Colombia earthquake, manosphere in South Florida and is Miami more expensive than NYC?

I'm Tim Padgett. Welcome to the South Florida Roundup on WLRN. Bienveniles, bienveni, benvino. When the ground shakes in South America, we feel it in South Florida. That truism jolted us again this week when a powerful magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck Western Columbia on Monday morning. Its epicenter was the poor remote Pacific coast state of Chokoe, but it tore into surrounding provinces and hit Kali, Colombia's third largest city, especially hard. This is video of a hospital in Kali collapsing. I spoke on Monday with Colombia's former foreign minister, Luis Hilberto Murillo, who was in Kali at that awful moment. I was in a fifth floor. This building is chained and I help people to get outside. You think the building is collapsing and you are about to die. The earthquake killed at least 281 people, left some 500 missing and thousands more injured. It wrought severe destruction in Colombia's vital coffee growing region, and it came just a little more than a month after two strong earthquakes rocked next door Venezuela, killing 6,000 people there. As Venezuelans here did after that disaster, South Florida's Colombian diaspora is racing to deliver rescue and relief aid. Do you have family or friends affected by the Colombian earthquake? Call us at 800743 WLRN, 800743-9576. Joining us now from Bogota, Colombia, is John Otis, an award-winning foreign correspondent who was in Kali this week reporting on the earthquake for NPR. John, thank you for talking with us. Thank you, Tim. And with us from Doral is Francine de la Rosa. She's a Colombian American entrepreneur who's on the board of the nonprofit global empowerment mission or gem, which has been leading the effort here to get aid to Colombia. Francine, thank you for being with us. Thank you so much for having me. John Otis, how were things in Kali when you left the city last night? Yeah, Tim, I was in collie for the past three days. And, you know, the big focus there is search and rescue because, you know, there's still a possibility of pulling people out of the rubble alive. I mean, there's a lot of talk about 72 hours being the golden window when you can save people. Elsewhere, I've spoken with search and rescue workers, some Americans who were working in Turkey, for example, after their devastating earthquake years ago. And they pulled people out after six days in the rubble. So they're really, they know they're racing against the clock, but I mean, I think that's still an ongoing situation right now. And new search and rescue teams are arriving. So they haven't given up on finding.

people alive in the rubble in Cali where Mayor Alejandro Eder told me that they there was something like 106 buildings either partially or totally collapsed. And they're looking for something like 80 people there. Were there any moments that stood out most for you, John, this week as you were watching these rescue efforts? Well, I mean, I went to a pair of apartment buildings in South Kali, which was one of the hardest hit parts of the city. And it was just swarming with both search and rescue workers and volunteers. And it was very well organized. They were actually like... almost like mobile hardware stores, or not stores, but, you know, distribution points where volunteers were handing out shovels and pickaxes and the things that you need to get through the rubble. And just the outpouring of volunteers I found really amazing. There were people from all over the city just streaming in to help and do whatever they could remove rubble. I saw a guy who came down there with a rebar cutter from his home and he was going in and cutting rebar. And then when they heard signs of life, They'd call for silence and then go in and try to listen for survivors. Francine de la Rosa, I know you just saw off a plane this morning, leaving for Columbia with rescue and relief aid gathered here by Global Empowerment Mission. Jem's president, Michael Capone, is there now distributing it, I know. Yesterday, he sent me this video from Pereira, which was perhaps the city hardest hit by the earthquake. That's a L'Orenna, Treasch, a Camp Pereira, it's a new city that's completely devastated. It's deteriorated in Ruina. We've found a man in Pereira standing with Michael at the site where they found his father's body in the ruins of a building, unfortunately. I know you have family in Colombia as well, Francine, and I hope they're all well as we speak now. But how devastating has this week been for the Colombian community? It's almost hard to put into words because even though, you know, year-round we do disaster relief here at a global empowerment mission, it's been a tough seven weeks assisting the earthquakes in Venezuela. And this almost feels like a deja vu. And here we are all over again. But Gem's long-term approach to crisis relief. is steadfast. And so we have not forgotten our efforts in Venezuela. We're just now duplicating efforts in Colombia. And it's really like starting over because you're in a brand new country. The geographical complexities are completely different and different than Venezuela, where the most devastated area was kind of in a... in a smaller, you know, contained region. Here it is so widespread that we've had to set up multiple teams to work in different regions because they're just too far one from another and they each have different needs and different urgencies. But.

That's what we do best. 15 years of experience, crisis relief in over 78 countries, nearly 400 missions, and this long-term three-prong approach to humanitarian aid and just demonstrating to people that what leaves here in our headquarters in Miami loads onto those planes gets to the hands of those that need it most. Francine, I mentioned that the epicenter was in Choccoe state, but it seemed to have an access that went further south. And as I mentioned, Kali was, and as John mentioned, Kali was particularly hard hit. And there are a lot of people in this Colombian diaspora community here in South Florida whose families are from Kali, correct? From Kali, from Chokoe, from Antioch, and the coffee region. which we call El Quindio. I was actually set to go vacation with my family on Monday, and this is just a little personal snippet. A part of our family was en route to Pereira in air as the earthquake struck. The plane was diverted into Panama, so, you know, we were one of the lucky ones, but there is so much... desperation and so much need for our aid. And I just feel so honored to be part of an institution that can get to all of those ground zeros, not within days, but within hours. John Otis, from your vantage point when you were in Collie this week, what does it look as though the most important needs are now for that city? Anne Pereira, Manisalis, and other devastated sites. It seems as though, as Francine just pointed out, a very large area of that region was affected, no? Yeah, that's really one of the big challenges. It was a number of different cities. The last major earthquake Columbia had back in 1999, it was all kind of focused in Pareda and the regional capital of Armenia. Here, it's just spread out over this huge area. In Kali itself, where I spent most of my time, you showed the video, the hospital falling down. Something like 14 hospitals were really badly damaged in... in Kali. And obviously when you have a combination of damaged hospitals and lots of injured people from an earthquake, that's a devastating combination. So I think they got to get in there and get the hospitals in really good shape. Yeah, Francine, that brings me your next question because I wanted to ask you, what are relief organizations like Global Empower Mission telling the public are the priority needs people should be donating to, for example, your warehouse in Dural? I know Michael Capone mentioned. be earlier this week that camping gear for example is vital right now because so many people are having to live outside but as john just pointed out it would seem that like first aid and medical supplies because of those hospital collapses would also be a priority what do you want folks to know about what they should and should not be giving right now

Okay, so I'd like to just circle back to something that you said a little bit earlier, which is that we saw the plane off earlier today. In fact, as soon as I'm done here with you guys, we will be heading to Miami International Airport to see the plane off. Okay. So it hasn't left yet. Okay. So it will land this evening and a second plane will go out first thing tomorrow morning. But we've already had. more than three distributions in the last three days. And the reason we're able to do that is because the monetary donations, which we're also making huge emphasis on, allow us to purchase goods locally so that we can distribute them more quickly. And that has, you know, a double effect. First of all, the rapidness in which we can respond. And second of all, you're actually helping the local economy, which is suffering, right? it's really, it's a perfect scenario. And we do that while logistics is sorted out for the first planes to go out, followed by, you know, sea shipments. So this is a long haul. It's an, I don't even think it's a marathon. I think it's an ultra marathon. Definitely not a sprint. And yes, our boots on the ground, including Michael, who has been there for the last few days, have instructed us that the most urgent needs are tents, tarps, sleeping bags, blankets, first aid kits, and personal hygiene products. Okay. That is what we're needing today. This is the South Florida Roundup on WLRN. I'm Tim Padgett. I'm talking with NPR correspondent John Otis in Colombia and Columbia American... Francine de la Rosa here with Global Empowerment Mission about this week's deadly earthquake in Colombia and the relief effort that's been mounted here. Call us at 800743 WLRN, 80074439576. John Otis, you were also on the ground in Venezuela this summer after its destructive earthquakes. The death toll in Colombia, thankfully, does not look as though it will be as high as Venezuela's, but it's been hard to ignore the difference between the government. response in Colombia, where new president, Abilardo de la Espritia, who was just inaugurated last Friday in Kali, has won kudos and Venezuela where the regime there was largely vilified for its response, which was criticized for being lax. What important differences did you notice yourself when you were in Kali, for example? Well, Tim, your characterization is exactly correct. There was a very immediate response here in Colombia from the Colombian government. They just jumped on this immediately. And when I got to Calais, there were bulldozers, there were backhose, there were search and rescue crews there on the ground. When I was in Venezuela last month, it was almost all... volunteers who didn't have helmets. They barely even had face masks. There was very little government presence. You know, people were kind of digging through the rubble with their bare hands. It was that sort of the situation. So there's this huge difference. And that kind of goes to a huge difference between the two governments. Columbia is a democracy. It's got pretty strong civilian institutions. It's national unit for disaster risk management.

you know, has had a pretty good reputation for a long time. There was a big corruption scandal during the past government with this unit. But, you know, they generally do a pretty good job in these emergencies, and there's a lot of expertise here, and there's a lot of very good civilian, you know, civil society institutions here that can jump in and help out immediately. In Venezuela, you know, it's an authoritarian regime. And the government and its military forces, they've spent most of the past decade or so repressing the people rather than helping them. They're trained to kind of coup-proof the government rather than help the people. And there was also a lot of suspicion when troops would come in, you know, army troops in Venezuela would come in to actually try to help people. People were wary of them. And it was also a very slow response. Delci Rodriguez, the acting president of Venezuela, was really slow to get, you know, to kind of take control of things. and very you know very very um reluctant to give out much information those are all good things for other governments that are earthquake prone in earthquake prone countries to keep in mind francine de la rosa one of the things former columbian foreign affairs minister louis hilberto murillo who is from chocco province told me from collie this week is that the large columbian diaspora here in south florida and the u.s will have to step up especially strong to help rebuild this area how do you see the expat community that you're a part of getting involved in that effort moving ahead listen i think um prior to uh venezuela the local Latin American community was not very familiar with Jim while we have satellite offices all around the world. And again, just so our listeners, if they just joined us, Jim referring to global empowerment mission, they're based in Darrell. Correct. So a global empowerment mission has presence all around the world, but our Latin American branch was probably our most underserved division of our organization. And I don't want to say thanks to Venezuela, but as a result of our response in Venezuela, and thanks to the trust. from the U.S. government and the Department of State who named us the official humanitarian aid organization in Venezuela. I feel like Global Empowerment Mission has become a household name. So that learning curve of trust that we had to surpass in the early days of Venezuela because Logically, there was so much uncertainty and skepticism, if we were really going to be able to deliver aid in a country that is so divided and, you know, facing so many challenges prior to the June 24 earthquakes, but we were able to execute to perfection. Each one of those missions was...

tremendously successful. We've made a commitment of $75 million in Venezuela. We've already distributed more than 20 million. Francine, we'll have to leave it there for time, unfortunately. I should mention that the U.S. so far has pledged itself $15.5 million for recovery and reconstruction in Colombia. Francine de la Rosa is a Colombian American on the board of the nonprofit global empowerment mission based in Dural. Francine, thank you. And John Otis is a correspondent in Columbia reporting for NPR. John, thank you and be safe. Thank you so much. Still to come. What is the manosphere and how did we become the center of it? This is the South Florida Roundup on WLRN. Welcome back to the South Florida Roundup on WLRN. I'm Tim Padgett. Last month, the brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested in Miami on an extradition request from Great Britain where they are charged with rape. They deny the accusation, but their arrest has done more than spotlight their alleged sexual violence. It has more widely opened a window into the hyper-masculine culture they've lorded over as influencers. It's called the Manosphere. It's a bastion for mostly young men who want a return to male-dominated society and want to look real hunky doing it. It turns out it makes sense. The Tate brothers were arrested in Miami because Miami and South Florida are the Manosphere Mecca. We are now the community for so-called looksmaxers and their heroes like Clavicular, whose macho beauty cult has made him a celebrity millionaire. But this is an ecosystem, also known as groipers and incels, that can be menacing. Watchdogs have labeled some parts of it as extremist, male supremacist hate groups that promote misogyny and anti-Semitism. What are your thoughts about the Miami Manosphere? Call us at 800743 WLRN, 8007476. Joining me now is Devon Situ. He's a reporter for the Miami Herald, who with his colleague, Kyrie Lowry, has written an insightful expose of the Miami Manosphere. Devon, thanks for coming on. And here in the studio, I'm joined by WLR Broward County reporter Carlton Gillespie, who has also investigated this testosterone tribe and its affinity for a certain Florida gubernatorial candidate. Carlton, how are you? Good, Tim. Thanks for having me. DeVant Situ, just quickly, can you remind us what exactly are the allegations against the Tate brothers in the UK?

Yes, these allegations stem back to 2012. These aren't recent crimes that the brothers had committed. UK officials are alleged that they were assaulting, choking, hurting women. during a time in their careers where they were building an empire off what are called cam girls, which were basically women that they used to lure people to their brand and I guess sex. I guess it's the best way to put it. Okay. They faced these charges before a couple of years ago. These are just added charges to all that. Okay. Now, Devon, before we get to the misogyny aspect of this, I think we first need to remind people how important the money aspect of this is. Andrew Tate, as you report, is a self-proclaimed billionaire social media influencer or Manosphere creator or whatever you call it. And so much of that seems to stem from the get-rich schemes he peddles to this culture. How important is that to all of this? Money is everything to every single influencer that is part of the Manosphere. It is the center of it. I think people may have a misconception that these men started with all these hateful ideas. and then found a platform for it. I think it's more of the inverse. I think they found a way to make money and they will do whatever they need to do to make money. And right now, somehow, they have found a way to make money through hate. That's exactly what they're going to do. So they're just, you know, building a way to pushing that money machine forward like you do anything else. I think the best... phrase to think of is they're getting high on their own supply, really. They found a drug that sells and they are pumping it, pumping it hard. Interesting. Carlton Gillespie, you encounter the manosphere while watching young Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback's campaign, which has become a magnet for the so-called groipers, in-cells, and other groups determined to end gender equality and take this back to a male-dominated world. What are politicians like Fishback selling these young men that they're buying. They're selling the same thing that all reactionary ideologies sell the people that they're trying to influence. And that is that at one point, something was or something currently is being taken away from you. When it's the Groypers, you know, they're talking about anti-Semitic conspiracies, about the Jews taking away the West's influence in the world. You talk about in-cells. They're talking about, you know, women's empowerment is taking away male dominance. You talk about people like Fishback. Well, he never says it outright. He often affiliates himself with...

some of these reactionary groups, which includes Manosphere creators who, as you mentioned, the money is an important aspect because it's about, you know, financial independence that can grant you women, can grant you power, can grant you success. Which is important because so many young men in this country today feel economically alienated. And that's why this has been such an, there's why it's been such a rise in this is that. You know, there is a misconception that you can turn on your phone and start talking into it and be a millionaire influencer. And the only thing that's holding you back from that is your looks, right? And that's what the looks macking community like clavicular is. Or, you know, you could have the ideal life that you saw in movies growing up of a white picket fence and a submissive, subservient wife. But feminism and women's liberation has taken that dream from you. And that looksmax thing gets a little morbid when you consider what these guys are doing to their faces to try to look more like. Arnold Schwarzenegger or something, right? It's incredibly extreme. You mentioned clavicular. He's done things like smashing the bones in his face with a hammer so that they'll regrow stronger. He's on a panopticon of drugs and testosterone supplements that even send him to the hospital. Yeah, and we're going to get to clavicular a little more later. Devonsetude, let's turn to the part of this phenomenon that hate group watchdogs like the Southern Poverty Law Center find troubling, namely the raw, if not menacing, misogyny, and sometimes anti-Semitism that certain social media creators in the Manosphere are pushing as well. Here's a clip from an Instagram account only in Dade of Manosphere protesters in downtown Miami calling for Andrew Tate to be freed. Free top cheese. Free top cheese. Free top cheese. Free top cheese. What's going on here? Free Adjutantir broke that. Now again, Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan deny the rape allegations against them. But Devon, who and what are the hate group watchdogs pointing at in this phenomenon? So what I think that they are specifically talking about here is kind of what they say about other hate groups that people may easier understand. I mean, we as a people in America know what white supremacy is. It's a very... known phenomenon. So I think people should think about how we see those groups extremely hateful. People that come together very easily could use that to either use violence or hate. That is how watchdogs are seeing these groups now, just in their early phases, in their infantile phases, because the manosphere and men around these things have not... gotten enough force behind them to be as dangerous physically as these other hardcore hatred. And I should mention there's there's a documentary out there about the menosphere that came out just this past March, right? Yes. And one of the things they examine is is one of these books or podcasts or whatever that's called why women deserve less, right?

Yes, they say absolutely insane things sometimes. And I think that people have to remember that their audience are men who stay behind screens and... look and that's kind of where they always are. So when they say these extremely painful things, they always think that they will never get any backlash from it, that they will never have to hear from someone in person from these words. So the protest, honestly, that you played a little earlier, is kind of out of ordinary. for the Manosphere, honestly. Ah, great. People that listen to the Manisphere, that put money into it, that pay for Andrew Tate's program that are true, like bleed the Manosphere. Those people don't come out of their house as much. Right. I mean, for them to organize like that, it is hard. Right. So seeing them like this is different. Yeah. So what we see before. So flying under the radar is part of their M.O. then in, in that regard. It really is. Carlton Gillespie. Yeah. How do you make money if you're. Yeah, Carlton Gillespie, have you seen traces of this as well as you watch the Manosphere being drawn to James Fishback, for example, who has also been accused of using misogynist, racist, and anti-Semitic rhetoric on the campaign trail? At one of his events, you even saw some of those young male supporters sporting t-shirts that read American Reich, as in the Nazi Third Reich. How does the Manosphere answer for garbage like that? Well, it doesn't have to. Because the Manosphere is so nebulous and because it is one of many reactionary movements, you've got to think reactionary movements are kind of like a big tent conspiracy. They teach conspiratorial theory and they kind of teach people to be nebulous. So if you approach someone on that topic and they say, you're a fan of Andrew Tate, what do you say about this? He can say, that guy's not a real Andrew Tate fan. We don't believe that. We believe in, you know, This other thing, I'm more concerned about men's empowerment or the loss of traditional masculinity, not white nationalism, while there are white nationalists who also believe in this loss of traditional masculinity being a societal problem. And that's why, you know, even as Devon says that manosphere people are typically not out in the streets, the ideas are so comorbid with so many other conspiracy theories, with so many other negative reactionary ideologies that they kind of exist in strands all over the place. and i were discussing early how you could maybe call this male nationalism as, you know, if you were going to want it to put a label on it. Absolutely. It borrows ideas from Christian nationalism, from white nationalism. I think male nationalism is a perfect descriptor of it. You're listening to the South Florida Roundup on WLRN. I'm Tim Padgett. I'm talking with Devon Situ of the Miami Herald and WLRN's Carlton Gillespie about the rise of the manosphere and why Miami is its mecca. Call us at 800743 WLRN, 800743-9576.

I want to turn to the other key finding of your report, the fact that Miami and South Florida are now Manosphere Mecca. Why is our community so appealing to all the so-called Manosphere creators? Is it just because the Marquis Manosphere Looksmacker, known as Clavicular, decided to headquarter himself here, or are there larger factors at play? I don't think it has anything to do with clavicular or some of the main players having lived here like Gaines and the Fresh and Fit podcast. I think that we have to remember that the Manistphere at its core is a brand trying to sell an image. And where else in the United States can you not sell a brand better than Miami? An image brand, yeah. Yeah, an image brand, especially one that is trying to show itself as physically fit and tough, young, you know, societally sexy. Those are things Miami has been known for for decades. Especially an image, especially in a plastic surgery image. Exactly. Huge plastic surgery. Right. And I think also people like to see these communities by themselves without kind of looking at the whole picture. Before we were talking about the Manosphere, I feel like people have forgotten that we were talking about Miami being the only fans capital of the world just four or five years ago. Another huge sex sales industry that came to Miami more than any other city in the entire world. The Manosphere is very connected to a sex sales first industry. So they were truly just following. following the title where these things are. Andrew Tate, Clavicular, the Fit and Fought Press podcast, a lot of their brand, while they harp on women and hate them and say all these disgusting things, they need women as well. around them so that these young men who feel like they have no worth in the world and they're not seen and all these other things can look at a man who supposedly better than them with hot women around them according to them right and Miami allows them to have a place to do that right so so it all yeah it all dovetails yeah Carlton Gillespie, as your reporting suggests, it's not just Miami, but South Florida in general that's become the Manifier's zip code. What do you see as the reasons that make not just the 305, but the 954 and the 561 feel like home for this community? Well, like you're saying, you're selling an image brand, you're selling a lifestyle brand. And like Devon said, this is the place to do it. I mean, where else are you going to inject a strange chemical into your body that you heard about online than South Florida? Right. I hadn't thought of that. And he mentions the history of Miami being a hub for things like OnlyFans, but there was also a large pickup artistry community. And this was a community that started in the early 2000s that was kind of the genesis of what became the Manosphere. A lot of Manosphere creators were former pickup artists, as they like to call themselves, or they were involved in pickup artistry, which essentially teaches men that the reason they can't get girls isn't because they are awkward in public situations. It's that you have...

to know a specific neurolingual programming code or use specific tactics and gamifying the art of talking to women in order to essentially trick them into sleeping with them. And that has kind of, you know, dehumanized women for a lot of these guys for many years. So it kind of all starts and ends down here in the sunshine. DeVansitude, how much bigger do Manosphere watchdogs believe this phenomenon could get? Do, for example, they stand to become as influential a political force? that we could see effects like the rolling back of women's equality in this country. I think that to go that far might be too far. Okay. All right. I think that they believe that with enough movement, it could kind of see some movement in political numbers. But I think the issue is that... The people that go watch these things, the manosphere, that subsect of the American population are not voters. They are young men, young white men usually. And that is not a community that is usually running to the polls to vote. Okay. Unless recently with the Republican backgrounds. But in Republican circles, it was not this idea of hating women that the minister comes from that brought them to the foreground to vote. Okay. I think what... watchdog groups are saying is that the Manosphere could become just another latch key for politicians to kind of harp on and be strong about, much like, you know, Trump or other Republicans use immigration. Carl Gillespie in just 30 seconds. You're your input on that? Yeah, I think what is happening is mobilizing online support and real world voting is different for now. But as I've seen in the fishback campaign, mobilizing that online. support can help spread the other messages of your campaign far and wide. So while they may not be the deciding factor in the vote, they could be a crucial part of an online strategy for a reactionary candidate. Fascinating. Carlton Gillespie is W LRN's Broward County reporter. Devon Institute is a reporter for the Miami Herald. Thank you both very much. Thanks, Tim. Still to come. Hey, Frank Sinatra, just because you can make it in New York doesn't mean you can make it in Miami. This is the South Florida Roundup on WLRN.

Welcome back to the South Florida Roundup on WLRN. I'm Tim Padgett. We've seen a lot of warning signs in recent years that the Miami metropolitan area has become unaffordable for non-millionaires. The fact, for example, that the median cost of a home in Miami-Dade is about 10 times higher than the median household income. But last month, we got perhaps the most gobsmacking proof of all, when Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis now finds that Miami's cost of living has surpassed New York's. Let me repeat that. New York. Even restaurants here are more expensive, which for anyone who's ever picked up the check at a Manhattan bistro would have seemed inconceivable. But when you put together costs like housing, private school tuition, insurance, cars, property taxes, and eating out, then factor in our lower median income. Did you know New York lawyers on average make $51,000 more than Miami's? Then boom, the Upper East Side is now a better deal than South Beach. We'd like to hear your thoughts on South Florida's cost of living crisis. Call us at 800743 WLRN, 800743-9576. Joining me now from New York are the Bloomberg journalists who broke this head-turning news, finance and investment reporter Paulina Cacchero, and Economic and Social Trends reporter Ben Steaverman. Thanks very much to both of you. Paulina Conchero, as I mentioned there at the outset, housing plays such a large role in this. And you make a real striking point in your report that the price per square foot for housing in Miami markets like Coral Gables, South Miami, and Pinecrest is on par with the apartment on the upper east side of Manhattan that one of your sources who's moving from New York to Miami has. How surprised were you that Miami's real estate profile has leapt into that kind of stratosphere? What does it say about Miami? Yeah, I think it is pretty surprising, especially when you consider what's happened to other pandemic boom towns across the U.S., like Austin, Raleigh, and Phoenix, which have seen home prices, you know, drop and rents crater since the pandemic boom. But, you know, what's interesting about Miami, it's the ultra luxury market for homes in particular that has continued to grow. As you mentioned, rivals New York City, which has long been a leading trophy market for ultra wealthy buyers. So we actually did a separate report with data from a firm Analytics Miami that found in the first six months of the year, 24 condos and single family homes closed for over 30 million in Miami-Dade County. Now, that's double the number sold during the same period last year and puts the market on track.

surpass 2025's record in that price range. So, you know, I think Miami, what this says about Miami is increasingly become a destination for the global elite. But, you know, when you are very successful at attracting wealth, that very migration has also made the city, you know, more, less affordable for everyone else. You know, and it's difficult for... the people we spoke to, you know, are not necessarily, I would say they're even maybe above your average Miami resident. And even they are struggling to kind of swallow the rising costs. Even the affluent, yeah. Ben Steven, and aside from the housing factor, what were the other big cost factors that you and Paulina were able to gather that taken as a whole, push Miami to an... unaffordability level that surpasses even New York. I mentioned eating out, but walk us through the lineup of culprits, including the influx of billionaires here that Paulina was just referring to. Paulina was talking about home prices, but insurance costs in the Miami metro area, well, in Florida as a whole. are basically the property insurance the highest highest in the nation. So. And I noticed, Ben, I noticed in your report that one of the things you point out is, or one of your sources says, is that people are so entranced by the fact that Florida doesn't have a state income tax. But then they get here and they realize, yes, we do. It's called insurance, right? Yeah, that's one way to think about it. You know, I think if you're a billionaire coming down, you're still going to save a lot of money on taxes. But for other folks who still have to pay sales tax, property tax, which is also very high, property insurance, those costs get – a lot of those savings get swallowed by those extra costs. The other thing we looked at like – you mentioned eating out. And by the way, we're comparing here the Miami metro area to the New York City metro area, just because some people might think we're not comparing Manhattan to Miami. Oh, no. And down here, when we say Miami, we almost always mean that, you know, the larger metropolitan area. Yeah, yeah. You know, the thing about New York or other cities is there's a lot of middle tier restaurants. And my sense talking to folks in Miami was there's a sense that you can get like maybe something really cheap, like a sandwich or something. But then other than that, you have to go all the way. You know, a lot of the full, you know, sit down restaurants have the $20 cocktails. So there's a little bit more of the middle tier and a lot of other. Right. So here in Miami. Miami, it's gotten a little bit too much either McDonald's or Michelin five star. Exactly. Exactly. That is a really good point.

Paulino, what do the sources and experts you and Ben spoke with point to as the larger culprits for the skyrocketing Miami's cost of living? Your report mentions inordinate inflation here, for example. The fact that prices have surged in the Miami metropolitan area since the COVID pandemic to a much greater degree than other markets have. What are the broader phenomenon driving this? You know, I don't think there's like one large culprit. I think it's been, you know, kind of the perfect storm in Miami. You know, obviously housing is one of the biggest costs that people, you know, have. But it's also, you know, eating out. It's, you know, cars. It's insurance. It's... All of these areas of cost of living have gone up. Your report does mention cars and why that is such an inordinate burden, cost of living wise for people here. Can you elaborate a little bit on that? Yeah. I mean, anecdotally, like one of the things that we heard is, you know, there's just been a huge influx of people into Miami that people are actually spending more time in their cars and in traffic and if you think about that that you know eats up more gas and for people who are living coming from places like New York City you know we're not paying for car insurance we're not paying for gas you just hop on the subway and so you know not just having one car or two cars, that's like an enormous cost for people. So I think it's just like the cost of living also, like what you're having to pay for is different. And so a subway ticket doesn't involve car insurance, car maintenance, et cetera, et cetera. This is the South Florida Roundup on WLRN. I'm Tim Padgett. I'm talking with Bloomberg reporters Ben Stevenman and Paulina Cacero on their new report that finds Miami is now a more expensive place to live than even New York. To join our conversation, call us at 800743 WLRN, 8007443-9576. Ben Stevenman, I want to continue with you regarding those broader reasons for this Miami unaffordability crisis. And I have to admit, I was really struck by a sort of sociological point you make in the Bloomberg report that you call lifestyle creep, the materialistic consumption pressures we feel so strongly here in Miami. How does Miami end up shooting itself in the foot cost of living wise by being so, well, shallow in that regard? You know, I don't want to call anybody shallow. No, no. I think the, you know, when your friends invite you to go out to eat and the only option is an expensive place or when.

The other thing is, you know, people living in particular in certain communities feel sometimes trapped by the traffic and they can't, you know, you can't, there's no good transit that'll get you in and out, you know, on and off, say, Miami Beach. You kind of got to go somewhere local, so you choose the local spot and that's what it costs. And what, you know, and that's the lifestyle you've chosen by living in, in this particular neighborhood. But there also, but the lifestyle creep element there also seem to imply that there are these heavy pressures to keep up consumption-wise. It's, it becomes sort of a vicious circle. And this is something, look, I've lived here for 27 years, and I see, I see how it operates. And it seemed like that was one of the things some of your sources were emphasizing was that that pressure, which then drives up. you know, prices in the end and things of that. Yeah. I mean, I think that's, you know, a universal phenomenon of people feel in big cities, feel that, feel that pressure to, you know, fear missing out. Right. But it does seem like it's, it's pretty acute in Miami that there's, there's something going on there, some sense of, you know, keeping up your image or, you know, looking good. And that's maybe connected to some of the great things about Miami, which is that it's just a. you know, the beaches and the fun. But which we used to associate with New York. I go back to, you know, novels like Bonfire, the vanities, for example, where it's trying to keep up with, you know, people, all the other Wall Street brokers. Just to like add on to that, I think part of, you know, maybe the increased pressure to keep up with the Joneses in Miami is the, you know, the boom in professional and business services and financial service jobs that we've seen in Miami, right? Like you mentioned, New York has long been known for that, but as we're seeing more, you know, Wall Street firms move, you know, down to Miami. I think they're, you know, keeping that and bringing some of that culture. Right. Not just, not just Miami. West Palm Beach is calling itself Wall Street South now. Yeah, because of what it's. But Paulina, at the same time, your report makes it clear that it's not just higher costs, but relatively lower incomes that Miami and South Florida is unaffordability whole, even deeper. You point out that the Miami metro area's typical household income is about $1,000 less than the national median. What are we doing wrong here as an economic engine that makes it so hard for average folks to make ends meet? You know, I think it's, you know, as we mentioned, there have been a lot of companies, you know, Fortune 500 companies that have moved to Miami since the pandemic. There's been a huge increase in jobs for people who work in professional business services and financial activities. And, you know, those are, you know, industries that come with. really, you know, six figure paychecks. And a lot of the developers in the area have, you know, seen this kind of new influx of wealth and have been building, you know, more luxury commercial spaces and housing and restaurants and stores to kind of meet that, you know, that.

you know, meet that demand, but, you know, I don't know if we're necessarily seeing the incomes for, you know, kind of like your average middle class worker increasing at the same pace. So yeah, I think there's been a focus on attracting these, you know, these companies that have these super high, super well paid workers, but we're not seeing the increases and, you know, say. Yeah. other areas like government. Ben, in just the minute we have left, along those lines, as someone who watches economies as closely as you do, what do Miami and South Florida have to do to make us look affordable again, at least in the eyes of New Yorkers? You know, Miami is a place that is built on tourism and housing, and so it ends up. I think having a good number of low income working class jobs and then all then you have these sort of But now you have the finance jobs and you have the retirees and the wealthy billionaires and things. And I think that there's a middle. There's a gap there in the middle that needs to be developed. And you need housing for those folks as well. And you need, and some of it is also just keeping up with catching up to the boom. That can take a while. Ben Stevenman and Paulina Cacero are journalists at Bloomberg. Ben, Paulina, thank you very much for joining us. Thanks for having us. Finally, on the roundup, as Florida reaches the peak of hurricane season, researchers are working on a project out of the University of Delaware that turns sharks into oceanographers. I like to say we're giving them a backpack and a job, and then they're going to go out and collect this data for us. And, you know, they come to the surface, bam, we can put that data to direct use to improve these predictions. I think it's pretty neat. That data could help scientists better understand the mid-Atlantic seasonal cold pool. That's a layer of colder bottom water that can influence how quickly hurricanes intensify. Wernicki says sharks are the perfect animal for the sensors because they regularly dive to the depths they're interested in and then resurface regularly to transmit the data. Thanks again to Chris Young. That's all for the South Florida Roundup today. If you missed any part of the show, you can always search for the South Lord A Roundup podcast in the NPR app or wherever you listen to podcasts. The show is produced by Chris Young. Denise Royal is the senior producer of content streaming and news products. Katie Munoz is our director of original live programming. Mateus Sanchez is... WLRN's digital director, Sergio Bustos, is our vice president of news. The vice president of radio and the show's technical supervisor is Peter J. Friedrich Merz. M.J. Smith, engineer today's show. I'm Tim Padgett. Have a great weekend and thanks for listening. Grazie, Macy, Obrugado.