I saw the title and I thought, "Bal Harbor Shops is expanding?" Yep. This article leaves out one of the more bizarre parts of Bal Harbor to me. As you drive ar

I saw the title and I thought, "Bal Harbor Shops is expanding?" Yep. This article leaves out one of the more bizarre parts of Bal Harbor to me. As you drive around, you mainly notice three things: really expensive shops, super-expensive cars, and families of Orthodox Jews. When I lived in South Florida, somebody once explained to me that the orthodox Jews lived in a different area nearby until they were pushed into North Miami Beach. Around the mid-1980s, they successfully sued the local government to remove racist laws preventing black and Jewish people from moving into the neighborhood (though it would appear something prevented any black people from moving in). The Sephardic Jewish population in this absolutely tiny, super-rich "village" between Miami Bay and the Atlantic Ocean is growing so much, they just spent $20 Million to expand their one shul. The power of the local orthodox Jewish population is such that they recently passed a local ordinance to include "criticism of Israel" as a potential hate crime. It's hard for me to not sound really racist while describing this, but it really is strange to go through the entirety of Miami/Dade and nearby counties and cities, which is basically mostly full of caribbean and latino people, and then hit this super-rich exclusive pocket of real estate, which just happens to be super Orthodox and European. It's just weird. (The only other area nearby that I know of that has a similar population is Hollywood, Florida, though I have no idea why)