Welcome back to the Ten Blocks podcast. This is Teddy Kupfer and associate editor of City Journal.

Joining me on the show today are Ali Wiseman and Alex Perez.

Ollie is a freelance writer and reporter living in Washington, D.C., and Alex is a writer and

graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop. Both of them have written for City Journal before.

And today we're going to talk about Miami, where Alex lives and where Oliver

went to write a story for our new print issue, which is out now. Oliver and Alex, thank you very

much for joining me. Good to be here. So I haven't been to Miami in a while, but I have to say I'm

jealous of you both for being lucky enough to have spent some time there.

Not only is it obviously a gorgeous place with great weather, food, and architecture, but it's a fascinating city whose political, cultural, and business climate have been the subject of much

national commentary, especially since the pandemic. I mentioned Oliver's story in our print issue,

and that was actually part of a two article feature with the other by Daniel Tenrero.

So let me begin with a general question.

Why do you think Miami is getting so much attention these days?

Well, I guess I'll jump in on that one, Teddy.

And I think for a couple of reasons, Miami has really captured the kind of national imagination over the pandemic.

And I think the biggest reason is the pandemic because the city's become this kind of avatar for a kind of alternative to sort of um well i should

say florida has become the avatar for the sort of alternative to um you know kind of blue state

blue city um uh kind of lockdown heavy approach to the pandemic and miami is the sort of most

culturally salient city in florida so I guess part of it is that.

The thing I went to report on for you guys, though,

was really a little more focused on the electoral politics in and around the city,

where, you know, basically Florida has gone from a swing state to a kind of something approaching a red state or sort of taking on a reddish hue.

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