There’s a lot you can glean from Reddit, especially when it comes to getting to know your city better. We’ve had success mining the social news aggregator for street tips, rules to live by whether you’re a transplant or a 305 native, and most recently, hard-to-believe facts about Miami that really call into question our knowledge of the Magic City. Inspired by a similar thread on r/Paris, this conversation sparked a lot of engagement with incredible insight into the city’s past. Here, we collated the most relevant facts about Miami that sound fake but are (probably) true, at least according to Reddit.
1. Miami is the only major city in the world where most of its population was born in a different country (59 %).
The next closest is Toronto with 49% of the population being foreign-born. Source: Reddit
2. Miami has the oldest building in the United States.
The Ancient Spanish Monastery in North Miami Beach was originally constructed in Spain in the 1140s. It was taken apart block by block and shipped to the U.S. where it eventually found its way to Miami. Source: Reddit
3. There was a European presence in Miami before Virginia.
In Virginia, the Jamestown colony was established in 1607, while the Roanoke colony was founded and lost in the 1580s. However, in 1567 the Spanish built a mission and garrison on Biscayne Bay, somewhere in modern downtown. The Spanish presence lasted a few months before the area was abandoned for a couple of hundred years. Sources: Archaeology and History of the Granada Site Vol II: Where the River Meets the Bay by Arva Moore Parks; and Reddit
4. Miami-Dade fish farming will account for 44% of the United States’ consumption of salmon by 2030.
This is despite not having a shoreline with waters that are naturally cold enough for salmon to survive. Sources: Politico and Reddit.
5. The temperatures in Miami have never actually reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit, even though it probably feels that way every day.
We'll just leave this here. Sources: Chicago Tribune, Reddit, Current Results
6. Miami is the only major city in the United States founded by a woman.
It was founded by Julia Tuttle in 1896. Sources: Reddit; Julia Tuttle
7. Drivers (in Florida) are allowed to drive without bodily injury coverage on their insurance policies.
Meaning that if they hit you and you are injured, you basically need to have your own insurance to file any kind of claim. Sources: Reddit, Online Sunshine
8. The Miami River used to have rapids.
They are still intact, though now dry and lost beneath overgrown trees, and are actually the only part of the Miami River that has never been deepened or altered. Sources: UFL.edu; Reddit
9. It snowed once in Miami back in January 1977.
And it was epic. Sources: Reddit, Wikipedia
10. Brickell doubled its population from 2000 to 2010.
This is probably not news to anyone who’s walked, driven and spent any time in Brickell recently. Sources: Reddit, Wikipedia