Coral Gables, Florida (rich and green)

Lee · #1 Posted **Mar 30, 2007, 1:44 AM**

This is Coral Gables, a very affluent city in the Miami metro area. It has a population of 43,000 people, with a booming town-center. This is no typical sprawl. Most homes date back from the 20's, 30's, and 40's, and are all unique (and beautiful). What's most impressive is the lush tropical vegetation!

Took these photos on my bike, as I as going around town. This is only the Northern part of the Gables. The Southern part even nicer, with much larger homes.

We start with the Downtown. I snuck into several nice buildings, one of which is a hotel.

Okay, so now we go into the neighborhood...

Biltmore Hotel:

Lost Island · #2 Posted **Mar 30, 2007, 2:17 AM**

Strange. I remember visiting my cousins in Coral Gables around 1970, and they lived in a tract house on what seemed to be like a 50 X 90 plot.

SouthJersey7 · #3 Posted **Mar 30, 2007, 2:23 AM**

Beautiful. I always wanted to visit there, one of if not the best planned community in the USA or world for that matter!

pj3000 · #4 Posted **Mar 30, 2007, 2:26 AM**

These views are very familiar to me. Thanks for the tour of Miami's "college town".

Go 'Canes!

m0nkyman · #5 Posted **Mar 30, 2007, 2:29 AM**

I'm in Edmonton. In March. This honestly made me want to cry.

Very, very pretty.

Urban Sky · #6 Posted **Mar 30, 2007, 2:45 AM**

ahhh miami. ill be back there in may.

Derek · #7 Posted **Mar 30, 2007, 2:45 AM**

lovely

peacefu603 · #8 Posted **Mar 30, 2007, 2:51 AM**

Clean!

JBinCalgary · #9 Posted **Mar 30, 2007, 3:23 AM**

it looks so warm there

Lost Island · #10 Posted **Mar 30, 2007, 4:07 AM**

It's also nice to see so many trees that made it through 100 mph winds.

OhioGuy · #11 Posted **Mar 30, 2007, 5:31 AM**

The spanish architecture and colorful exterios are great. I just love the greenery! The live oaks trees lining the street in this photo are beautiful.

(oh how I miss live oaks)

bobdreamz · #12 Posted **Mar 30, 2007, 9:44 AM**

thanks for posting these pics Lee, they bring back so many memories for me from business luncheons at the Biltmore to swimming at the Venetian Pool. I also have family that resides there who bought in the 70s...lucky bastards!
I don't even want to think about how much their houses are worth now!
Coral Gables is probably one of the best designed suburbs in the US and even though it is only 5 miles west of downtown Miami it has it's own distinctive character.

brickell · #13 Posted **Mar 30, 2007, 1:55 PM**

nice job.
I love "The Gables".
If only they ran Metrorail through it's downtown the first time around...

Great_Hizzy · #14 Posted **Mar 30, 2007, 3:51 PM**

That's the beauty of living along the Southern coast. You get a lot of those brilliant streetscapes with live oaks covering them all year. Very similar to lush streetscapes in New Orleans (Garden District), Houston (Rice Village-Southampton), Tampa, Jacksonville and Savannah, and a lot of the architecture is of the same period.

Coral Gables is definitely one of my favorite areas of the country. Very clean, peaceful and organized, with a well-preserved town center.

EAINMIAMI · #15 Posted **Mar 30, 2007, 6:16 PM**

Great Pictures of Coral Gables. I happen to work at the Biltmore Hotel...

Topher1 · #16 Posted **Mar 30, 2007, 6:22 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lost Island

It's also nice to see so many trees that made it through 100 mph winds.

The area did lose a ton of trees in 2005. On some streets (even some pictured streets) the comparison is breathtaking... Fortunately it's Miami, and the greenery will return, but a lot of massive Banyan (or are they Ficus?) trees were lost which would take years to balance the tree canopy again (if native species laws even allows them to be replanted...) Still, it's painful when I visit UM and take the drive down Miller Dr., which used to have a complete tree canopy, and is now pretty sunny for the most part...

From my local S. Fla treehugger friends, usually S. Florida trees are able to withstand hurricane winds, but the combination of the thorough ground soaking/loosening of Katrina and the moderately high winds of Wilma made it easy to topple over the trees that don't have deep roots...

insanenuyawka · #17 Posted **Mar 30, 2007, 10:28 PM**

I don't know the point of planting so many palms when such nicer trees can be planted and could thrive so nicely down there. And the grass can be replaced with nice smaller shrubs, ferns etc....Anyway those are my two cents about the flora...Very nice nonetheless.

crisp444 · #18 Posted **Mar 31, 2007, 6:13 AM**

Best suburb in Florida!

ArchMadness · #19 Posted **Mar 31, 2007, 8:26 AM**

Looks like Naples with less traffic. I like the big Banyon(?) trees.

pj3000 · #20 Posted **Mar 31, 2007, 10:55 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Topher1

Still, it's painful when I visit UM and take the drive down Miller Dr., which used to have a complete tree canopy, and is now pretty sunny for the most part...

I know, it's awful. The enormously huge banyan on UM's campus next to the UC was a casualty as well.