In many ways, South Florida is a community in the process of reinventing its economy. It has become a leader in international trade, the Spanish-language media and international tourism. All of Latin America wants to come here,'' said Ana Maria Fernandez Haar, who heads IAC Group, an Hispanic advertising agency in Miami. It's appealing for Hispanics in other communities around the nation. So by no means does South Florida face the dire situation that Rust Belt urban regions faced in the mid-1980s, where weak economies and limited opportunities actually produced a drop in population.
People still pour into South Florida.
Miami as Casablanca may help tourism, but it doesn't cut it with the business community,'' Guzman says. We've never been known as a place to do serious business, even though we think we do,'' he said. Unfortunately, that image is at least partly rooted in reality, according to one recent study. That analysis, by Forbes magazine and the Milken Institute, ranked Miami 140th out of 162 metro areas for economic and technological development, as well as lifestyle. Fort Lauderdale was 81st.