After reading these posts and constantly hearing about the bad neighborhood surrounding Miami Jai-Alai...I felt I needed to weigh in about my experiences. Allapattah is the name of the neighborhood surrounding Miami Jai-Alai. Born and raised in Miami, I can attest that while not the greatest area...it never was great but there are much much worse areas with much more violence. When I played at Miami many players would frequent a cuban sandwich shop after matinees which was just a few blocks down 36th street. On the opposite corner was an adult xxx rated peep store and it bothered nobody. We never had any cars broken into nor any incidents while outside the building. In the past 5 years I have been to Miami Jai-Alai several times and never had any concerns with parking or walking across 37th ave to enter the building. Lastly in speaking with Orbea III and Benny who played there after me...they brought up the fact that none of them have ever had any incidents and the players park there every night. I remember going to Bridgeport and thinking how bad the surrounding neighborhood looked...maybe I formed a negative judgement because I didn't live there and wasn't familiar with the area. I do think that Miami is excessively a dark area and could benefit from more lighting...but I am not bothered going there. Perhaps someone could research Miami crime statistics from the Allapattah section of Miami.
