I work downtown,'' she said. With its outdoor cafes and busy sidewalks, Brickell has a cosmopolitan European feel. Many European and South American bankers, entrepreneurs and managers are buying on the upscale Brickell side. They want a place for themselves and their families to stay while they conduct business in Miami. In the mornings and evenings, the tree-shaded Brickell Avenue is filled with Rollerbladers, runners and power walkers.
People push baby carriages and walk their dogs.
Residents praise Brickell's safeness. Many of the high-rises have their own security officers, and Miami police statistics show burglaries in the neighborhood declined by 23 percent in the last year and robberies by 16 percent. It is part of a trend of crime declining throughout Miami, said police spokesman Angel Calzadilla. Brickells came in 1870s From the start, the Brickell area was planned as a haven for the wealthy. In the early 1870s, Mary and William Brickell arrived to claim 640 acres at the mouth of the Miami River, what is now the northern border of the neighborhood.