Booey:
Miami's working class neighborhoods are pretty safe. You should be fine there. rent prices have been edging up again because a lot of residents whose homes were foreclosed are now renters, so now that they are re-entering the market, so rent costs are rising again.

Healthcare jobs are plentiful in Florida and Miami in particular. There are many jobs to be had in nursing and health administration, but good wages might be elusive for the non-degreed.

Miami's intellectual center is hard to find. If you want intellectual stimulation, you kind of have to just meet people with similar outlooks and do your own thing or "seek" out different events and from those events you learn about others and so on. That is what I had to do. I had to kind of meet people from my job and from school and form my own book and discussion groups and so on.

Also, invest in a good automobile, as you will do lots of driving. However, if you live in some key areas, public transportation (mostly bus transport) is plentiful. Areas such as South Beach and Downtown. The immediate suburbs of Coral Gables and the West Grove can be quite expensive, but the East Grove is a bit cheaper, but crime is an issue, unfortunately. The Upper-Eastside is not too bad either, but the rents have been climbing. If you want to be close to Downtown, there are portions of Little Haiti that are really not bad. There are also relatively inexpensive neighborhoods in North Miami, North Miami Beach, Miami Gardens (which is the northernmost suburb of Miami Dade county ) and Opa-Locka. You could head out west to Miami Lakes or Hialeah but that is really far from the city center. However, based on your musical tastes, Hialeah or Little Havanna might be good choices, as you can get relatively cheap rents there, but be prepared to speak Spanish fluently and frequently, lol. There is also the southern suburbs, but public transportation, in my view, is spotty and car transport can be a pain because the main artery that connects the southern suburbs to Downtown or South Beach is always trafficky.

Miami is a great place to live, particularly, for Hispanics. It has become sort of a mecca for people from Cuba and South America. In recent years, however, wages have been falling, so many degreed professionals are fleeing to other cities and to Broward County just north of us. Also, traffic has increasingly become an issue de jour. If you live in the northern suburbs and you work, say in the Civic Center (where most of the major hospitals and health facilities are located), it can take you a solid HOUR--by car-- to get to work during rush hour. Luckily, there are express buses that go from Golden Glades to Downtown, the airport and civic center during rush hour. If you live in the southern suburbs, there is the Metrorail, which has become very efficient over the years.

Barry University is a private, Catholic university, so it is quite expensive. Have you thought about FIU? They have a wonderful public health program and they are public. UofM is a great school, but it is expensive, as well. Miami-Dade College (where I work and went to school) is one of the best institutions of learning in the country. It is huge, having over 40,000 students and seven campuses. It is also host to the internationally -renowned, Miami International Book Fair.

If you have further questions, please post them here or simply leave me a message.