Tale of the Tape:

Miami Beach Population 2007 city/ 2008 MSA: 93,535 (City); 5,414,772 (Miami Metro) - (incorporated in 1915)

Jacksonville Pop. 2007 city/ 2008 MSA: 805,605 (City); 1,313,228 (Metro) - (incorporated in 1832)

City population 1950: Jacksonville (204,517); Miami Beach (46,282)

Metropolitan Area Growth rate (2000-2007)

Miami Beach (Miami): +8.09%
Jacksonville: +15.86%

Urban Area Population (2000 census)

Miami Beach (Miami): 4,919,036 (ranked 5 nationwide)
Jacksonville: 882,295 (ranked 43 nationwide)

Urban Area Population Density (2000 census)

Miami Beach (Miami): 4,407.4
Jacksonville: 2,149.2

City Population Growth from 2000 to 2007

Miami Beach: +5,602
Jacksonville: +69,988

Convention Center Exhibition Space:

Miami Beach: Miami Beach Convention Center (1957) - 500,000 square feet
Jacksonville: Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center (1986) - 78,500 square feet

Tallest Building:

Miami Beach: Blue Diamond - 559 feet; Green Diamond - 559 feet
Jacksonville: Bank of America Tower - 617 feet

Urban infill & Connectivity obstacles:

Miami Beach: Although already built out, Miami Beach is still in need of a fixed mass transit connection to Downtown Miami.
Jacksonville: State & Union Streets cut off Downtown Jacksonville from Springfield.

Nightlife:

South Beach: Lincoln Road, Ocean Drive, Collins Avenue, Washington Avenue.
Jacksonville: East Bay Street, located between Main Street and Liberty Street.  This four block stretch is home to four bars and clubs.

Common Albatross:

Both communities are located in a State that favors suburban sprawl over sustainable development.

Who's core is more walkable?

Miami Beach: 92 out of 100, according to walkscore.com
Jacksonville: 88 out of 100, according to walkscore.com

History of South Beach

South Beach started as farmland. In 1870, Henry and Charles Lum purchased 165 acres (668,000 m²) for coconut farming, and his daughter Taylor named it "South Beach". Charles Lum built the first house on the beach in 1886. In 1894, the Lum brothers left the island, leaving control of the plantation to John Collins, who came to South Beach two years later to survey the land. He used the land for farming purposes, discovering fresh water and extending his parcel from 14th Street to 67th in 1907.

In 1912, Miami businessmen the Lummus Brothers acquired 400 acres (1.6 km²) of Collins' land in an effort to build an oceanfront city of modest single family residences. In 1913 Collins started construction of a bridge from Miami to Miami Beach. Although some local residents invested in the bridge, Collins ran short of money before he could complete it.

Carl G. Fisher, a successful entrepreneur who made millions in 1909 after selling a business to Union Carbide, came to the beach in 1913. His vision was to establish South Beach as a successful city independent of Miami. This was the same year that the restaurant Joe's Stone Crab opened. Fisher loaned $50,000 to Collins for his bridge, which was completed in June, 1913. the Collins Bridge was later replaced by the Venetian Causeway.

On March 26, 1915, Collins, Lummus, and Fisher consolidated their efforts and incorporated the Town of Miami Beach. In 1920 the County Causeway (renamed MacArthur Causeway after World War II) was completed.[3] The Lummus brothers sold their oceanfront property, between 6th and 14th Streets, to the city. To this day, this area is known as Lummus Park.

In 1920, the Miami Beach land boom began. South Beach's main streets (5th Street, Alton Road, Collins Avenue, Washington Avenue, and Ocean Drive) were all suitable for automobile traffic. The population was growing in the 1920s, and several millionaires such as Harvey Firestone, J.C. Penney, Harvey Stutz, Albert Champion, Frank Seiberling, and Rockwell LaGorce built homes on Miami Beach. President Warren G. Harding stayed at the Flamingo Hotel during this time, increasing interest in the area.

In the 1930s, an architectural revolution came to South Beach, bringing Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, and Nautical Moderne architecture to the Beach. To this day, South Beach remains the world's largest collection of Streamline Moderne Art Deco architecture. Napier, New Zealand another notable Art Deco city, makes an interesting comparison with Miami Beach as it was rebuilt in the Ziggurat Art Deco style after being destroyed by an earthquake in 1931.

By 1940, the beach had a population of 28,000. After the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the Army Air Corps took command over Miami Beach.

In 1966, South Beach became even more famous when Jackie Gleason brought his weekly variety series, The Jackie Gleason Show to the area for taping, a rarity in the industry. Beginning in the late 1970s and continuing through the 1980s, South Beach was used as a retirement community with most of its ocean-front hotels and apartment buildings filled with elderly people living on small, fixed incomes. This period also saw the introduction of the "cocaine cowboys," drug dealers who used the area as a base for their illicit drug activities. Scarface, released in 1983, typifies this activity. In addition, television show Miami Vice used South Beach as a backdrop for much of its filming due to the area's raw and unique visual beauty. A somewhat recurring theme of early Miami Vice episodes was thugs and drug addicts barricading themselves in utterly run-down, almost ruin-like empty buildings. Only minor alterations had to be made for these scenes because many buildings in South Beach really were in such poor condition at the time.

While many of the unique Art Deco buildings, such as the New Yorker Hotel, were lost to developers in the years before 1980, the area was saved as a cohesive unit by Barbara Capitman and a group of activists who spearheaded the movement to place almost one square mile of South Beach on the National Register of Historic Places. The Miami Beach Architectural District was designated in 1979.

Before the TV show, Miami Vice, South Beach was considered a very poor area with a very high rate of crime. Today, it is considered one of the most wealthy and prosperous commercial areas on the beach. Despite this, poverty and crime still exist in some isolated places surrounding the area.

In the late 1980s, a renaissance began in South Beach, with an influx of fashion industry professionals moving into the area. In 1989 Irene Marie purchased the Sun Ray Apartments (famous for the chainsaw scene in Scarface) and opened Irene Marie Models - the first international full-service modeling agency in Florida. Many of the large New York based agencies soon followed. Photographers and designers from around the world were drawn to the undiscovered Art Deco oasis.

Today, the South Beach section of Miami Beach is a major entertainment destination with hundreds of nightclubs, restaurants, boutiques and hotels. The area is popular with both American and international tourists (mainly from Europe, Latin America, Canada, Israel, the Caribbean and within the United States), with some having permanent or second homes. The large number of European and Brazilian tourists also explains their influence on South Beach's lax and overall tolerance of topless sunbathing, despite it being a public beach.

The reflection of South Beach's residents is evident in the various European languages, as well as Semitic languages and many other languages spoken. As of 2000, many Miami Beach residents, including those of South Beach, spoke Spanish as a first language, which accounted for 55% of residents, while English was the first language for 33% of the population.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Beach

Downtown Miami at night.

Photos by Daniel Herbin