Coconut Grove, Coral Way and the south
South along the bay and the ridge behind it. The Grove predates the city that annexed it, and this is the highest ground Miami has.
One guide on the southern half of the city, along the bay and the limestone ridge behind it. Coconut Grove was a settlement with a post office before Miami was incorporated in 1896, was annexed in 1925, and has kept a distinct identity and an unusual tree canopy ever since. Coral Way and the Roads, inland from it, are banyan-lined 1920s streets laid out in the first Florida land boom — some of the oldest planned residential fabric in the city.
The physical fact that matters here is elevation. The Miami Rock Ridge runs through this part of the city and gives it the highest ground Miami has — a difference of only a few feet, which sounds trivial and is not: it is the difference between a mapped flood zone and no mapped flood zone, and therefore between an insurance quote you can live with and one you cannot. It also means mature canopy, which changes what a summer afternoon feels like more than any amount of air conditioning. Two checks. The flood zone and elevation certificate anyway, because the ridge is narrow and the bayfront below it is not on it. And, in the Grove, whether the lot is in the Village West area, where the historically Bahamian community that built the neighborhood is being priced out and the displacement argument is live and specific.
