Miami Gardens, Florida, United States

🇺🇸 Miami Gardens is a city in north-central Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is located 16 miles (26 km) north of Downtown Miami with city boundaries that stretch from I-95 and Northeast 2nd Avenue to its east to Northwest 47th and Northwest 57th Avenues to its west, and from the Broward County line to its north to 151st Street to its south. The city's name originated from Florida State Road 860, a major roadway through the area also known as Miami Gardens Drive.

Miami Gardens is Florida's most populous city with a majority African American population and also home to the largest percentage of African Americans (66.97 percent) of any city in Florida, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It is a principal city within the Miami metropolitan area, the nation's ninth largest and world's 65th largest metropolitan area with a population of 6.158 million people as of 2020.

Miami Gardens is the home of Hard Rock Stadium, a 64,767 capacity multi-purpose stadium that serves as the home field for both the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League and the Miami Hurricanes, the University of Miami's NCAA Division I college football team, which has won five national championships since 1983.

History In the wake of the construction of I-95 in the late 1960s, many middle- and upper-income African American and West Indian American families migrated from Miami neighborhoods like Liberty City to what became Miami Gardens (also called Carol City, Norland or Norwood) as race-based covenants were outlawed with the Fair Housing Act, and mostly lower income blacks moved into the Liberty City and Little Haiti neighborhoods surrounding Liberty Square and Edison Courts.

Miami Gardens was incorporated on May 13, 2003. The city's neighborhoods of Andover, Bunche Park, Carol City, Lake Lucerne, Norland, Opa-locka North, and Scott Lake were previously unincorporated areas within Miami-Dade County.

In 2007, Mayor Shirley Gibson said that the city would no longer allow any low-income housing developments; many residents blamed the developments for spreading crime and recreational drugs throughout the city. Around that time, the city's tax revenues dropped to the third-lowest in Miami-Dade County.

In 2012, Oliver Gilbert, only the second mayor the city has had, proposed forming a community redevelopment agency (CRA). CRAs are formed to remove "slum and blight", to improve the physical environment of the city and to combat the social and economic problems typical of slum areas. CRAs are funded with property tax increases, which funds are used, in part, to stimulate private investment in the rehabilitation of the community.

During the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Hard Rock Stadium will host multiple matches during the tournament.

Sports facilities The Calder Race Course opened in 1971.

Miami Gardens is home to the Miami Dolphins, who play in Hard Rock Stadium on land that was part of the Lake Lucerne CDP. This stadium also hosts the annual Orange Bowl college football game, and is the home field for the University of Miami Hurricanes football team. The Miami Open tennis tournament is held on the grounds of the stadium. The Florida Marlins of Major League Baseball shared Hard Rock Stadium with the Dolphins for almost two decades until, in 2012, they relocated to Miami and changed their name to the Miami Marlins.

In 2022 and 2023, the Miami International Autodrome hosted the Miami Grand Prix for Formula One.

Healthcare The city of Miami Gardens has several health care clinics and facilities that offer medical care and support to its residents. Although the city has no hospital directly within its limits, Jackson North Medical Center, Concentra Urgent Care, and, Chen Medical Center provide medical services to the residents of Miami Gardens. Supplementing this, several health care clinics and facilities provide medical services that include general medicine, walk-in/urgent care, dental services, gynecology, physical therapy, chiropractor services, laboratory tests, x-rays, sonograms, osteoporosis screening, vaccinations, and health and exercise programs.

Education: Universities • St. Thomas University • Florida Memorial University • Sullivan and Cogliano Training Centers.

Public libraries Miami-Dade Public Library System operates the North Dade Regional Library, which opened in September 1979.