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Renting an Apartment in Key Biscayne
What You Should Know
Key Biscayne is a village in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The
population was 10,507 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population recorded by
the U.S. Census Bureau is 10,324.
Key Biscayne is an island that lies south of Miami Beach and east of Miami. It
and nearby Virginia Key, while named keys, are not geologically part of the
Florida keys, but are barrier islands composed of sand moved down the coast from
the north by coastal currents. Visitors can reach Key Biscayne from the mainland
by driving over the Rickenbacker Causeway, a roadway and series of bridges that
span Biscayne Bay.
The Key (from the Spanish word cayo, for "island") is connected to Miami via the
Rickenbacker Causeway, originally built in 1947. Because of its low elevation
and direct exposure to the Atlantic Ocean, it is usually among the first Miami
areas to be evacuated before an oncoming hurricane.
The Key is home to Crandon Park (Miami-Dade County) and Bill Baggs Cape Florida
State Park, and is adjacent to Biscayne National Park, one of the two national
parks in Miami-Dade County.
Since 1985, a major professional tennis tournament for both men and women has
been held annually in Key Biscayne at the Tennis Center in Crandon Park.
Currently known as the NASDAQ-100 Open, the event was formerly the Lipton Tennis
Championships from 1985 to 1999 and the Ericsson Open from 1999 to 2002. (See
Miami Masters.)
History
Native Americans of the Tequesta tribe were the first inhabitants of Key
Biscayne, arriving by dugout canoe. They used the island as a base for fishing,
collecting shellfish and hunting for sea turtle eggs. Juan Ponce de Leon charted
Key Biscayne on his first mission to the New World in 1513. He christened the
island Santa Marta and claimed it for the Spanish Crown. The island served as a
source of fresh water for Spanish ships but the island was not colonized by the
Spanish Empire perhaps because of the treacherous reefs, constantly shifting
sandbars and unpredictability of tropical storms.
After Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821, the federal government built the
Cape Florida lighthouse at the southern tip of Key Biscayne in 1825. On July 23,
1836, the lighthouse was attacked and burned by Native Americans of the Seminole
tribe during the Second Seminole War. An assistant lighthouse keeper (slave) was
killed and the lighthouse was abandoned until the end of the war in 1842.
In 1846, US Congress appropriated $23,000 to rebuild the lighthouse and work was
completed in 1847. In 1861, Confederate militants sabotaged the lighthouse so
that it could not guide Union sailors during the blockade of Confederate
Florida. The lighthouse was repaired and re-lit again in 1866.
Early in the 20th Century, two-thirds of Key Biscayne was farmed as the largest
coconut plantation in the continental United States. It wasn't until the
construction of the seven-mile Rickenbacker Causeway in 1947 that the island
became a convenient place to live. The Causeway was named after Eddie
Rickenbacker, a World War I flying ace and former president of Eastern Airlines.
The Mackle Construction Company built hundreds of ranch and cottage homes for
returning Korean War veterans in the 1950s. Fishing, boating and beachcombing
were popular pastimes for the working class residents of the new suburban island
community.
President Richard Nixon purchased the first of his three waterfront homes,
forming a compound known as the Florida White House, in 1969 to be close to his
close friend and confidant, Bebe Rebozo and industrialist Robert Abplanalp
(inventor of the modern spray can valve). Bebe Rebozo, owner of the Key Biscayne
Bank, was indicted for laundering a $100,000 donation from Howard Hughes to the
Nixon election campaign. President Kennedy and Nixon met for the first time
after the 1960 Election loss by Nixon in an oceanfront villa at the old Key
Biscayne Hotel. Plans for the Watergate break-in at Democratic headquarters were
discussed at the Key Biscayne Nixon compound and, as the Watergate scandal
unfolded, Nixon spent more time in seclusion there. Nixon visited Key Biscayne
more than 50 times between 1969 and 1973. The U.S. Department of Defense spent
$400,000 constructing a helicopter landing pad in Biscayne Bay adjacent to the
Nixon compound and when Nixon sold his property, including the helicopter pad,
there were public accusations that he enriched himself at taxpayer expense.
In 1992, Hurricane Andrew flooded some homes and businesses on Key Biscayne but
the eye wall passed over uninhabited Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park which
received the brunt of the storm. The storm damage was a blessing for the park
because it destroyed all the non-native vegetation that the state had been
trying to eradicate. Federal and State funding allowed the replanting with
native vegetation making the park a showplace natural area. In recent years the
construction of several large resort hotels, condominium complexes and shopping
centers on the island as the once bucolic island life continued to accelerate at
a frenetic pace. The area was incorporated as a new city in 1992 which gave the
Village control over its taxes and future development. The Village has its own
fire, police and a newly expanded public elementary and middle school. The tax
rate remains the lowest of any city in Miami-Dade County. The Village has just
completed a new civic center including fire, police and administration buildings
and a well appointed recreation and community center with indoor multi use
courts, and outdoor swimming pool.
Key Biscayne increasingly caters to an elite population of business moguls,
high-income professionals, and a significant influx of Latin American tourists
and part-time residents fleeing political and economic instability in their home
countries.
Demographics
There were 4,259 households out of which 32.3% had children under the age of 18
living with them, 58.0% were married couples living together, 7.7% had a female
householder with no husband present, and 31.9% were non-families. 27.9% of all
households were made up of individuals and 9.5% had someone living alone who was
65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average
family size was 2.99.
In the village the population was spread out with 24.2% under the age of 18,
4.6% from 18 to 24, 29.6% from 25 to 44, 26.0% from 45 to 64, and 15.6% who were
65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females
there were 88.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.8
males.
The median income for a household in the village was $86,599, and the median
income for a family was $107,610. Males had a median income of $86,322 versus
$46,765 for females. The per capita income for the village was $54,213.
Education
Miami-Dade County Public Schools serves Key Biscayne.
Coral Gables High School is zoned to the island.