It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

That's the first line of the opening song from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, a children's show that I very much enjoyed as a kid. And this is the introduction to my neighborhood, made especially for those who will never get a chance to visit me in Miami.

I live in the Design District, which is in between Midtown (aka Wynwood in the sign) and Little Haiti.

My neighborhood is filled with houses built in the early twentieth century, many of which are built with a porous rock called coral rock. I can't find any good references to coral rock, so maybe that's not the real name. But it does look like coral. There's a mix of one- and two-story houses and many have red tile roofs. The house below is pretty typical, except for the enormous eight-foot tall angels guarding the front door. Aren't they incredible?
The design district is full of people who are hipper than you or me. Lots of building sport murals.
This is on the main road through the neighborhood. It's art, but I don't know anything more about it. It's been there since we moved in, and it looks pretty permanent, but it doesn't look polished, the way civic art usually does. Maybe it's the chain link fence around it that gives me the raw art vibe.
We have lots of furniture shops. Lots. And you will find nothing from the Colonial, Victorian, or Arts and Crafts styles here. It's all trendy - mainly white and streamlined. Leather, glass and plastic are welcomed. You don't see a lot of tapestry, I must say.
Here's my favorite part of the tour. When we moved in, my landlord told us how to get to the store: Walk down three blocks, cross the railroad tracks, and then go through the hole in the fence. The store's on the other side." And there's really a hole cut in the fence. To go around the fence would be a detour of a dozen or so blocks, so everyone uses the hole. Sometimes there's even traffic, and I have to wait for people to pass through before it's my turn.

And since we live near Little Haiti, we see signs in Creole and murals of Obama.

Have I convinced anyone to come for a visit?