North Miami is home to the music industries greatest musicians and producers. Cool & Dre are music producers whose name holds a lot of weight. From winning Grammies, signing some of Miami’s talented artist such as Kent Jones, as well as having a record labeled called Epidemic Music Label with well known partner DJ Khaled. Cool & Dre are the epitome of going against the odds and persevering to be successful. Being that they are both from North Miami they display a North Miami pride. Never forgetting where they come from and always giving back to their community.

Quick facts:

• Dre’s real name is Andre Christopher Lyon and he was born in New York City.
• Moved to North Miami at five years old with his family
• Cool’s real name is Marcello “Cool” Valenzano
• Dre graduated from North Miami High School and he and Cool have their own record label, Epidemic Music.

Q: Do you know why your family decided to relocated to North Miami? Which elementary, middle and high school did you attend?

Dre: My family is Jamaican. They couldn’t deal with the New York weather. It gets cold in the winters out there. We moved to North Miami where I attended North Miami Elementary, Middle and High School.

Q: What or whom inspired you to do music? How did you know that was your path?

Dre: I always loved music growing up as a kid. I listened to all genres of music when i was young. I appreciated the instruments and the vocal performances and how they came together to create the vibe. Music has been a inspiration to me as long as I can remember. It was Outkast’s debut album that shined a light on a pathway to where I saw proof that you can create amazing music incorporating live instruments & samples and be successful. That album made me feel like we could really live out our dreams.

Q: How did you meet ‘Cool’ (Marcello)?

Dre: I met Cool in highschool.

Q: What made Cool & Dre different from other artists, in your opinion?

Dre: The thing that made Cool & I different was that, for one, we were from North Miami. Growing up, there were other cities in Miami way more popular than North Miami. So we always had that underdog spirit. And number two, Cool and I listened to every genre of music, appreciated hip hop on a whole and it came through the beats we created.

Q:How did North Miami play a role in the rap duo, Cool & Dre? What values did you gain from this city that, you believe, helped you in your career?

Dre: Like i stated earlier, North Miami is a special place. It’s 5 minutes from Opa Locka depending on where you stay. Its also down the street from Aventura and if you bang a turn on 125th street you’re in Bal Harbor. So we see it from every angle. I makes us special because of the diversity. Being that close to Bal Harbor makes you wanna secure that bag. Its that inspiration to go get it and come up.

Q: After traveling all over the world, what has kept you in North Miami? What are one or two things North Miami has that you cannot find anywhere else?

Dre: Home is where the heart is. No matter where I’m at in the world, I’m North Miami.

Q: What are some things you enjoyed doing while growing up in the city? In what ways have you given back to the city?

Dre: I loved playing ball at Cagni Park. I loved walking 2 seconds down the street to get Chicken Plus. I love the fact that I met Cool my brother from another in North Miami. Infact this year we are doing our annual Toy Drive in North Miami. I’ll have more details as we get closer to Christmas.

Q: What is next for you?

Dre: Whats next for us is continuing the forward progress we have gained over the past 20 years of consistently creating music and hit records for artists from all walks of life. Over our professional career as music producers we have been blessed to create some of music’s biggest hits and are honored to win a couple Grammy’s on the way. We are extremely excited about Kent Jones who currently has the #1 record in the country, his debut single Don’t Mind has just received RIAA Gold status and he has a chance to be an important artist for this generation. Kent Jones is also an amazing musician which will keep him relevant for years to come. He’s signed to our Epidemic Music label alongside our good friend and partner DJ Khaled and We The Best Music. It’s been a long time coming but because we’re from North Miami we never gave up. We didn’t fold. We refused to walk away from our convictions. It’s the North Miami way. Bless up.

 If you love to shop the hottest styles & trends in women’s & men’s clothing and athletic apparel Simons is your spot. Simons North Miami is located on 698 NE 167th St and is very popular with all the sneaker fanatics. They usually love the fact that they are able to get the latest and greatest sneakers before anyone else. They also have employees that are very knowledgeable about all release dates for shoes so they keep customers up-to-date. This store started out as a small family owned business, but has blossomed into a place for everyone to come and shop.

If you’re a bride to be you’re in luck, North Miami has multiple locations you can find your dream dress. My Dreams Bridal & Formal Wear (12535 W Dixie Hwy), Sassy Bridal & Formal Wear (831 NE 125th St), Gowns Couture (711 NE 125th St), and Brides of America (785 NW 167th St).

Getting ready for a special event just got a lot easier. A-Z Formalwear (777 Northeast 125th Street) is a family owned business that has been around for over 25 years. They offer great personalized service to each and every customer, while making sure that they always have the most competitive prices in South Florida. They are able to help with any occasion such as weddings, proms, formal parties, company gatherings, funerals and more. They even have a special for grooms where they get a free tuxedo when they rent five tuxedos.

If you love shopping for the best vintage items North Miami has to offer there are a variety of places you could go, such as C Madeleine’s (13702 Biscayne Blvd), Community Family Thrift Store (12560 NE 6th Ave), Second Chance Thrift Store (14722 NE 16th Ave), Red & White & Blue Store (12640 NE 6th Ave). Red & White & Blue Store is jammed packed with a variety of items from clothes and shoes, to houseware. So whatever you might need you will find it there. Their prices are very affordable, so if you’re shopping on a budget these are the perfect place for you.

Andrea A. Ramos relocated with her family to North Miami from Brooklyn, in the ‘80s, only to fall in love in 1992 with Ernie Ramos, who came to the city as a 9-year-old from Cuba.

While both Andrea and Ernie attended and graduated from North Miami High School, they didn’t meet there.

“I graduated high school before Andrea, I was a little ahead of her,” said Ernie. “Crazy thing is I actually knew some of her friends, then, but never met her.”

Back then, ninth grade was still considered middle school–which meant that Andrea was still in middle school when Ernie graduated from North Miami High.

So, the couple wouldn’t meet until the ripe ages of 19 and 21.

At 19, Andrea was in her second year of college at Barry University. At 21, Ernie was a little league baseball coach for a team called the Yankees, while working part-time at the Miami Herald.

“We had pinstriped uniforms and everything, just like the Yankees,” said Ernie.

Andrea’s little brother, Javier Aguirre, was also on the little league team.

“He used to coach my brother at Ray Cagni Park, who was 12 at the time, and that’s how we met,” said Andrea, “I thought he was very handsome and cute.”

From dropping her brother off to practice, to occasionally chaperoning the 15-member team, Andrea was a familiar face at Ray Cagni Park.

But what attracted Ernie was her scent.

“Every time she came to the park she smelled really, really good,” said Ernie. “All the coaches were pretty attracted to her, but, of course, I made the move.”

Andrea had never had a serious boyfriend, and so while she liked Ernie, she said they were friends first.

“We talked and we became friends because I didn’t know him,” said Andrea. “We were friends for a while before we started dating.”

The couple’s first date was a 1992 Paula Abdul concert, after which they decided to become an official couple.

During this time, Andrea started teaching gymnastics for the City of North Miami while going to college, and soon after, gaining her degree in teaching.

Ernie, on the other hand, was attending Miami Dade College for his degree in education.

“I wasn’t working with the parks and recreation department yet, but Andrea was able to get me a job,” said Ernie. “I was hired to run the city’s baseball league, gained a recreational leadership position, and became full time in 1997 as Recreation Leader Two.”

The new position still allowed Ernie to coach, but it also gave him more of a supervisor role: setting up schedules, hiring coaches, etc.

In 2000, the year that Ernie and Andrea were getting married—tragedy struck when Javier suddenly died at 19.

“He had a heart condition–it was a shock of the heart,” said Andrea. “It took like six months to get his autopsy report.”

Javier was known for coaching sports, including soccer, in the community with the recreation department.

With Ernie by her side, Andrea was able to move forward and she and Ernie continued working diligently for the city.

“My wife and I are job-basis employees, since 2000 we work whatever we need to work, sometimes overnight, we are super committed,” said Ernie. “The city has been so good to us, you don’t work 25-plus years for a city without making friends, building bonds and letting people know you mean well.”

The couple has two children, a 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son. Though the couple moved to Miami Lakes to be closer to Andrea’s parents, their children are still a part of North Miami.

“Our children do community service, my son is in the soccer program and my daughter is in the arts and finance program,” said Andrea. “My daughter will be volunteering at Enchanted Forest Park soon.”

Ernie also expressed how his family moved to North Miami in 1979, and is still happily living there.

“We came from Cuba straight to North Miami, and we are all American citizens,” said Ernie. “They pay taxes in North Miami, vote there, my grandmother is there, my parents are there, and my aunt still lives up the street.”

As they continue to work for the Parks and Recreation Department, they are looking forward to celebrating their 16^th wedding anniversary this June.

“We really do love each other very much, it’s been 24 years,” said Andrea.

“It goes so fast.”

“The City of North Miami has been good to Andrea and I, we know it, we understand it, and we want to make sure we give back to the city. We don’t have plans to go anywhere. Our commitment to this community is solid. No one can come in and mess with that.” –Ernie Ramos, Parks & Recreation Department

Arthur H. Sorey, III, has an important job as the deputy city manager of the city of North Miami, seeing to it that the city reaches new heights.

It’s a job he cherishes because North Miami is not only the city that employs him, but it is his childhood home.

Sorey grew up on 128^th Street and NW 10^th Avenue, in North Miami, with both parents and two younger siblings, one sister and one brother.

“I remember going to summer camp and swimming lessons every year, and I was in the little league baseball team at Pepper Park,” said Sorey.

Sorey was at Claude Pepper Park on 135^th street just about every day, with his siblings, during swimming lessons and for his games during baseball season.

At the age of 14, he gained a job as a park attendant—making sure fields were clean, opening the park on time, and ensuring safety.

“I worked between Pepper and Benjamin Franklin parks,” said Sorey. “It didn’t feel like work, even when I started working full time at other places, I still worked at the park. It was North Miami and it was home.”

Sorey attended Benjamin Franklin Elementary, North Miami Middle, and North Miami High schools. When it was time for him to attend college, he chose Florida International University.

Though he still worked at the park while attending college, he knew that he wanted to give back to his community the way his father, Arthur Duke Sorey, did as North Miami’s first African American council member, serving from 1995 to 1999.

This inspired Sorey to study public administration.

“I interned at various places, including the city of Aventura, Hallandale, and Davie, but it was always my dream to work in North Miami as the city manager, it’s my dream job,” said Sorey.

Sorey graduated from Florida International University with his bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Thirteen years ago, he began working as a budget analyst for the city of North Miami.

“I just worked my way up from there, really,” said Sorey. “It has always been a career goal of mine to work for North Miami, it’s my home and, you know, you want to stay close to home.”

Altogether, Sorey has been working for the city roughly 26 years. Despite offers from other cities, and his experiences out of state, his loyalty to North Miami stayed true.

He even bought a home around the corner from his parents’ 37-year-old home, right down the block.

“North Miami has a small town feel, that’s what I like about it so much,” said Sorey. “You can get on the turnpike or I-95 and be anywhere in 15 minutes.”

As a resident, Sorey is in a city he loves with the people that mean most to him, but as deputy city manager, he’s working hard to bring more opportunities to the city and its residents.

“I just want it to grow—bring different businesses and more opportunities for people to work,” Sorey said.

“I came back to North Miami as a budget analyst 13 years ago, and I just worked my way up. But it was always my career goal, since college, to be the city manager of North Miami one day. That was my dream job.” –Arthur H. Sorey, III, Deputy City Manager of North Miami

In the final phase of Indian inhabitation of the area the eventually became “North Miami,” the United States Army Soldiers in 1856 cut a Military Trail through nearly impassable thickets and rivers connecting Fort Lauderdale to Fort Dallas at the mouth of the Miami River. This eight – foot trail, Dade County’s first roadway, crossed a unique natural bridge in an area that would attract a settlement that early on would be known as Arch Creek. Even before 1890 a handful of adventuresome pioneers spent brief periods around the Arch Creek Natural Bridge, a centuries-old Indian settlement.

THE FIRST PIONEER

In 1891, Charles J. Ihle was the first to put down roots in the Arch Creek vicinity. He purchased 80 acres from the State of Florida at one dollar an acre in the area of today’s N.E. 116th Street and Biscayne Boulevard. The place was so remote that his nearest northern neighbor was thought to live in Ft. Lauderdale. Mr. Ihle built a temporary palmetto frond shelter. During the next 27 years he grew shallots, coontie, bananas, sugar cane, Puerto Rican pineapples, lemons, guavas, limes, rose apples, Jamaican apples, and tomatoes.

ARRIVAL OF THE RAILROAD AND THE ARCH CREEK FARMING COMMUNITY

Henry Flagler’s railroad passed through the Arch Creek area in 1896 on the way to Miami. An overland mule-driven stagecoach using the Military Trail from Lantana to Miami was put out of business by the railroad. Just after the turn of the century, a group from Elmira, New York, purchased land near the Natural Bridge, set up a tent camp, and planted grapefruit groves. By 1907 the farm yield around Arch Creek was 400 acres of vegetables and 40,000 crates of grapefruit. In the next twenty years a trickle of hardy pioneers arrived at the Arch Creek railroad depot, purchased land, built homes, and created a thriving farming community.

THE COMMUNITY CENTER MOVES

By 1905 the area surrounding the nine year old Arch Creek Railroad Depot had become the community’s hub. It was located at 125th Street and the F.E.C. tracks. That year a post office and a school were opened nearby. By 1912, eighteen homes, a church, a general store, a blacksmith shop, and two tomato packing houses were located around the railroad. The population was estimated at less than one hundred. Farming was still the principal occupation.

THE 1920’S LAND BOOM

The Florida land boom that was underway in the 1920’s spread to the Arch Creek farming community. The Biscayne Canal was dug in 1924 to remove farmland from flooded conditions, As a consequence, the soil began to lose its moisture, and the farming which had been the backbone of the economy, was no longer profitable. However, in step with the times, this drained land became available for partitioning, lot sales, and development.

NORTH MIAMI’S BIRTH —- 1926

Thirty-eight out of the forty-seven registered voters, at the encouragement of developers Earl Irons and Arthur Griffing, showed up and voted to incorporate into a town on February 5, 1926. North Miami, between 1926 and 1931, was named “TOWN OF MIAMI SHORES,” partially because its early eastern boundary was the Atlantic Ocean! The town limits were: bounded on the South by Miami and Miami Beach, on the East by the Atlantic Ocean, on the West by 17th Avenue, and on the North by a line which approximates Golden Glades Drive, or 166th Street. Incorporation moved costs from developers to residents and lot purchasers. Late in 1926 a bond issue of $287,000 was passed to build streets, sidewalks, a town hall, a water system, and fire protection.

THE EVENTS OF 1931

Seven miles of Atlantic Oceanfront beachland property from the Broward County line southward to Surfside were removed from the town limits as a result of a 1931 Florida Supreme Court decision. The 1926 hurricane ended plans for a causeway to deliver municipal services to that area of town. With no services being received, the beach area instituted a lengthy court lawsuit to separate and form their own community. The wealthy Shoreland Company, located to the south of the Town, urged the 1931 Florida Legislature to officially grant their huge development the name, “Village of Miami Shores,” as a name. The next step was for the local population to choose a new name. The municipality was renamed, “TOWN OF NORTH MIAMI.”

THE QUIET 1930’S

During the Depression years, in 1933, Mrs. Cecille Sevier and Mrs. Ella S. Klefeker became the first two women elected to the Town Council. The 1940’s census stated that 1973 inhabitants lived in the “Town of North Miami.”

POST WORLD WAR II GROWTH

At the end of World War II in 1945, the large and constant influx of former military veterans and their young families changed the face of North Miami by ushering in a great growth period. Homebuilding, road building, shops, stores, and office business construction now continued for decades almost without stopping. By 1951, it was reported nationally that North Miami was one of the fastest growing towns in the United States. [Recently it reached a population of 50,000.] Partially to meet this challenge of fast growth, the voters of North Miami in 1952 voted to adopt a new charter and a new name. The new charter, enacted as an official statute of the Florida Legislature on May 27, 1953 provided for the establishment of a full-time administrative head. (A City Manager form of government), to carry out the policies of the elected Mayor/Council. The new and present name officially introduced on this date. — The CITY OF NORTH MIAMI.

Information compiled by the Greater North Miami Historical Society.  Recommended book reading:

“Biscayne Country” by Thelma Peters

President and CEO of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, William Talbert, informed the audience of the opportunities North Miami can benefit from in the travel, trade and tourism industries as the number of visitors and residents increase in Miami.

“Clearly by being between Downtown and Miami Super Bowl City and the stadium, we will be right in the middle of where all the action is,” said Talbert.

Currently, most hotels in the greater Miami area are located south of 36th Street and the beaches, making it difficult for North Miami to attract newcomers to the area. However, city officials have come up with a plan that will expose North Miami to more tourism and investments.

“The city already developed a master plan for North Miami’s downtown, which included a hotel,” said City Manager Larry Spring. “As far as I see it, the fact that we are at the Biscayne quarter, with ocean and water views depending on how high you go up, bay access will make tourist want to stay in North Miami.”

North Miami also plans on the creation of a Chinatown to gain recognition and bring in a larger wave of tourists to the city.

Recently, city officials met with 28 Chinese investors who are interested in investing on a Chinatown in the area.

“We took the lead, making the designation, and we are spending our resources to physically and aesthetically change the street,” said Spring. “ We will put gateways, make the street more walkable, establish businesses and change the façade as an actual attraction.”

This designation would not only generate more visitors daily, but it could have a long-term effect on housing investments.

There is only a small percentage of Asians living in North Miami; however, establishing a Chinatown is projected to bring new residents and investors to the area from different parts of the world.

“If investors are spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the region and we have Chinatown here and they own the business or the land, they might buy a condo there or
several condos there so they will have a place to stay,” said Spring.

During the luncheon, city staff and speakers also encouraged businesses to get involved and promote their businesses. Officials will continue to host luncheons, resource fairs and meetings to inform business owners of the upcoming opportunities as new projects are proposed.