![\"Cadillac](\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2021\/03\/unnamed.jpg\")
<\/a>The Cadillac Beach Hotel and Beach Club is named for Detroit\u2019s founder. (Photo by Harrison Shiels)<\/p><\/div>\n
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For instance, according to Brian Johnson, longtime general manager of the iconic Joe\u2019s Stone Crab, a former Detroit police sergeant once served as the famed restaurant\u2019s ma\u00eetre d \u2013 which is perhaps the most popular and powerful unelected position in Miami.<\/p>\n
The most powerful elected official, Miami Beach mayor Dan Gelber, revealed another connection. \u201cWe have a lot of Michigan influence here, including my daughter who is a junior at the University of Michigan. She is up there and is happy and as cold as can be,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n
Wolverine alum Desmond Howard, who won the Heisman Trophy wearing the winged helmet, played in the NFL, and is now a sports anchor for ESPN, makes Miami home. U-M alum Stephen Ross, a successful developer who is the largest single donor in the university\u2019s history, owns the NFL\u2019s Miami Dolphins.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany people don\u2019t know Stephen Ross grew up here and went to Miami Beach High School,\u201d said Nat Moore, who played 13 seasons for the Dolphins. \u201cHe\u2019s making sure the Dolphins are an integral part of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cuban community is an important facet of Miami\u2019s culture and Cuban-born Enrique Sosa, who lives on Key Biscayne, still spends his summers in Michigan where he worked for a decade as a high-ranking executive at Dow. \u201cI spent 15 years of my life in Midland and we still have a summer place on Lake Charlevoix. We\u2019ve been going there for 37 years,\u201d said Sosa. \u201cHere in Miami the Little Havana area on Calle Ocho gives you a taste of Cuban culture with a lot of good food and shops.\u201d Calle Ocho offers live music, cigars, and people watching.<\/p>\n
But if you want to see a human carnival of the exotic and eccentric South Beach takes the cake. And none of the colorful bars and restaurants there on Ocean Drive are as colorful as The Palace, which offers fanciful street-side drag shows. It\u2019s owned by Tom Donall, a Lansing native who also owns Spiral in Old Town. Admittedly he, himself, is about the only thing South Beach and Lansing have in common. \u201cIt\u2019s a whole different vibe. People from around the world come here to vacation. Lansing is more like a family and a home and you get to know people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve Farrell\u2019s home is the Miami Beach Golf Club, where he serves at director of golf, but he was born and raised in Kalamazoo where he caddied at the country club, became golf professional and then moved to Miami in 1990. \u201cI make my way back to Kalamazoo to see my mother and family each summer when I know it\u2019s going to be nice and warm,\u201d said Farrell who stargazes at his course, which is open to the public. \u201cWe get all sorts of celebrities and sports stars who come here to play golf. We\u2019re a part of South Beach and everyone is welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miami Beach has welcomed many Michiganders \u2013 and the Cadillac Hotel and Beach Club is ready for those who want to dive into the fun for a while.<\/p>\n
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Contact Michael Patrick Shiels at\u00a0<\/em>MShiels@aol.com<\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0His radio program may be found at\u00a0MiBigShow.com<\/a>\u00a0or weekday mornings from 9-noon\u00a0on WJIM AM 1240<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Miami Beach in Miami, Florida is thriving with Michigan connections as the city continues to welcome Michiganders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":2549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[2834,632146,1023733,1023741],"class_list":["post-2548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-michigan","tag-miami-beach","tag-travel-florida","tag-cadillac-hotel-and-beach-club"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2021\/03\/unnamed.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2550,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2548\/revisions\/2550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}