Kendall, Florida

West Kendall is served by the Miami market for local radio and television. Kendall has its own newspaper, The Kendall Gazette, which is published twice monthly and is part of Miami Community Newspapers.

Much of what is now Kendall was purchased from the State of Florida in 1883 by the Florida Land and Mortgage Company. It was named for Henry John Broughton Kendall, a director of Florida Land and Mortgage who moved to the area in the 1900s to manage the company's land. As the land was not open to homesteading, development was slow well into the 20th century. A post office opened in 1914, and the first school opened in 1929. After the end of the land boom in 1926, some residents left. Two Seminole camps were in the Kendall area, and Seminoles continued to live there into the 1940s.[3]

Dadeland Mobile Home Park neighborhood near Kendall destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

In August 1992, Kendall and the surrounding South Dade area were severely damaged by Hurricane Andrew. Many of the homes and businesses in the area were destroyed. In the subsequent years, the area was slowly rebuilt.[4]

Kendall is located at 25°40′0″N 80°21′24″W (25.666781, −80.356533).[5]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the Kendall region has an approximate total area of 16.3 sq mi (42.3 km²); 16.1 sq mi (41.8 km²) of it is land and 0.23 sq mi (0.6 km²) of it (1.35%) is water.

Climate in Kendall is naturally similar to the remainder of Miami-Dade County, although its location and elevation inland along the Miami Rock Ridge does make it slightly cooler at night during the winter and slightly warmer during the day in the summer.

In 2010, there were 31,899 households and 8.7% were vacant. In 2000, 33.4% households had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.0% were married couples living together, 13.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.0% were non-families. 24.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.14.

In 2000, 23.3% of the population were under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 31.8% from 25 to 44, 24.9% from 45 to 64, and 11.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 88.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.4 males.

In 2000, the median household income was $51,330 and the median family income was $61,241. Males had a median income of $42,875 and females $31,416. The per capita income was $27,914. About 5.7% of families and 8.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.0% of those under age 18 and 10.9% of those age 65 or over.

In 2000, 52.46% of residents spoke Spanish at home, while those who spoke only English comprised 40.38%,. Speakers of Portuguese were 1.49% of the population, French 1.12%, and French Creole 0.95%.[8]

In 2000, Kendall had the twenty-first highest percentage of Cuban-American residents in the United States, at 21.3%.[9] It had the twenty-fifth highest percentage of Colombian residents in the US, at 4.56%,[10] and the sixteenth highest percentage of Nicaraguan residents in the US, at 2.48%.[11] It also had the twenty-fifth most Peruvians in the US, at 2.01% (tied with Carteret, New Jersey,)[12] and the tenth highest percentage of Venezuelan residents in the US, at 1.47%.[13] As a result of the city's large French community, the French American School of Miami is located in Kendall. Kendall is also the home of Sofigi.

Kendall is served by Metrobus throughout the area, and by the Metrorail at:

•           Dadeland North (SW 70th Avenue and U.S. 1)
•           Dadeland South (Dadeland Boulevard and U.S. 1)

Pollo Tropical has its headquarters in Dadeland,[14] Kendall.[15][16][17] The headquarters moved to Dadeland in 1994.[14]

Kendall is the site of Dadeland Mall, an upscale indoor shopping mall in East Kendall with Macy's, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and JCPenney as anchor stores. In South Kendall, directly south of Dadeland Mall on US-1 is The Falls (mall), an open-air shopping mall with Macy's as anchor store as well as a Regal Cinema.

Prior to its dissolution, Air Florida was headquartered in the Dade Towers in what is now the Kendall CDP.[16][18]

The Miami-Dade Police Department operates the Kendall District Station in the CDP.[16][19]

• Hank Kaplan[20]
• Janet Reno[21]
• O. J. Simpson[22]