Hialeah makes Forbes' top 10 list of most boring cities
By David Adams, Times Latin America Correspondent
In Print: Saturday, January 31, 2009
Armando Escobio, 47, and his nephew, Alex, 3, feed the geese and ibis at Amelia Earhart Park in Hialeah. “The place is packed … and there’s lots of Latin music” on weekends, Escobio said.
HIALEAH — Situated in an urban wasteland off the tourist map with no beaches or night clubs, Florida's fifth-largest city appears to have little going for it.
So little in fact, that Forbes magazine recently ranked Hialeah one of the top 10 most boring cities in the country.
Among a certain crowd of South Florida aficionados, this was mystifying, bordering on insulting. Didn't the editors of Forbes know about Hialeah's rich history of scandal and corruption? The plots to assassinate Fidel Castro hatched by Cuban exile businessmen?
Ah, but that's the point, the magazine argues; the ranking was based on mentions in the national media and all that juicy stuff is just yellowed newspaper clippings now. Per capita, Hialeah is as unremarkable and snoozy as Gilbert, Ariz., or Bakersfield, Calif.
"If that was the criteria, I am glad that we are on the boring side," said Hialeah mayor Julio Robaina, who considers himself a no-nonsense Republican.
"We haven't been in the papers because things are quiet. People are doing their jobs."
Not everyone is so ready to concede the argument.
"It's gritty, it's not attractive, but the Cuban-driven culture there is fast-moving," said Paul George with the Historical Museum of South Florida. "I'd never use the appellation 'boring' on them."
But it's not hard to find complaints on the streets.
"It's true. There's nothing here," said Daniel Forteza, 45, sitting having coffee with a friend in a local Starbucks, one of three stores that recently opened in Hialeah. "Starbucks is about as exciting as it gets," he laughed.
Founded in the early 1920s, the city once had its own movie studio and a famous horse track, Hialeah Park, graced with a flock of flamingos. Winston Churchill visited the track and a host of champions like Citation and Seabiscuit raced there. The flamingos are still there but the track closed in 2001.
Opa-locka airport at Hialeah's northern edge was used as a covert base for the CIA's botched 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. In the 1980s the City Commission voted to send confiscated guns to the CIA-backed Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
KC, of KC and the Sunshine Band, was born and raised in Hialeah, and still has his office in the city. Bucky Dent, the famous New York Yankees short-stop, also graduated from Hialeah High. Still, it's been 30 years since Dent smacked that season-ending home run in the ninth inning against the Red Sox.
On the political side, former Mayor Henry Milander died in office in 1974 after 27 years in power, despite numerous scandals and a grand larceny conviction. In the 1980s and '90s Cuban-born Raul Martinez won re-election as mayor nine times despite a federal indictment and two hung juries.
Mayor Robaina concedes that absent the salacious scandals, entertainment opportunities are limited.
"We need a bowling alley," he said. But he is hopeful a joint venture with Major League Baseball will bring a youth academy to Hialeah, only the second of its kind in the nation.
The city's reputation as a blue-collar, working class city of 250,000 mostly immigrant Hispanics leads many to overlook its attractions, some Hialeah residents say. They point to Amelia Earhart Park (she took off from Hialeah in 1937 on her ill-fated round-the-globe trip), 515 acres of wooded lakes with paddle boats and pony rides.
"It's the best-kept secret in Miami-Dade County," said Sheri Gornto, 50, a park manager.
Notoriety has not vanished altogether. A Hialeah man is currently at the center of one of South Florida's most gruesome murder trials, involving the killing of four charter boat crew members on the high seas. Hialeah was also in the news recently when members of a $10-million Medicaid fraud ring fled to Cuba.
Perhaps the most exciting recent event was the Jose Marti Parade. It's all of four blocks long. Looks like the title is safe for now.
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