-priciest-zip-codes |url-status=live }}</ref>

The sun and warm climate attracted many Jewish families and retirees. One estimate states that "20,000 elderly Jews" were part of the population of the beach in the late 1970s".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wlrn.org/show/sundial/2019-02-11/new-book-film-document-a-forgotten-era-of-miami-beachs-jewish-history |title=New Book, Film Document A Forgotten Era Of Miami Beach's Jewish History |website=Wlrn.org |access-date=March 20, 2021 |archive-date=April 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415170014/https://www.wlrn.org/show/sundial/2019-02-11/new-book-film-document-a-forgotten-era-of-miami-beachs-jewish-history |url-status=live }}</ref> In a 2017 interview, a demographer from the University of Miami estimated that there "might have been as many as 70,000 Jews in Miami Beach at one point" declining to "around 19,000 in 2014". The decline was motivated partly by "increasing prices during the art deco movement and an 
increase in crime and changing cultural demographics".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.miaminewtimes.com/arts/south-beach-1974-1990-photographs-of-a-jewish-community-at-historymiami-opens-october-27-9780335 |title=HistoryMiami Remembers the Sassy Senior Citizens of South Beach's Past |website=Miaminewtimes.com |access-date=March 20, 2021 |archive-date=April 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415170814/https://www.miaminewtimes.com/arts/south-beach-1974-1990-photographs-of-a-jewish-community-at-historymiami-opens-october-27-9780335 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1980 however, 62 percent of the population of Miami Beach was still Jewish. During the 1980s many of the Jewish citizens left and moved to "Delray Beach, Lake Worth and Boca Raton".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/florida-jewish-journal/news/miami-dade/fl-jj-miami-beach-last-resort-film-20190213-story.html |title=Film about Jewish retirees in 1970s Miami Beach opening in South Florida |website=Sun-sentinel.com |date=February 7, 2019 |access-date=March 20, 2021 |archive-date=April 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415170550/https://www.sun-sentinel.com/florida-jewish-journal/news/miami-dade/fl-jj-miami-beach-last-resort-film-20190213-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> During the 1990s, South Beach transformed into a home of the fashion industry and celebrities.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.visitflorida.com/en-us/cities/miami/jewish-landmarks-miami-beach.html |title=Shtetl by the Sea: Jewish Landmarks of Miami Beach |website=Visitflorida.com |date=May 30, 2019 |access-date=March 20, 2021 |archive-date=April 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415164400/https://www.visitflorida.com/en-us/cities/miami/jewish-landmarks-miami-beach.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1999, there were only 10,000 Jewish people living in Miami Beach.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1999-01-13-9901120465-story.html |title=Myer Lansky |website=Sun-sentinel.com |date=January 13, 1999 |access-date=March 20, 2021 |archive-date=June 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629164551/https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1999-01-13-9901120465-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nbcmiami.com/investigations/sundown-towns-a-look-at-south-floridas-legacy-of-segregation/2386799/ |title=Sundown Towns: a Look at South Florida's Legacy of Segregation |first=Phil |last=Prazan |website=Nbcmiami.com |date=February 19, 2021 |access-date=March 1, 2022 |archive-date=January 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123022852/https://www.nbcmiami.com/investigations/sundown-towns-a-look-at-south-floridas-legacy-of-segregation/2386799/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Timeline===
Timeline of Miami Beach, Florida
*1896 – City of [[Miami]] founded with the recent arrival extension [[Henry Flagler]]'s FEC railroad.
*1905 – [[Government Cut]] manmade shipping channel created separating Miami Beach and Fisher Island.
*1912 – Miami Beach Improvement Company founded.{{sfn|Carson|1955|p={{page needed|date=August 2020}}}}
*1913 – [[Collins Bridge]] (now [[Venetian Causeway]]), first bridge between Miami and Miami Beach, built.{{sfn|Hellmann|2006|p={{page needed|date=August 2020}}}}
*1915
**Miami Beach [[Local government in the United States|incorporated]].<ref>{{citation |author=Florida Legislative Committee on Intergovernmental Relations |date=February 2001 |author-link=Florida Legislature |url=https://localgov.fsu.edu/readings_papers/Boundaries%20of%20Government/Munincipal_Incorporations_in_Florida.pdf |title=Overview of Municipal Incorporations in Florida |series=LCIR Report |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170428092419/https://localgov.fsu.edu/readings_papers/Boundaries%20of%20Government/Munincipal_Incorporations_in_Florida.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2017-04-28}}</ref>
**John Newton Lummus becomes first mayor of Miami Beach.{{sfn|Carson|1955|p={{page needed|date=August 2020}}}}
**Brown's Hotel first hotel built in Miami Beach, still standing today at 112 Ocean Drive.
*1920 
**Population: 644.
**County Causeway (now [[MacArthur Causeway]]) connecting Miami and Miami Beach opens.
*1925
**[[Venetian Causeway]] opens.
**Miami Beach becomes an island when the Haulover cut opens in April connecting the ocean to the bay just north of [[Bal Harbour, Florida]]
*1926
**Miami Beach sustains significant damage from [[1926 Miami hurricane]]
*1928 
**[[Al Capone]] buys property in Miami Beach.{{sfn|Hellmann|2006|p={{page needed|date=August 2020}}}}
**1928 – [[Florida State Road 934|79th Street Causeway]] built to connect Miami Beach to [[Hialeah Park Race Track]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.miamisprings-fl.gov/sites/default/files/fileattachments/community/page/19819/curtiss_mansion_brochure.pdf|title=The Historic Glenn Curtis Mansion|access-date=July 28, 2018|archive-date=February 9, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209190132/http://www.miamisprings-fl.gov/sites/default/files/fileattachments/community/page/19819/curtiss_mansion_brochure.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>
*1930 – Population: 6,494.
*1935 – Many of the famous Art Deco hotels along current day Ocean Drive are built between 1935 and 1941 before the onset of WWII ends construction. Colony (1935), Savoy Plaza (1935), The Tides (1936), Surf Hotel (1936), Beacon (1936), Cavalier (1936), Leslie (1937), Park Central (1937), Barbizon (1937), Waldorf Towers (1937), Victor (1937),  Clevelander (1938), Crescent (1938), Carlyle (1939), Cardozo (1939), Winterhaven (1939), Bentley (1939), Breakwater (1939), Imperial (1939), Majestic (1940), Avalon (1941), Betsy Ross Hotel (1941), St. Charles (1941), Clyde Hotel (1941).
*1937 – WKAT [[List of radio stations in Florida|radio]] begins broadcasting.<ref name=Radio1964>{{citation |title=Yearbook of Radio and Television |oclc=7469377 |year=1964 |publisher=Radio Television Daily |location=New York |chapter=United States AM Stations: Florida |chapter-url= https://archive.org/stream/r00radi#page/180/mode/2up |via=Internet Archive}} {{free access}}</ref>
*1940 – Population: 28,012.
*1954 – [[Fontainebleau Hotel]] in business.
*1958 – [[Miami Beach Convention Center]] opens.
*1959 – [[Miami International Airport]] dedicated near Miami Beach.<ref name=bachin-ww2>{{cite web |work=Travel, Tourism, & Urban Growth in Greater Miami |editor-first=Robin F. |editor-last=Bachin |publisher=University of Miami |title=Miami Timeline: WWII-1950s |url=http://scholar.library.miami.edu/miamidigital/wwii.php |access-date=August 25, 2017 |archive-date=November 15, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171115231650/http://scholar.library.miami.edu/miamidigital/wwii.php |url-status=live }} (published circa 2006?)</ref>
*1960 – Population: 63,145.
*1961 – The [[Julia Tuttle Causeway]] between Miami and Miami Beach opens.
*1968 – August: [[1968 Republican National Convention]] held in Miami Beach.
*1971 – Annual [[South Florida Auto Show]] begins.
*1972 – July: [[1972 Democratic National Convention]] held in Miami Beach.
*1972 – August: [[1972 Republican National Convention]] held in Miami Beach.
*1973 – February: A mentally ill man [[1973 Miami Beach firebombing|firebombs a crowded cafeteria]] on [[Collins Avenue]], killing three people and injuring about 130. 
*1977 – September: [[35th World Science Fiction Convention]] held in Miami Beach.
*1979 – Much of [[Miami Beach Architectural District|Miami South Beach]] area becomes a historic preservation zone.
*1984 – Popular NBC TV show [[Miami Vice]] filmed in many locations in Miami and Miami Beach for five seasons between 1984 and 1989.
*1997 – July 15: Fashion designer [[Gianni Versace]] killed at [[Casa Casuarina]].{{sfn|Hellmann|2006|p={{page needed|date=August 2020}}}}
*2000 – [[Blue and Green Diamond]] hi-rises built.
*2001 – [[Murano at Portofino]] hi-rise built.
*2002
**Annual international [[Art Basel Miami Beach]] (art fair) begins.<ref>{{citation |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/arts/design/art-basel-miami-beachs-unfulfilled-promise.html |title=Art Basel Miami Beach's Unfulfilled Promise |date=November 28, 2014 |access-date=August 25, 2017 |archive-date=August 25, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170825231403/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/arts/design/art-basel-miami-beachs-unfulfilled-promise.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
**[[Continuum on South Beach|Continuum]] hi-rise built
*2004 – [[The Setai Miami Beach|Setai Hotel]] and [[ICON at South Beach|ICON]] hi-rise built.
*2007 – [[Matti Herrera Bower]] becomes mayor.
*2010 – Population: 87,779.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045216/1245025,00 |title=Miami Beach city, Florida |work=QuickFacts |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau |access-date=April 27, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{citation |url=http://edr.state.fl.us/Content/area-profiles/index.cfm |title=City of Miami Beach |work=2010 Census Detailed City Profiles |author1=Florida Legislative Office of Economic and Demographic Research |author2=U.S. Census Bureau |year=2011 |author1-link=Florida Legislature |access-date=August 25, 2017 |archive-date=August 25, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170825233302/http://edr.state.fl.us/Content/area-profiles/index.cfm |url-status=live }}</ref>
*2011 – November 1: [[Miami Beach mayoral election, 2011]] held; Bower stays in office.
*2013 – [[Philip Levine (politician)|Philip Levine]] becomes mayor.
*2015 – November 3: [[Miami Beach mayoral election, 2015]] held; Levine stays in office.