These were the various enterprises in which the early pioneers were engaged, and with the coming of the railroad and its stop at the Biscayne station, they were able to live off the land.
In 1924, the Shoreland Company purchased the Gordon Tract, Bay View Estates and other scattered acreage in order to create Miami Shores, "America's Mediterranean".
Hugh M. Anderson, president of the Shoreland Company, and its board of directors were experienced real estate developers.
They had previously completed the successful development of the Venetian Islands in Miami Beach, and they decided that their new project would be similar – residences of Italian-inspired architecture within a landscape associated with water.
The plans also called for the construction of a causeway to Miami Beach, a golf course, a country club, a yacht club, a business district, apartment buildings, hotels, a school and churches, a railroad station and beautifying features such as parks, plazas and entryways.
The commercial building program was in progress, sidewalks and roadways were being laid out, and lighting and landscape work was well underway.
In 1931, under his leadership, a request to grant a charter creating the Miami Shores Village was presented in the state legislature.
Under the leadership of Roy H. Hawkins, a request to grant a charter creating Miami Shores Village was presented in the state legislature.
A variety of architectural styles were introduced, yet the community emerged as the type of development the Shoreland Company had envisioned.
The community retains many of its original characteristics – well situated and served by major highways, having tree-lined streets and wide roads, a downtown area, well-maintained homes provided with efficient services.
The village is mostly single family residential homes, with very few multi-family units and only two small commercial areas along Northeast 2nd Avenue and Biscayne Boulevard.
[12] Between 2012 and 2016, 40.2% of village residents spoke a language other than English at home, 49.2% possessed a bachelor's degree or higher, and the median household income was $101,047.
The Village Charter provides that the two individuals receiving the highest number of votes are elected to four-year terms.
Historically, the individual receiving the highest number of votes is selected to serve as the mayor and holds this position for two years of the four-year term.
There are also a number of administrative boards, such as planning & zoning, code enforcement, and personnel appeals, that manage various aspects of the village government.
In 2013, two residents, a married couple named Hermine Ricketts and Tom Carroll, were cited by the village under a code provision that prohibited vegetable gardens in front yards.
Nonetheless, just weeks after amending its ordinances "for clarity," the Miami Shores Code Enforcement Board ordered the couple to destroy the garden or face recurring fines of $50 per day.
The Institute for Justice filed a suit on their behalf, claiming that the "backyard only" rule was arbitrary and violated the couple's property rights under the Florida Constitution.
On August 25, 2016, Judge Monica Gordo granted the village's summary judgment motion, finding that, "the prohibition of vegetable gardens except in backyards is rationally related to Miami Shores' legitimate interest in promoting and maintaining aesthetics," and that the rule therefore "passes constitutional scrutiny."
The city defended the ruling, saying that "without any arbiter of taste, residents could get stuck living next to a polka-dot house with pigs taking mud baths by the garage and an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile on the swale.
Following the January 2016 report "Racial Disparities in Florida Safety Belt Law Enforcement", published by the ACLU (which did not mention Miami Shores), local CBS-affiliate station WFOR-TV gathered additional statistics from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
One sentence in the report noted that "in Miami Shores, there were 261 seat belt citations issued with 186 [(71%)] going to blacks.
Brockway Memorial Library offers patrons a large and diverse collection of materials that contain, print books, magazines, newspapers, online databases, eBooks, multimedia resources, such as computers, DVDs, music, and a diversity of social clubs and activities to serve the patrons and the community at large.