Lots of people and agencies in recent years have had a tendency to sort of sweep Allapattah under the rug when dignitaries show up... we're often thought of as the ugly stepchild of Miami.  Bad assessment!  It's true that median income is one of the lowest in the area.  Why?  They include homes for the elderly, projects for the poor and disabled, foster and group homes, jails, holding facilities, juvenile hall, nursing facilities for long-term care, homeless shelters, etc. in the census.  People who basically have no income.  There's probably more crutches, wheelchairs and walkers per square mile in Allapattah than anywhere else in Florida.   

We're often referred to in the Miami Herald as a "low-income neighborhood of recently arrived, poorly educated refugees".   It's true that this is a haven for recent arrivals, many of whom at the beginning have lower income.  It's also true that many blue-collar workers live here (lots of them non-English speaking people who had white-collar professions in their own countries that they cannot qualify for in the USA).   But I have to laugh when the Herald recounts some rather horrid crime and so describes us, especially when the reporter hasn't a clue where Allapattah is, and the crime has taken place north of Grapeland Heights, on the edge of Brownsville or Liberty city, or sometimes even further away.   Even more of the crimes are committed on impulse by someone just passing through and basically have nothing to do with Allapattah.  

About a third of the people six or eight blocks in all directions have lived here for several decades.  A number have businesses here.  Some second generations moved away, and now the third generation has moved back, filling the streets once more with the laughter of children, ringing of ice cream truck bells, impatient horns of school buses, barbeques and birthday parties, ball-playing in the streets, and yes, the rapping and booming music of gangs of youths, their baggy, sagging pants revealing a large portion of underwear.  

People from several countries make up our population, as has always been the case in Allapattah, and within each nationality it seems that a large proportion are somehow related to each other.  This is not so different from the Polish, Italians, Irish and Jews and others who took refuge here from poverty, war and terrorism many decades ago, and the WWII trainers, instructors and returning servicemen who stayed on when the war ended.    

Lots of the Cubans are from Matanzas, for instance, where my daughter Cathy visited many years ago (See Miami's Three Ring Circus), an important farming area of Cuba.  Many residents of all nationalities are from a rural background, as are Floyd and I.  We know our neighbors.  We depend on each other.  We are a true neighborhood, much more so than many soul-less, anonymous suburban tracts miles from everything, where neighbors aren't acquainted, and nasty home invasions often take place.  

Jackson High, often considered a second-rate school by the uninformed, actually has produced some great athletes, and here's a big surprise:  they are one of thetops nationally in high school chess competitions!  How's that for our so-called "low-brow" population?   If you attended Miami Jackson High many years ago, take pride in your Alma Mater.  It's an inner-city school that still has everything going for it!