title: It (2017 film)

text: Reports in August 2017 from Forbes's Scott Mendelson predicted the film may enter the record books for the horror movie genre, with a realistic prediction of "It" opening over or under of "The Conjuring" (2013) and "The Conjuring 2"s (2016) $40 million opening weekend, though Mendelson stated that "Fifty Shades Darker"s (2017) $46.6 million opening, and $114.4 million domestic finish may just be at the lower end of expectations. Mendelson later stated that while "It" will break the record for biggest opening weekend for a non-sequel R-rated horror movie, held by "The Conjuring" (2013) at $41.8 million, it may snag one of the biggest gaps between first newbie and second place newbie ever, a record is held by the opening weekends of "" (2015) and "Alice in Wonderland" (2010), with him concluding "It's not beyond the mountains of madness that "It" could snag $77m all by itself." Brent Lang of "Variety" stated that initial tracking suggested that Muschietti's "It" is on pace to open to more than $50 million. Jeremy Fuster of "TheWrap" reported that "It" could attain as much as $60 million in its opening weekend, a figure that would give "It" the biggest theatrical debut in horror movie history, surpassing "Hannibal"s (2001) $58 million, as well as the biggest opening for any film released in September, surpassing "Hotel Transylvania 2"s (2015) $48.4 million. Brandon Katz of "The Observer" stated that if "It" lives up to its $60 million prediction, it could be looking at a worldwide total somewhere around $450 million. In August, co-editor-in-chief of "Deadline.com" Michael Fleming suggested that the film could exceed a $70 million opening weekend, and even hit $80 million at the box office. C.S. Strowbridge of "The Numbers" estimated that the film would be a box office success, suggesting Muschietti's film to be the biggest hit of the month and dominating the box office in its respective weekend of release. Strowbridge stated that if the buzz of reception increases then a $60 million opening weekend and $160 million total becomes more likely, with Strowbridge remarking that "It" may even become the all-time highest-grossing film released in September, a record currently held by "Crocodile Dundee" (1986). Strowbridge remarked that "" may lose over 1,000 theaters the day "It" comes out. By the week of its release, estimates were raised to $60–70 million in domestic ticket sales.


title: It (2017 film)

text: Box office analyst Gitesh Pandya spoke of "It"s firepower in which it had earned very good reviews from film critics, as well as the taking-into-account of the historical lucrativeness for horror movies during the October period, with Pandya suggesting a $62 million opening weekend. On September 5, Brad Brevet of "Box Office Mojo" stated that "It" film had arrived at the right time, whilst arriving on the heels of the two worst weekends of the year thus far. He also stated that he's forecasting an $85 million opening for "It", with anything higher not being a surprise." "The Hollywood Reporter" reported that Warner Bros.' insiders are being more cautious by stating the figure $60-$65 million, noting the sluggish marketplace, the fact that September has never been known for huge openings, as well as "It"s R rating. Anita Busch and Anthony D'Alessandro of "Deadline.com" reported that Muschietti's "It" could run past $90 million, with some trackers looking at $100 million in the film's opening weekend.


title: It (2017 film)

text: "It" received praise for its performances, direction, screenplay, cinematography, and musical score. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 388 reviews, with an average rating of 7.30/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Well-acted and fiendishly frightening with an emotionally affecting story at its core, "It" amplifies the horror in Stephen King's classic story without losing touch with its heart." Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 85% and a 64% "definite recommend."


title: It (2017 film)

text: "Vanity Fair", "Salon", and "IndieWire", among others, pegged it as an Oscar contender. Sinead Brennan of "RTÉ", awarding four out of five stars, described "It" as a "film that is just beautiful to look at, while you sit on the edge of your seat waiting for the next scare." She praised the performances, cinematography, and production value, whilst speaking of Skarsgård as "chilling perfection", whose "manic energy and presence which brings a level of unease and intensity to proceedings that is just incredible.", with Brennan feeling Skarsgård's performance was "career defining", and deserving to be considered for awards season.


title: It (2017 film)

text: Ben Child of "The Guardian" described Skarsgård as a "revelation", while stating: "There may be something of Heath Ledger's Joker, and a Depression-era New Yoik gangsterism to Skarsgård's vowels, but his ability to go from quiet, leering menace to nightmarish attack mode in a split second is a big part of the appeal." Richard Roeper of "The Chicago Sun-Times" spoke most highly of Skarsgård's performance, with him writing "Skarsgård's Pennywise shows up only sparingly, and that's a wise choice. To be sure, it's a strong performance, and the clown is a worthy successor to all the great scary clowns in movie history" Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" wrote: "That evil clown Pennywise, a spectacularly scary Bill Skarsgård, is the stuff of nightmares." "San Francisco Chronicle"’s Peter Hartlaub granted the film a maximum score of four stars, stating that "Muschietti understands the Spielberg-ian rule, that creating a recognizable and convincing backdrop makes the supernatural thing in the foreground feel tangible and believable.", while praising Skarsgård and the young cast's performances. Ryan Porter of "The Toronto Star" felt Wolfhard to be "charming in what could have been just another nerd role, proving his breakout performance on "Stranger Things" was more than beginner's luck." In his review for "The St. Louis Post-Dispatch", Calvin Wilson wrote, "Muschietti conjures an atmosphere of dread that allows for the occasional burst of humor." He continued by praising the performances of Muschietti's young cast, citing Lillis whose "spunky charisma brings to mind Scarlett Johansson and Emma Stone.


title: It (2017 film)

text: Maria Sciullo of "The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" wrote: "Dylan Grazer and Lillis are standouts among a pretty good bunch of child actors." Tasha Robinson of "The Verge" praised all seven of the central children, saying each are "well-cast and give strong performances" in the film. She also said Ray Taylor's portrayal of Ben Hanscom is "surprisingly tender and nuanced", Skarsgård seemed "like a real threat" as Pennywise, and that Lillis is close to "heartbreaking" as Beverly Marsh. Christy Lemire of "RogerEbert.com" wrote that "Despite the many terrifying moments they endure in their quest scenes that will leave you trembling and giggling at once It is even more powerful in the warm, easy camaraderie between its young stars." Lemire praised the "well-chosen" cast, saying the "that combination of tones" from the performances make the film work. She spoke of Skarsgård as "working well," as he doesn't appear to be laboring so hard to frighten, and that Lillis displays a "star-making" performance". Marc Savlov of "The Austin Chronicle" heralded the film, its director, and screenwriters, by stating: "Muschietti and screenwriters Palmer, Fukunaga, and Dauberman have managed the translation to the big screen nearly as well as Rob Reiner did with "Stand by Me" (1986). "Entertainment Weekly" journalist Chris Nashawaty summarized ""It" is essentially two movies. The better by far is the one that feels like a darker "Stand by Me" (1986) a nostalgic coming-of-age story about seven likable outcasts riding around on their bikes and facing their fears together." Tim Grierson of "Screen International" spoke highly of Claude Paré and Chung Chung-hoon's ability to "drape the horror scenes in a clammy atmosphere", without seeming too far removed from "the otherwise realistic portrayal of racism, sexual humiliation and bullying" of Muschetti's piece. Katie Rife, writing for "The A.V. Club", commended Chung's cinematography as succeeding at "giving the film a richness and texture that's far beyond that of most Hollywood films, let alone horror films."


title: It (2017 film)

text: The film, however, was not without criticism, as some critics were disappointed with the film's implementation of jump scares.


title: It (2017 film)

text: Michael Phillips of "The Chicago Tribune" noted the film's "diminishing returns of one jump scare after another", writing that "nearly every scene begins and ends the same way, with a slow build leading up to a KAAA-WHUMMMMMM!!!! sound effect". Stephanie Zacharek of "Time" spoke highly of Muschietti's direction, however, she stated: "Muschietti relies too much on your garden-variety jump scares and now-standard special effects. As always, the horrors you get a close look at are much less terrifying than those that remain unseen." Erik Henriksen of "The Stranger" praised the "phenomenal" young cast, but regretted that the film felt disappointingly bloodless. Lindsey Bahr of "The Associated Press" criticized the story being an "unforgivable mess", with Bahr remarking: "Instead of building tension and suspense, “It” just jumps from scene to scares with no connection or coherence to thread them together other than the mere fact that they've been placed on top of one-another, like toys mixed up from different sets."


title: It (2017 film)

text: Producer Roy Lee mentioned a second planned film in an interview with Collider on February 16, 2016, before principal photography had begun on the first film, saying, "Dauberman wrote the most recent draft working with Muschietti, so it's being envisioned as two movies." On July 19, 2017, Muschietti revealed that the plan is to get production underway for the sequel to "It" during the following spring, adding, "We'll probably have a script for the second part in January 2018. Ideally, we would start prep in March. Part one is only about the kids. Part two is about these characters 30 years later as adults, with flashbacks to 1989 when they were kids." On July 21, 2017, Muschietti spoke of looking forward to having a dialogue in the second film that does not exist within the first, stating, it seems like we're going to do it. It's the second half, it's not a sequel. It's the second half and it's very connected to the first one." Muschietti confirmed that two cut scenes from the film will hopefully be included in the second, one of which being the fire at the Black Spot from the book.


title: It (2017 film)

text: On September 25, 2017, New Line Cinema announced that the sequel would be released on September 6, 2019, with Gary Dauberman writing the script. Later in December 2017, "Agent Cody Banks" writer Jeffrey Jurgensen was also listed as a screenwriter. , Jessica Chastain was in negotiations to star as the adult Beverly Marsh. In April 2018, James McAvoy and Bill Hader entered negotiations to play the adult Bill Denbrough and Richie Tozier. In May 2018, James Ransone revealed on Twitter that he would play the adult Eddie Kaspbrak. Shortly afterwards, Andy Bean and Jay Ryan had joined the cast to play the adult Stanley Uris and Ben Hanscom respectively. In June 2018, Isaiah Mustafa signed on to play the adult Mike Hanlon.


title: It (2017 film)

text: Filming had officially begun on June 19, 2018, and concluded in November 2018. Shooting took a total of 86 days. The film was released on September 6, 2019, and was a box office success although it garnered a mixed critical reception.


title: MindGeek

text: MindGeek (formerly Manwin) is a Luxembourg-based, privately held company who is a global industry-leading information technology. It is owned by Feras Antoon, Bernd Bergmair (Bernard Bergemar), David Marmorstein, and — more recently — by Leonardo DaSilva and operates many popular streaming websites, as well as film production companies Digital Playground, Men.com, Reality Kings, Sean Cody, and WhyNotBi.com, among others. MindGeek is headquartered in Luxembourg, and maintains additional offices in Bucharest, Dublin, London, Los Angeles, and Montreal. A spokesperson for the company stated that they are "one of the top five bandwidth consumption companies in the world".


title: MindGeek

text: In June 2022, the company confirmed the resignation of its CEO, Feras Antoon, and its COO, co-founder David Tassillo.


title: MindGeek

text: In the late 1990s, German-born Fabian Thylmann created NATS (Next-Generation Affiliate Tracking Software), which was used for marketing pornography across different websites. Mansef was funded by Concordia University graduates Stephane Manos and Ouissam Youssef (Mansef a portmanteau of the two's surnames) in 2004 as the holding company for various "thumbnail gallery post" websites and an affiliate network. It later launched Brazzers and a porn production company among various other pay sites.


title: MindGeek

text: In 2006, Thylmann sold his shares in the company that controlled NATS and used the proceeds to purchase the Privat Amateure website. Matt Keezer started PornHub in 2007 under Interhub in which Mansef was also a partner. Mansef was run as a familial business with several of the company managers being related to each other; Manos, Youssef and Keezer later wanted to sell the companies, looking to move onto other ventures. Between 2006 and 2010, Thylmann bought three more websites: MyDirtyHobby, Webcams, and Xtube. The domain name manwin.com was first registered in August 2007.


title: MindGeek

text: In March 2010, Thylmann bought the assets of Mansef and Interhub, and merged the properties into a new entity called Manwin. Thylmann also bought WebCams.com in a separate deal during the same period.


title: MindGeek

text: Manwin went on an acquisition spree of other popular pornographic entities. In June 2010, Manwin opened non-adult video sharing website Videobash.com (now defunct). In September 2010, Manwin acquired EuroRevenue, which owned various niche pornography sites. In November 2010, Manwin introduced celebrity news website Celebs.com (now defunct). In December 2010, Manwin entered into a partnership with Wicked Pictures to manage Wicked Pictures' paysites. The 2010 Manwin purchases accounted for US$130 million in debt. In 2011, the company raised US$362 million in financing from 125 secret investors, including Fortress Investment Group, JPMorgan Chase, and Cornell University.


title: MindGeek

text: In May 2011, Manwin acquired the pornographic video sharing website YouPorn. In June 2011, Manwin bought all adult related assets of Carsed Marketing Incorporated, including Twistys, Twistys Cash Affiliate Program, GayTube, SexTube, and TrannyTube. Manwin also created 3DXSTAR in a partnership with Funky Monkey Productions. In November 2011, Manwin became an operating partner of Playboy, managing the brand's online and entertainment business Playboy Plus Entertainment, which operates a number of television channels and online services based in the UK and Benelux. Manwin also launched Legendary Stats, a service that aggregates multiple affiliate programs and is targeted at affiliate site operators with large traffic volumes.


title: MindGeek

text: In January 2012, Manwin signed a deal to acquire the assets of the American pornographic movie studio Digital Playground. In April 2012, Manwin and Miami-based RK Netmedia Inc. filed a merger notification jointly authorized by Manwin and Reality Kings with the Austrian Federal Competition Authority. In September 2012, Manwin completed the acquisition. Company documents show that following the deal in the autumn, RK Holdings gave a Dublin company, Manwin Content RK, the right to use thousands of its pornography movies. In June 2012, Manwin launched Babes.com for its "glamcore" network.


title: MindGeek

text: In March 2013, Mindgeek's co-owner Feras Antoon and his brother Mark Antoon were cited alongside the CEO of gaming technology giant Amaya Inc. and various of its own senior officers and stakeholders. The Quebec Market Authority, the province's market regulator that is somewhat equivalent to the U.S. SEC, investigated Amaya's executives for trading on privileged information. According to the charges, some Mindgeek executives were found to have benefited from the leak of information, although they were not major players in the insider trading ring.


title: MindGeek

text: In July 2013, Manwin filed a merger notification with the Austrian Competition Authority to acquire RedTube.com. During the summer of 2013, Manwin / Mindgeek acquired all of RedTube properties from Hong Kong-based Bright Imperial Ltd. for an undisclosed sum. In December 2013, the domain name RedTube8.xxx was also transferred to MindGeek after a trademark dispute.


title: MindGeek

text: In October 2013, Thylmann sold his stake in Manwin after coming under tax evasion charges to the senior management of the company, composed of Feras Antoon and David Tassilo, for $100 million, and later in the same month the company's name was changed to Mindgeek. This took place as Manwin and Redtube, a very large porn tube site not in its network, merged.


title: MindGeek

text: Playboy CEO Scott Flanders described the 2011 partnership with MindGeek as "the biggest mistake I've made at the company," saying that "Playboy should not have association with being in the sex-act business." In the spring of 2014, Playboy took back control of Playboy.com "at significant expense", although Mindgeek still retained control of Playboy TV and Playboy Plus, and Mindgeek still owns the Spice TV channels, which were also bought from Playboy.


title: MindGeek

text: In December 2014, MindGeek announced they had signed a deal to manage the online assets of Really Useful Ltd., some of which include the websites BDSM.xxx, Casting.xxx, Czech.xxx, DaneJones.com, FakeAgent.com, FakeTaxi.com, Lesbea.com, MassageRooms.com, Mature.xxx, Mom.xxx, Orgasms.xxx, PublicAgent.com, PublicSex.xxx, Teen.xxx, and Tubes.xxx.


title: MindGeek

text: In April 2015, Playboy Plus and M7 Group formed a partnership to launch Reality Kings TV in Benelux and Central and Eastern Europe on satellite TV services. In May 2015, MindGeek signed a distribution deal with Pulse Distribution, one of the largest distributors of adult entertainment, to distribute content from MindGeek's movie studios, including content from Brazzers and Digital Playground, and DVDs from Babes.com, Men.com, Mofos and Reality Kings. In October 2015, MindGeek acquired ExtremeTube, SpankWire, KeezMovies. These sites are interlinked in network called Spankwire Sites in similar fashion as the PornHub Network.


title: MindGeek

text: In April 2018, MindGeek started accepting Verge cryptocurrency as payment for their various services.


title: MindGeek

text: In December 2020, a Financial Times exposé was published, listing Bernard Bergemar as the main owner of MindGeek.


title: MindGeek

text: MindGeek has been subject to a number of lawsuits and filed litigation against its competitors. They were sued in California for hosting non-consensual pornography produced by GirlsDoPorn, which coerced women into appearing in their videos under false pretenses. In January 2021, a class action lawsuit making similar claims was launched in Montreal for anyone who had pornography photos and videos, some of which may have been taken when they were underage, shared on MindGeek's sites without their consent, since 2007. The lawsuit stated that MindGeek knowingly did not "investigate or question its business partner regarding the mounting evidence of sex trafficking". In February 2021, a U.S.-based civil class action lawsuit was launched against MindGeek on behalf of child sex trafficking victims whose child sexual abuse material was uploaded to Pornhub. Many journalistic outlets accuse the company of having a monopoly over the online pornography industry, with 3 out of the 10 most popular online pornography sites owned by MindGeek.


title: MindGeek

text: MindGeek operates under a complex structure of multiple companies in countries such as the British Virgin Islands, Canada, Curaçao, Cyprus, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mauritius, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Its structure has been described as mostly a way to avoid corporate tax by a "de facto" Canadian company; with billing companies in Ireland, subsidiaries in Curaçao and holding ones in Cyprus and Luxembourg, all countries that have been identified as tax havens or having lax tax regulations. Canada also has special tax treaties with Luxembourg, the legal headquarters of MindGeek, where a Canadian subsidiary is exempt from taxes paid on royalties to its Luxembourg parent.


title: MindGeek

text: Most employees work at the headquarters in Montreal on , opposite the Orange Julep, where more than 1,000 are employed.


title: MindGeek

text: In 2013, the adult industry news website XBIZ described MindGeek as "the largest adult entertainment operator globally", and a spokesperson from Manwin, who spoke to the Irish Independent newspaper in 2013, stated that they are "one of the top five bandwidth consumption companies in the world". The Internet pornography review site TheBestPorn.com lists 164 pornographic membership sites that are owned or represented by MindGeek.


title: MindGeek

text: It has been reported that MindGeek's dominance in online pornography may have negative results because of the monopolistic powers they have from owning both production and distribution avenues.


title: MindGeek

text: The "Pornhub Network" is a network of web 2.0 websites accessible through Mindgeek's PornMD search engine. Mindgeek owns and operates all of the websites in the Pornhub Network, which includes GayTube, Peeperz, PornIQ (launched by Pornhub), PornMD, Pornhub RedTube Thumbzilla, Tube8, and YouPorn.


title: MindGeek

text: The three highest ranking sites in the Pornhub Network are Pornhub, RedTube and YouPorn. In November 2013, it was reported that Pornhub has over 1 billion visitors per month, and a December 2014 article in "Adweek" states that Pornhub has 50 million daily visitors. Pornhub.com scores at Alexa Global Rank 27 (as of 18 March 2019). Pornhub has been criticized for hosting non-consensual pornography, with some victims reporting that Pornhub failed to act or acted slowly or ineffectively when pointed to the videos of them. They were also criticized for their partnership with GirlsDoPorn and failure to remove their videos from the website after sex trafficking charges against the company were filed. After significant backlash, on December 14, 2020, Pornhub removed all non-verified videos on their platform.


title: MindGeek

text: TrafficEstimate.com said that Redtube.com generates over 90 million visits per month, while YouPorn.com had almost 80 million visits per month (based on the data for 30 days up to mid November 2014. Data for Pornhub.com was not available from TrafficEstimate). YouPorn claim that their partner program has 400 content providers who participate.


title: MindGeek

text: The hardcore pornographic website Babes.com was launched by Manwin in 2012. The website was described as "glamcore" because it includes elements of glamour photography and erotic photography. Full-length videos are accessible to registered members. there were four websites operating under Babes.com, which featured different settings and sexual preferences. Babes.com is indexed by models as well as scenes and categories. As of November 2016, the Babes website had a global traffic ranking of 11,441. The website ranks as the third most-accessed site of MindGeek's network of porn sites.


title: MindGeek

text: MindGeek's mobile pornography websites handle millions of visits each day in North America; they were awarded the "Future Mobile Award for Mobile Adult Services" by Juniper Research in 2012.


title: MindGeek

text: MindGeek owns the pornographic movie studios Babes.com, Brazzers, Digital Playground, Reality Kings, Sean Cody, Twistys, Mofos.com and Men.com, they manage the websites of Wicked Pictures, and Really Useful Ltd., and they established 3DXSTAR in partnership with Funky Monkey Productions. Mindgeek also manage "Playboy"s online and television operations (although they no longer manage Playboy.com, see history section above). In January 2014, a Mindgeek official stated that they were developing an Android app for Google's Chromecast digital media player, along with an app for Panasonic smart TVs, that would enable streaming of Playboy.tv content. The plan to release a Chromecast app was shown to be unfeasible in February 2014, when Google originally revealed their terms of service for Chromecast app developers, which stated that "We don't allow content that contains nudity, graphic sex acts, or sexually explicit material."


title: MindGeek

text: MindGeek owns the reality pornography (commercial pornography that emulates amateur pornography) video websites Mofos, MyDirtyHobby, Sextube, and Webcams.


title: MindGeek

text: Manwin was the biggest funder of the No on Government Waste Committee, which was supported by a coalition of entertainment companies, local business organizations, community activists, adult entertainment performers and healthcare advocates." The committee ran the No on Measure B campaign, against a proposed law to require the use of condoms in all vaginal and anal sex scenes in pornography productions filmed in Los Angeles County, California. The No on Measure B campaign was supported by the Los Angeles County Federation of Republican Women, the Los Angeles County Republican and Libertarian Parties, the Valley Industry & Commerce Association (VICA), and the Log Cabin Republicans of Los Angeles.


title: MindGeek

text: PornMD is a search engine for the Pornhub Network, which is the group of Web 2.0 pornographic video sharing websites owned by MindGeek. The sites are supported by advertising, which allows users unrestricted access free of charge. The Pornhub network links these websites to each other. PornMD does not host any videos itself, and the search results are created on the website with direct links to the video hosting website.


title: MindGeek

text: In March 2013 PornMD launched an interactive map which allows users to view the top 10 searches on PornMD for any selected country, and in February 2014 they introduced a live feed which shows search terms inputted by users in real time.


title: MindGeek

text: MindGeek host advertisements on their sites using their TrafficJunky ad network and other sites, which receives billions of ad impressions on a daily basis.


title: MindGeek

text: Pornhub (which is owned by MindGeek) has conducted several of its own advertising campaigns, including a billboard in Times Square, product placement in the film "Don Jon", and a tree planting campaign. The vice president of Pornhub, Corey Price commented in December 2014 that Pornhub wants to make watching porn "something that's acceptable to talk about", which would be likely to benefit Pornhub, since according to Price "it's still taboo [to advertise on X-rated sites like Pornhub]". In October 2013, the media and marketing publication Digiday reported that Pornhub has already shown advertisements for various mainstream products on the Pornhub web site, including advertisements for movies, musical acts, anti-virus software, and a food delivery service, although most advertisements were still adult-related.


title: MindGeek

text: It was reported in April 2013 that visitors to some of the world's most popular (by Alexa rank) pornography sites risked malware being installed on their machines by malicious third party advertisements. The claims were made by security researcher Conrad Longmore, who writes a blog on malware, spam and scams. Longmore's figures were collected using Google Safe Browsing Diagnostics, which looks for harmful content on websites, and the statistics for two sites; xHamster and Pornhub were published by BBC News. The BBC article stated that based on Longmore's research, 5% of pages on xHamster (which has never been owned by Mindgeek / Manwin), and 12.7% of pages on Pornhub incorporated malvertising. MindGeek (still known as Manwin at the time) said in a statement that their own figures showed that 0.003% of the advertisements they served over the period that Longmore's data was collected contained malware, and they said that the advertisements they serve are monitored for malware and malware is immediately removed.


title: MindGeek

text: In July 2013, Manwin announced that they had come to an agreement with the online security provider RiskIQ to scan third party advertisements hosted on their TrafficJunky ad network for malware before they go live, and to continue to monitor ads for malware once they are live.


title: MindGeek

text: Mindgeek has been a Platinum Sponsor of ASACP (Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection) since 2011. ASACP is an American non-profit organization that fights against child pornography and aims to enhance the effectiveness of parental content filtering technology through the provision of the RTA ("Restricted to Adults") label, which can be implemented by webmasters of adult sites.


title: MindGeek

text: In March 2014 the UK video-on-demand co-regulator ATVOD requested a change in the law so that credit and debit card operators would be forbidden from processing payments from British customers of pornographic websites that did not carry out age checks before granting access. MindGeek responded in a statement: "The best solution lies in a multi-layered approach in which the parent assumes the central role." The UK's Conservative Party won the country's 2015 general election with a pledge to obligate UK internet service providers to block access to hardcore pornographic websites that did not implement age restrictions by using verifiable age checks. In light of this Mindgeek joined talks in May 2015 with the Digital Policy Alliance (DPA), an organisation that is funded by digital technology companies and informs members of parliament in the UK and the EU on policy issues that affect online and digital technologies. The DPA has a working group to create age verification methods that could be used to comply with such laws.


title: MindGeek

text: The Digital Economy Act 2017 introduced the relevant legislation, and in March 2018 MindGeek announced that its AgeID age-verification tool, which has been in use in Germany since 2015, would be made available in the UK in time for the proposed introduction of compulsory age-verification in April 2018. It was intended that the software would be made commercially available to all pornographic websites accessible within the UK, and offered free to independent UK studios, producers and bloggers. The software uses "third-party age-verification companies" to authenticate the age of those who register, after which they are able to access multiple sites across multiple devices without logging in again. Mindgeek was one of the leading private companies competing to provide an age-verification solution for the British Board of Film Classification, the organisation designated as responsible for the age-verification process. The implementation date was originally April 2018 but was delayed to allow time for public consultation. In May 2018 the Open Rights Group, a UK-based digital rights campaigning organisation, criticized Mindgeek's record on data security and commented: "Allowing pornographic sites to own and operate age verification tools leads to a conflict of interest between the privacy interests of the user, and the data-mining and market interests of the company." In October 2019 the UK government abandoned their existing plans, instead proposing the introduction of an alternative regulatory system for the Internet.


title: MindGeek

text: In Germany, July 2021, cases have been filed by Commission for Youth Media Protection at a Düsseldorf court since 2020 requiring MindGeek's subsidiaries to instate age verification protocols. Four pornographic websites have refused to implement the request: some German news media reported that they were YouPorn, Pornhub and MyDirtyHobby, owned by MindGeek, and xHamster.


title: MindGeek

text: In 2018, the Government of India blocked most MindGeek websites, including paid and free offerings (among other porn websites), after a Uttarakhand High Court court order in order to curb the circulation of pornography among children in the rape case of a minor in Dehradun where the perpetrators stated they were motivated to do so after watching online pornography.


title: MindGeek

text: Manwin Licensing and Digital Playground filed an antitrust lawsuit in California in November 2011, against ICANN and ICM Registry over the introduction of the .xxx TLD. Amongst their allegations, Manwin claimed that in introducing the new suffix, ICANN and ICM registry had exploited the market by making domain registrations expensive with no price caps in place, and created a need for defensive domain registrations with no provision for companies to block typos of their trademarks. Manwin announced that it would not allow its content to be used on any sites with the suffix, with Fabian Thylmann, who was then managing partner of Manwin saying: "We oppose the .XXX domain and all it stands for. It is my opinion that .XXX domain is an anticompetitive business practice that works a disservice to all companies that do business on the Internet."


title: MindGeek

text: In September 2012, ICM filed a counterclaim for $120 million against Manwin Licensing International. Part of the 24-page long claim alleged: "Manwin, Digital Playground, and their related companies, affiliates, brands, and certain third party affiliates have conspired to boycott the .XXX TLD and have coerced and/or encouraged the boycott of .XXX websites by third parties."


title: MindGeek

text: All of ICM's counterclaims were dismissed in the second half of February 2013. The judge in the case stated: "Harm to ICM only is not sufficient to constitute antitrust injury. It must allege harm to the competitive process."


title: MindGeek

text: In May 2013, Manwin agreed to settle the antitrust lawsuit it brought against ICM Registry over the cost of .xxx web domain names. The settlement will result in discounted wholesale prices of $7.85 a year for .xxx names during May 2013, and similar offers in the future. ICM Registry is owned by British former fax-machine mogul Stuart Lawley. The settlement provides that ICM will not pay any money directly to MindGeek.


title: MindGeek

text: In May 2013, ExitExchange Corp. sued Manwin USA Inc. in Texas, alleging that its patent for pop-under advertisements had been infringed by Tube8.com and Pornhub.com.


title: MindGeek

text: In July 2013, Manwin was sued by John Mikkelson and Robert Freidson, the operators of Skky Inc., in Minneapolis over the alleged infringement of a patent that describes a method for delivering compressed audio and images on mobile devices.


title: MindGeek

text: In October 2014, MindGeek USA Inc. was sued by Preservation Technologies LLC in Delaware for alleged infringement on 19 different sites operated by Mindgeek of 11 patent components on data distribution and communication systems, such as a system for cataloging and retrieving videos and other media associated with keywords. The case was withdrawn in March 2015, after Mindgeek came to a settlement deal with Preservation Technologies LLC.


title: MindGeek

text: In December 2020, MindGeek was sued in California for hosting non-consensual pornography produced by GirlsDoPorn, which coerced women into appearing in their videos under false pretenses. The forty plaintiffs sought $80million in damages including distress, ostracization, trauma and attempted suicide. The lawsuit claims that MindGeek knew about the company's sex trafficking as early as 2009 and definitely by fall 2016, but continued to partner with GirlsDoPorn until the company became defunct. MindGeek featured GirlsDoPorn as a Content Partner and a member of the Viewshare Program. The lawsuit also alleges that MindGeek failed to remove GirlsDoPorn videos despite requests for removal by victims, as recently as December 2020. Another ten women joined the lawsuit, which was settled in October 2021 under undisclosed terms.


title: MindGeek

text: In January 2021, a class action lawsuit making similar claims was launched in Montreal. The Canadian proposed class action sought $600 million for anyone who had pornography photos and videos, some of which may have been taken when they were underage, shared on MindGeek's sites without their consent, since 2007. The lawsuit stated that MindGeek knowingly did not "investigate or question its business partner regarding the mounting evidence of sex trafficking".


title: MindGeek

text: In February 2021, a civil class action lawsuit against MindGeek was launched in Alabama and it leveled claims against MindGeek/Pornhub on behalf of child sex trafficking victims. The lawsuit laid out arguments regarding the way child sexual abuse material of the plaintiffs was uploaded to and profited on by Pornhub. The allegations in the lawsuit, brought on behalf of the victims by myriad law firms including the National Center on Sexual Exploitation Law Center, were similar in nature to what journalist Nicholas Kristof uncovered for "The New York Times" in his December 2020 article entitled "The Children of Pornhub.". In a ruling issued on July 29, 2022, U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney ruled that it was reasonable to conclude that MindGeek's activity in hosting child pornography was knowingly facilitated by Visa. The judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff Serena Fleites, and denied Visa's motion to dismiss the case.


title: Z-Library

text: Z-Library (abbreviated as z-lib, formerly BookFinder) is a shadow library project for file-sharing access to scholarly journal articles, academic texts and general-interest books. It began as a mirror of Library Genesis, from which most of its books originate. Individuals can also upload files.


title: Z-Library

text: Z-Library was ranked as the 8,182nd most active website by the Alexa Traffic Rank service in October 2021. It is especially popular in emerging economies and among academics. As of December 1, 2022, Z-Library reported having more than 11,767,409 books and 84,837,643 articles. It also describes itself as "the world's largest e-book library", as well as "the world's largest scientific articles store", and as a non-profit organization sustained by donations.


title: Z-Library

text: In November 2022, many Z-Library domain names were seized by the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation. On November 16, 2022, U.S. Attorneys for the Eastern District of New York of the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment for two Russian nationals. It charged them with operating the Z-Library website; they had been arrested on November 3, 2022 in Argentina.


title: Z-Library

text: Lack of access to Z-Library and its services has substantially impacted students, professors, authors and others throughout the world. On November 20, 2022, the Z-Library team stated that they were sorry for the arrests, and for the suffering of authors. The Z-Library team asked the authors for their forgiveness, and noted that the team will do their best to respond to all of the author's complaints if the author's rights have been violated. As of November 30, 2022, the Z-Library website is still accessible via Tor, I2P, and other related networks.


title: Z-Library

text: Further, and in direct response to the law enforcement actions involving Z-Library, Anna's Archive, a free non-profit online shadow library metasearch engine (purportedly via IPFS), providing access to a variety of book resources, was created and launched. Anna's Archive claims to provide metadata access to Open Library materials, to be a backup of the Library Genesis and Z-Library shadow libraries, presents ISBN information, has no copyrighted materials on its website, and only indexes metadata that is already publicly available. Besides the recently launched Anna's Archive website, many other alternative workarounds to the recent attempts to take down the Z-Library website have been reported. Some of these purported alternative sites have submitted unusual takedown requests of their own, according to news reports.


title: Z-Library

text: Z-Library has cycled through domain names, some of which have been blocked by domain registry operators. Z-Library remained reachable via alternative domains, and is also accessible through the .onion-linked Tor network. The United States Postal Inspection Service appeared on a seizure notice, but according to the agency, this was a mistake.


title: Z-Library

text: As of November 4, 2022, the Z-Library staff had only noted a hosting issue; the website's hidden service on the Tor network was still accessible. As of November 7, 2022, at least two Z-Library clearnet domains were also still operating. In November 2022, many Z-Library domain names were seized by the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation. Nonetheless, as of November 2022, the Z-Library website continues to be active and accessible through the Tor network and the I2P network.


title: Z-Library

text: In mid-2015, The Publishers Association, a UK organization, attempted to enact internet service provider-level blocks on Z-Library. In late 2015, publisher Elsevier filed a successful court request that ordered the registrar of bookfi.org to seize the site's internet domain.


title: Z-Library

text: Bookfi.org, booksc.org and b-ok.org were included in the 2017 Office of the United States Trade Representative report on notorious markets.


title: Z-Library

text: Z-Library's domains were temporarily blocked in 2021 after a DMCA notice issued by Harvard Business Publishing. The domain suspensions were later lifted.


title: Z-Library

text: In October 2022, TikTok blocked hashtags related to Z-Library after it gained popularity there and the Authors Guild submitted a complaint to the United States Trade Representative. On November 3, 2022, many of Z-Library's domain names were seized by the United States Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation in response to a court order. Over 240 domains were seized.


title: Z-Library

text: The executive director of the Authors Alliance, a group dedicated to increasing access for literature, commented that the takedown of Z-Library domains was, "a kind of symptom of how broken the system is, particularly when you're looking at access to scientific articles... It really speaks to the failure of the paywall subscription access system that we have." On 5 November 2022, the Hindu right wing group Swadeshi Jagran Manch formally objected that the FBI's seizure of the Indian domain name 1LIB.IN (used by Z-lib) merely by the District Judge of New York's order without jurisdiction had violated India's sovereignty.


title: Z-Library

text: An initial seizure notice, that in part credited the U.S. Postal Inspection Service with the takedown of domains, was later corrected. When the domains z-lib.org, b-ok.org, and 3lib.net were seized, the DNS servers utilised switched to NS1.SEIZEDSERVERS.COM and NS2.SEIZEDSERVERS.COM, used commonly in US law enforcement seizures. However, these DNS servers have switched to Njalla, an anonymous hosting provider.


title: Z-Library

text: On November 16, 2022, U.S. Attorneys for the Eastern District of New York of the Department of Justice unsealed the indictment for two Russian nationals: Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova. They were charged with criminal copyright infringement, wire fraud and money laundering for operating the Z-Library website. The pair had been arrested in Argentina on November 3, 2022. The indictment pertains to alleged criminal activity taking place from 2018 to 2022, though the pair are suspected to have operated Z-Library for "over a decade". According to TorrentFreak, the arrests were accomplished by the FBI with data from Google and Amazon (among other sites), accessed with search warrants, that helped identify the founders of the website.


title: Z-Library

text: The investigation was formally assisted by The Publishers Association along with the Authors Guild, and indirectly, reportedly, by BREIN, the Dutch anti-piracy group. The Authors Guild issued a statement supporting the arrests, commenting that it was "one of the biggest breakthroughs in the fight against online criminal e-book piracy to date". However, the executive director for the Authors Alliance commented, "I certainly don't condone illegal behavior, but I think this seizure and press release highlight how broken our copyright system is".


title: Z-Library

text: Consequential access to Z-Library and its services has substantially impacted students, professors, authors and others throughout the world. Not all authors, in fact, agree with trying to close down Z-Library, and at least one published author, Alison Rumfitt, has come to defend maintaining access to Z-Library and related libraries. Further, one immediate consequence to the law enforcement action has been the launch, by a group of anonymous archivists, of Anna's Archive, a free non-profit online shadow library metasearch engine (purportedly via IPFS) providing access to a variety of book resources. The team claims to provide metadata access to Open Library materials, to be a backup of the Library Genesis and Z-Library shadow libraries, presents ISBN information, has no copyrighted materials on its website, and only indexes metadata that is already publicly available.


title: Z-Library

text: On November 20, 2022, TorrentFreak reported that, in response to the recent enforcement efforts, the Z-Library team stated that they were sorry for the arrests, and for the suffering of authors. The Z-Library team asked the authors for their forgiveness, and noted that the team will do their best to respond to all of the author's complaints if the author's rights have been violated. Further, the team stated that they "believe the knowledge and cultural heritage of mankind should be accessible to all people around the world, regardless of their wealth, social status, nationality, citizenship, etc. This is the only purpose Z-Library is made for.” Numerous words of support from Z-Library users for the help they received from Z-Library services over the years were also reported by TorrentFreak. Whether or not the remaining members of the team will be held accountable was also raised as a concern in the report. As of November 30, 2022, the Z-Library website continues to be active and accessible through the Tor network and the I2P network. Besides the recently launched Anna's Archive website, many other alternative workarounds to the recent attempts to take down the Z-Library website have been reported. Some of these purported alternative sites have submitted unusual takedown requests of their own, according to news reports.


title: Z-Library

text: The website was banned in India in August 2022, following a court order from the Tis Hazari district court, after a complaint which stated that the copyrights of ten books (pertaining to the topics of tax and corporate law) were being violated by Z-Library. Internet service providers in India were directed to block the site. The decision to block Z-Library and other shadow libraries has been criticized by some Indian authors, students, academics, and freedom of information activists.


title: Z-Library

text: In September 2022, it was announced that the (National Publishing Union) in France succeeded in a legal challenge to the website, having filed a complaint against about two-hundred domains and mirror site domains associated with it. The decision was made by the , a court in Paris; internet service providers in France were directed to block the domains.


title: Z-Library

text: The site's operation is financed by user donations, that are collected twice a year (September and March) through a fundraising campaign. Over the years, various URL addresses and direct IP addresses have been used for Z-Library as dozens of domain names have been confiscated by various legal authorities.


title: Z-Library

text: Unlike Library Genesis and Sci-Hub, not much is known about Z-Library in terms of its operation, management, commercial status and mission statement. Notably, Z-Library does not open its full database to the public. Despite that, its database, excluding books from libgen, was mirrored by archivists in 2022.


title: Z-Library

text: In an effort to prevent blacklisting of domains (oftentimes by internet providers at the DNS-level in accordance with legal procedures), Z-Library used a homepage at a memorable domain. The homepage did not contain any infringing content, but instead listed many working mirror domains for different regions. These domains could be switched and did not need to be as memorable. For instance, some included numbers. This however did not help, the domain "z-lib.org" was seized in 2022 nevertheless.


title: Z-Library

text: The Z-Library team claimed, in March 2019, to have servers in Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Panama, Russia and the United States, and the size of their database is over 220 TB.


title: Z-Library

text: In an essay titled "Herding the Wind: A journey to the strange world of the e-library in the autumn of the year 2020", library activist Mikael Böök connected the purpose of Z-Library to the five laws of library science by S. R. Ranganathan.


title: Miami

text: Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at the 2020 census, it is the second-most populous city in Florida and the eleventh-most populous city in the Southeastern United States. The Miami metropolitan area is the ninth largest in the U.S. with a population of 6.138 million in 2020. The city has the third-largest skyline in the U.S. with over 300 high-rises, 58 of which exceed .


title: Miami

text: Miami is a major center and leader in finance, commerce, culture, arts, and international trade. Miami's metropolitan area is by far the largest urban economy in Florida and the 12th largest in the U.S., with a GDP of $344.9 billion as of 2017. According to a 2018 UBS study of 77 world cities, Miami is the second richest city in the U.S. and third richest globally in purchasing power. Miami is a majority-minority city with a Hispanic population of 310,472, or 70.2 percent of the city's population, as of 2020.


title: Miami

text: Downtown Miami has one of the largest concentrations of international banks in the U.S. and is home to many large national and international companies. The Health District is home to several major University of Miami-affiliated hospital and health facilities, including Jackson Memorial Hospital, the nation's largest hospital with 1,547 beds, and the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, the University of Miami's academic medical center and teaching hospital, and others engaged in health-related care and research. PortMiami, the city's seaport, is the busiest cruise port in the world in both passenger traffic and cruise lines. Miami is the second largest tourism hub for international visitors, after New York City. Miami has sometimes been called the Gateway to Latin America because of the magnitude of its commercial and cultural ties to the region.


title: Miami

text: In 2019, Miami ranked seventh in the U.S. in business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement.


title: Miami

text: Miami was named in 1896 after the Miami River, derived from Mayaimi, the historic name of Lake Okeechobee and the Native Americans who lived around it.


title: Miami

text: The Tequesta tribe occupied the Miami area for around 2,000 years before contact with Europeans. A village of hundreds of people, dating to 500–600 BCE, was located at the mouth of the Miami River. It is believed that the entire tribe migrated to Cuba by the mid-1700s.


title: Miami

text: In 1566, admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Florida's first governor, claimed the area for Spain. A Spanish mission was constructed one year later. Spain and Britain successively ruled Florida until Spain ceded it to the United States in 1821. In 1836, the U.S. built Fort Dallas on the banks of the Miami River as part of their development of the Florida Territory and their attempt to suppress and remove the Seminoles. As a result, the Miami area became a site of fighting in the Second Seminole War.


title: Miami

text: Miami is noted as the only major city in the United States founded by a woman. Julia Tuttle, a local citrus grower and a wealthy Cleveland native, was the original owner of the land upon which the city was built. In the late 19th century, the area was known as "Biscayne Bay Country", and reports described it as a promising wilderness and "one of the finest building sites in Florida". The Great Freeze of 1894–1895 hastened Miami's growth, as the crops there were the only ones in Florida that survived. Julia Tuttle subsequently convinced railroad tycoon Henry Flagler to extend his Florida East Coast Railway to the region, for which she became known as "the mother of Miami". Miami was officially incorporated as a city on July 28, 1896, with a population of just over 300. African American labor played a crucial role in Miami's early development.


title: Miami

text: During the early 20th century, migrants from the Bahamas and African-Americans constituted 40 percent of the city's population. Despite their role in the city's growth, their community was limited to a small space. When landlords began to rent homes to African-Americans around Avenue J (what would later become NW Fifth Avenue), a gang of white men with torches marched through the neighborhood and warned the residents to move or be bombed.


title: Miami

text: Miami prospered during the 1920s with an increase in population and development in infrastructure as northerners moved to the city. The legacy of Jim Crow was embedded in these developments. Miami's chief of police at the time, H. Leslie Quigg, did not hide the fact that he, like many other white Miami police officers, was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Unsurprisingly, these officers enforced social codes far beyond the written law. Quigg, for example, "personally and publicly beat a colored bellboy to death for speaking directly to a white woman".


title: Miami

text: The collapse of the Florida land boom of the 1920s, the 1926 Miami Hurricane, and the Great Depression in the 1930s slowed development. When World War II began, Miami became a base for U.S. defense against German submarines due to its prime location on the southern coast of Florida. This brought an increase in Miami's population; 172,172 people lived in the city by 1940. The city's nickname, "The Magic City", came from its rapid growth, which was noticed by winter visitors who remarked that the city grew so much from one year to the next that it was like magic.


title: Miami

text: After Fidel Castro rose to power in Cuba following the Revolution in 1959, many wealthy Cubans sought refuge in Miami, further increasing the city's population. Miami developed new businesses and cultural amenities as part of the New South in the 1980s and 1990s. At the same time, South Florida weathered social problems related to drug wars, immigration from Haiti and Latin America, and the widespread destruction of Hurricane Andrew. Racial and cultural tensions sometimes sparked, but the city developed in the latter half of the 20th century as a major international, financial, and cultural center. It is the second-largest U.S. city with a Spanish-speaking majority (after El Paso, Texas), and the largest city with a Cuban-American plurality.


title: Miami

text: Miami and its suburbs are located on a broad plain between the Everglades to the west and Biscayne Bay to the east, which extends from Lake Okeechobee southward to Florida Bay. The elevation of the area averages at around above sea level in most neighborhoods, especially near the coast. The highest points are found along the Miami Rock Ridge, which lies under most of the eastern Miami metro. The main portion of the city is on the shores of Biscayne Bay, which contains several hundred natural and artificial barrier islands, the largest of which contains Miami Beach and South Beach. The Gulf Stream, a warm ocean current, runs northward just off the coast, allowing the city's climate to stay warm and mild all year.


title: Miami

text: The surface bedrock under the Miami area is called Miami oolite or Miami limestone. This bedrock is covered by a thin layer of soil, and is no more than thick. Miami limestone formed as the result of the drastic changes in sea level associated with recent glacial periods, or ice ages. Beginning some 130,000 years ago, the Sangamonian Stage raised sea levels to approximately above the current level. All of southern Florida was covered by a shallow sea. Several parallel lines of reef formed along the edge of the submerged Florida plateau, stretching from the present Miami area to what is now the Dry Tortugas. The area behind this reef line was, in fact, a large lagoon, and the Miami limestone formed throughout the area from the deposition of oolites and the shells of bryozoans. Starting about 100,000 years ago, the Wisconsin glaciation began lowering sea levels, exposing the floor of the lagoon. By 15,000 years ago, the sea level had dropped below the current level. The sea level rose quickly after that, stabilizing at the current level about 4,000 years ago, leaving the mainland of South Florida just above sea level.


title: Miami

text: Beneath the plain lies the Biscayne Aquifer, a natural underground source of fresh water that extends from southern Palm Beach County to Florida Bay. It comes closest to the surface around the cities of Miami Springs and Hialeah. Most of the Miami metropolitan area obtains its drinking water from the Biscayne Aquifer. As a result of the aquifer, it is not possible to dig more than beneath the city without hitting water, which impedes underground construction, though some underground parking garages exist. For this reason, the mass transit systems in and around Miami are elevated or at-grade.


title: Miami

text: Most of the western fringes of the city border the Everglades, a tropical marshland covering most of the southern portion of Florida. Alligators that live in the marshes have ventured into Miami communities and onto major highways.


title: Miami

text: Miami is split roughly into north, south, west, and Downtown areas. The heart of the city is Downtown Miami, which is on the eastern side and includes the neighborhoods of Brickell, Virginia Key, Watson Island, as well as PortMiami. Downtown Miami is Florida's largest and most influential central business district, with many major banks, courthouses, financial headquarters, cultural and tourist attractions, schools, parks, and a large residential population. Brickell Avenue has the largest concentration of international banks in the United States. Just northwest of Downtown is the Health District, which is Miami's center for hospitals, research institutes and biotechnology, with hospitals such as Jackson Memorial Hospital, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, and the University of Miami's Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine.


title: Miami

text: The southern side of Miami includes the neighborhoods of Coral Way, The Roads, and Coconut Grove. Coral Way is a historic residential neighborhood built in 1922 between Downtown and Coral Gables, and is home to many old homes and tree-lined streets. Coconut Grove, established in 1825, is a historic neighborhood with narrow, winding roads and a heavy tree canopy. It is the location of Miami's City Hall at Dinner Key, the former Coconut Grove Playhouse, CocoWalk, and the Coconut Grove Convention Center. It is also home to many nightclubs, bars, restaurants, and bohemian shops, which makes it very popular with local college students. Coconut Grove is known for its many parks and gardens, such as Vizcaya Museum, The Kampong, The Barnacle Historic State Park, and numerous other historic homes and estates.


title: Miami

text: The western side of Miami includes the neighborhoods of Little Havana, West Flagler, and Flagami. Although at one time a mostly Jewish neighborhood, today western Miami is home to immigrants from mostly Central America and Cuba, while the west central neighborhood of Allapattah is a multicultural community of many ethnicities.


title: Miami

text: The northern side of Miami includes Midtown, a district with a great mix of diversity ranging from West Indians to Hispanics to European Americans. The Edgewater neighborhood of Midtown is mostly composed of high-rise residential towers and is home to the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. Wynwood is an art district with ten galleries in former warehouses, as well as a large outdoor mural project. The wealthier residents of Miami usually live in the Design District and the Upper Eastside, which has many 1920s homes as well as examples of Miami Modern architecture in the MiMo Historic District. The northern side of Miami also has notable African-American and Caribbean immigrant communities, including Little Haiti, Overtown (home of the Lyric Theater), and Liberty City.


title: Miami

text: Miami has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen climate classification "Am") with hot and wet summers and warm and dry winters.


title: Miami

text: The city's sea-level elevation, coastal location, position just above the Tropic of Cancer, and proximity to the Gulf Stream shape its climate. Average winter high temperatures, from December to March, range from . January is the coolest month with an average daily temperature of . Low temperatures fall below about 3 to 4 nights during the winter season, after the passage of cold fronts that produce what little rainfall that falls in the winter.


title: Miami

text: There are two basic seasons in Miami, a hot and wet season from May through October, and a warm and dry season from November through April. During the hot and wet season, daily thundershowers occur in the humid unstable air masses. The wet season in Miami is defined as the period during which the average daily dew point temperature is above . The rainy season typically begins on the first day that occurs, or within a few days later. Similarly, daily rainfall in Miami decreases sharply when the average daily dew point falls to or below, although in some years, a stalled front to the south of the Florida peninsula may cause rains to continue for a few more days. During the years 1956 to 1997, the date summer began ranged from April 16 to June 3, with a median date of May 21. During those same years, the date summer ended ranged from September 24 to November 1, with a median date of October 17. During the summer, temperatures range from the mid-80s to low 90s °F (29–35 °C) and are accompanied by high humidity, though the heat is often relieved in the afternoon by thunderstorms or a sea breeze that develops off the Atlantic Ocean. Much of the year's of rainfall occurs during this period. Dew points in the warm months range from in June to in August.


title: Miami

text: Extremes range from on February 3, 1917, to on July 21, 1942. While Miami has never recorded snowfall at any official weather station since records have been kept, snow flurries fell in some parts of the city on January 19, 1977. The coldest daytime maximum temperature on record is in 1989, while the coldest maximum temperature average between 1991 and 2020 stood at . The warmest overnight low measured is on several occasions. The stability of summer overnight lows is underlined by the mean maximum annual overnight low is just one degree lower.


title: Miami

text: Hurricane season officially runs from June 1 through November 30, although hurricanes can develop beyond those dates. The most likely time for Miami to be hit is during the peak of the Cape Verde season, which is mid-August through the end of September. Although tornadoes are uncommon in the area, one struck in 1925 and another in 1997. Around 40% of homes in Miami are built upon floodplains and are considered as flood-risk zones.


title: Miami

text: Miami is one of the major coastal cities and major cities in the United States that will be most affected by climate change. Globally, it is one of the most at-risk cities as well, according to a 2020 report by Resources for the Future. Global sea level rise, which in Miami is projected to be to by 2070, will lead to an increase in storm damage, more intense flooding, and will threaten the city's water supply. Other potential impacts of climate change include higher hurricane wind speeds and severe thunderstorms, which can bring about hail or tornadoes. Some protective efforts are in place, including nourishing beaches and adding protective barriers, raising buildings and roads that are vulnerable, and restoring natural habitats such as wetlands. Miami Beach has invested $500 million to protect roads, buildings, and water systems. Real estate prices in Miami already reflect the increase in prices for real estate at a higher elevation within the city compared to real estate at a lower elevation.


title: Miami

text: The city is home to less than one-thirteenth of the population of South Florida. Miami is the 44th most populous city in the United States. The Miami metropolitan area, which includes Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, has a population of 6.1 million people, ranking eighth in the United States.


title: Miami

text: In 1960, people of Hispanic origin made up about 5% of the population of Miami-Dade County. Between 1960 and 2000, Hispanics accounted for 90% of the population growth in the county, and their share of the county's population grew to more than 57% by 2000.


title: Miami

text: In 1970, the Census Bureau reported Miami's population as 45% Hispanic, 41.7% non-Hispanic white, and 22.7% black. Miami's explosive population growth has been driven by internal migration from other parts of the country, primarily up until the 1980s, as well as by immigration, primarily from the 1960s to the 1990s. Today, immigration to Miami has continued and Miami's growth today is attributed greatly to its fast urbanization and high-rise construction, which has increased its inner city neighborhood population densities, such as in Downtown, Brickell, and Edgewater, where one area in Downtown alone saw a 2,069% increase in population in the 2010 Census. Miami is regarded as more of a multicultural mosaic, than it is a melting pot, with residents still maintaining much of, or some of their cultural traits. The overall culture of Miami is heavily influenced by its large population from the Caribbean and South America.


title: Miami

text: Miami has a minority-majority population, as non-Hispanic whites comprised only 11.5% of the total. As of the 2020 census, the racial makeup of the population of Miami was 65.4% White American (including White Hispanic), 16.0% black or African American, 1.3% Asian American, and the remainder belonged to other groups or was of mixed ancestry. The 2020 US Census reported that Hispanic or Latino residents of any race made up 72.5% of Miami's population.


title: Miami

text: In 2010, 34.4% of city residents were of Cuban origin, 15.8% had a Central American background (7.2% Nicaraguan, 5.8% Honduran, 1.2% Salvadoran, and 1.0% Guatemalan), 8.7% were of South American descent (3.2% Colombian, 1.4% Venezuelan, 1.2% Peruvian, 1.2% Argentine, 1.0% Chilean and 0.7% Ecuadorian), 4.0% had other Hispanic or Latino origins (0.5% Spaniard), 3.2% descended from Puerto Ricans, 2.4% were Dominican, and 1.5% had Mexican ancestry.


title: Miami

text: , 5.6% of city residents were West Indian or Afro-Caribbean American origin (4.4% Haitian, 0.4% Jamaican, 0.4% Bahamian, 0.1% British West Indian, and 0.1% Trinidadian and Tobagonian, 0.1% Other or Unspecified West Indian), 3.0% were Black Hispanics, and 0.4% were Subsaharan African origin.


title: Miami

text: , those of (non-Hispanic white) European ancestry accounted for 11.9% of Miami's population. Of the city's total population, 1.7% were German, 1.6% Italian, 1.4% Irish, 1.0% English, 0.8% French, 0.6% Russian, and 0.5% were Polish. Since the 1960s, there has been massive white flight with many non-Hispanic whites moving outside Miami due to the influx of immigrants settling in most parts of Miami.


title: Miami

text: , those of Asian ancestry accounted for 1.0% of Miami's population. Of the city's total population, 0.3% were Indian/Indo-Caribbean (1,206 people), 0.3% Chinese/Chinese Caribbean (1,804 people), 0.2% Filipino (647 people), 0.1% were other Asian (433 people), 0.1% Japanese (245 people), 0.1% Korean (213 people), and 0.0% were Vietnamese (125 people).


title: Miami

text: In 2010, 1.9% of the population considered themselves to be of only American ancestry (regardless of race or ethnicity), while 0.5% were of Arab ancestry, .


title: Miami

text: According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, Christianity is the most-practiced religion in Miami (68%), with 39% professing attendance at a variety of churches that could be considered Protestant, and 27% professing Catholicism. Followed by Judaism (9%); Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and a variety of other religions have smaller followings; atheism or no self-identifying organized religious affiliation was practiced by 21%.


title: Miami

text: There has been a Norwegian Seamen's church in Miami since the early 1980s. In November 2011, Crown Princess of Norway Mette-Marit opened a new building for the church. The church was built as a center for the 10,000 Scandinavians that live in Florida. Around 4,000 of them are Norwegian. The church is also an important place for the 150 Norwegians that work at Walt Disney World in Central Florida.


title: Miami

text: , a total of 74.7% of Miami's population age five and over spoke a language other than English at home; 66.3% of Miami residents spoke Spanish at home, 7.1% other Indo-European languages, 0.9% Asian and Pacific Islander languages, and 0.7% other.


title: Miami

text: As of the 2020 United States census, 81.8% of people over age 25 were a high school graduate or higher, while 30.7% had a bachelor's degree or higher.


title: Miami

text: There were 1,074,685 housing units, of which 902,200 were households; 43.7% were married-couple families, 31.2% had a female householder with a family and no spouse, and 18.0% had a male householder with the same. The average family size was 3.3. 20.2% of people were under the age of 18, while 16.9% were over 65.


title: Miami

text: In 2020, 53.6% of the county's population was foreign-born, with 59% being naturalized American citizens.


title: Miami

text: About 14.9% of the population was below the poverty line at the census, including 21.1% of those under age 18 and 20.8% of those aged 65 or over.


title: Miami

text: Miami is a major center of commerce and finance and boasts a strong international business community. According to the 2020 ranking of world cities undertaken by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) based on the level of presence of global corporate service organizations, Miami is considered a Beta + level world city, along with Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston, however according to the US census between the years 2015–2019, Miami lacks in terms of owner-occupied housing, computer and internet usage, education regarding bachelor's degree or higher, median household income, per capita income, while achieving higher percentage of persons in poverty. Miami has a Gross Metropolitan Product of $257 billion, ranking 11th in the United States and 20th worldwide in GMP.


title: Miami

text: Several large companies are headquartered in Miami, including but not limited to Akerman LLP, Alienware, Arquitectonica, Brightstar Corporation, Celebrity Cruises, Carnival Corporation, Duany Plater-Zyberk, Greenberg Traurig, Inktel Direct, Lennar Corporation, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, OPKO Health, Parkjockey, RCTV International, Royal Caribbean International, Sitel, Southern Wine & Spirits, Telemundo, Vector Group, Watsco and World Fuel Services. Over 1,400 multinational firms are located in Miami, with many major global organisations headquartering their Latin American operations (or regional offices) in the city including Walmart. Additionally, companies based in nearby cities or unincorporated areas of Miami-Dade County include, Benihana, Burger King, Carnival Cruise Line, Navarro Discount Pharmacies, Perry Ellis International, Ryder, Sedano's, UniMás, and U.S. Century Bank.


title: Miami

text: Miami is a major television production center, and the most important city in the United States for Spanish language media. Telemundo and UniMás have their headquarters in the Miami area. Univisión Studios and Telemundo Studios produce much of the original programming for their respective parent networks, such as telenovelas, news, sports, and talk shows. In 2011, 85% of Telemundo's original programming was filmed in Miami. Miami is also a significant music recording center, with the Sony Music Latin headquarters in the city, along with many other smaller record labels. The city also attracts many artists for music video and film shoots.


title: Miami

text: During the mid-2000s, the city witnessed its largest real estate boom since the Florida land boom of the 1920s, and the city had well over a hundred approved high-rise construction projects. However, only 50 were actually built. Rapid high-rise construction led to fast population growth in the Miami's inner neighborhoods, with Downtown, Brickell and Edgewater becoming the fastest-growing areas of the city. The city currently has the seven tallest (as well as fifteen of top twenty) skyscrapers in the state of Florida, with the tallest being the Panorama Tower.


title: Miami

text: The housing market crash of 2007 caused a foreclosure crisis in the area. Like other metro areas in the United States, crime in Miami is localized to specific neighborhoods. In a 2016 study by the website "24/7 Wall Street", Miami was rated as the worst U.S. city in which to live, based on crime, poverty, income inequality, education, and housing costs that far exceed the national median.


title: Miami

text: Miami International Airport (MIA) and PortMiami are among the nation's busiest ports of entry, especially for cargo from South America and the Caribbean. PortMiami is the world's busiest cruise port, and MIA is the busiest airport in Florida and the largest gateway between the United States and Latin America. Due to its strength in international business, finance and trade, the city has among the largest concentration of international banks in the country, primarily along Brickell Avenue in Brickell, Miami's financial district. Miami was the host city of the 2003 Free Trade Area of the Americas negotiations.


title: Miami

text: Miami is the home to the National Hurricane Center and the headquarters of the United States Southern Command, responsible for military operations in Central and South America. Miami is also an industrial center, especially for stone quarrying and warehousing. These industries are centered largely on the western fringes of the city near Doral and Hialeah.


title: Miami

text: According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2012, Miami had the fourth highest percentage of family incomes below the federal poverty line out of all large cities in the United States, behind Detroit, Michigan, Cleveland, Ohio, and Cincinnati, Ohio, respectively. Miami is also one of the very few cities in the U.S. where the local government has gone bankrupt, in 2001.


title: Miami

text: Miami is home to one of the largest ports in the United States, the PortMiami. It is the largest cruise ship port in the world, and is often called the "Cruise Capital of the World" and the "Cargo Gateway of the Americas". It has retained its status as the number one cruise/passenger port in the world for well over a decade, accommodating the largest cruise ships and the major cruise lines. In 2017, the port served 5,340,559 cruise passengers. Additionally, the port is one of the nation's busiest cargo ports, importing 9,162,340 tons of cargo in 2017. Among North American ports, it ranks second to New Orleans' Port of South Louisiana in cargo tonnage imported from Latin America. The port sits on and has seven passenger terminals. China is the port's number one import country and number one export country. Miami has the world's largest amount of cruise line headquarters, home to Carnival Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, and Royal Caribbean International. In 2014, the Port of Miami Tunnel was opened, connecting the MacArthur Causeway to PortMiami.


title: Miami

text: Tourism is one of the Miami's largest private-sector industries, accounting for more than 144,800 jobs in Miami-Dade County. The city's frequent portrayal in music, film, and popular culture has made the city and its landmarks recognizable worldwide. In 2016, it attracted the second-highest number of foreign tourists of any city in the United States, after New York City, and is among the top 20 cities worldwide by international visitor spending. More than 15.9 million visitors arrived in Miami in 2017, adding $26.1 billion to the economy. With a large hotel infrastructure and the newly renovated Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami is a popular destination for annual conventions and conferences.


title: Miami

text: Some of the most popular tourist destinations in Miami include South Beach, Lincoln Road, Bayside Marketplace, Downtown Miami, and Brickell City Centre. The Art Deco District in Miami Beach is reputed as one of the most glamorous in the world for its nightclubs, beaches, historical buildings, and shopping. Annual events such as the Miami Open, Art Basel, the Winter Music Conference, the South Beach Wine and Food Festival, and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Miami attract millions to the metropolis every year.


title: Miami

text: Miami enjoys a vibrant culture that is influenced by a diverse population from all around the world. Miami is known as the "Magic City" for seemingly popping up overnight due to its young age, massive growth, and its aesthetics of neon art deco. The city itself is infamous for its drug war in the early 1980s and its outrun aesthetics. It is also nicknamed the "Capital of Latin America" because of its high population of Spanish-speakers.


title: Miami

text: Miami has been the setting of numerous films and television shows, including "Miami Vice", "Cocaine Cowboys", "Burn Notice", "Jane the Virgin", "Scarface", "The Birdcage", "", "The Golden Girls", "2 Fast 2 Furious", and "Dexter". Several video games, including "Hotline Miami", the Gameloft racing game "Asphalt Overdrive", "", and the fictional Vice City in several video games across the "Grand Theft Auto" series, most notably "", is based on Miami.


title: Miami

text: In addition to annual festivals like the Calle Ocho Festival, Miami is home to many entertainment venues, theaters, museums, parks and performing arts centers. The newest addition to the Miami arts scene is the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, home of the Florida Grand Opera and the second-largest performing arts center in the United States after Lincoln Center in New York City. The center attracts many large-scale operas, ballets, concerts, and musicals from around the world. Other performing arts venues in Miami include the Olympia Theater, Wertheim Performing Arts Center, the Fair Expo Center, the Tower Theater, and the Bayfront Park Amphitheater.


title: Miami

text: Another celebrated event is the Miami International Film Festival, taking place every year for 10 days around the first week of March, during which independent international and American films are screened across the city. Miami has over a half dozen independent film theaters.


title: Miami

text: Miami attracts a large number of musicians, singers, actors, dancers, and orchestral players. The city has numerous orchestras, symphonies and performing art conservatories. These include the Florida Grand Opera, FIU School of Music, Frost School of Music, and the New World School of the Arts.


title: Miami

text: Miami is also a major fashion center, home to models and some of the top modeling agencies in the world. The city is host to many fashion shows and events, including the annual Miami Fashion Week and the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Miami, held in the Wynwood Art District.


title: Miami

text: Some of the museums in Miami include the Frost Art Museum, Frost Museum of Science, HistoryMiami, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami Children's Museum, Pérez Art Museum, Lowe Art Museum, and the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, a National Historic Landmark set on a 28-acre early 20th century estate in Coconut Grove.


title: Miami

text: The cuisine of Miami is a reflection of its diverse population, with a heavy influence from Caribbean and Latin American cuisine. By combining the two with American cuisine, it has spawned a unique South Florida style of cooking known as Floribbean cuisine. It is widely available throughout Miami and South Florida and can be found in restaurant chains such as Pollo Tropical.


title: Miami

text: Cuban immigrants in the 1960s originated the Cuban sandwich and brought medianoche, Cuban espresso, Bistec de palomilla, and croquetas, all of which have grown in popularity among all Miamians and have become symbols of the city's varied cuisine. Today, these are part of the local culture and can be found throughout the city at window cafés, particularly outside of supermarkets and restaurants. Some of these locations, such as the Versailles restaurant in Little Havana, are landmark eateries of Miami. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, and with a long history as a seaport, Miami is also known for its seafood, with many seafood restaurants located along the Miami River and in and around Biscayne Bay. The city is also the headquarters of restaurant chains such as Burger King and Benihana.


title: Miami

text: The Miami area has a unique dialect, commonly called the "Miami accent", that is widely spoken. The accent developed among second- or third-generation Hispanics, including Cuban Americans, whose first language was English (though some non-Hispanic white, black, and other races who were born and raised in the Miami area tend to adopt it as well). It is based on a fairly standard American accent but with some changes, very similar to dialects in the Mid-Atlantic (especially those in the New York area and Northern New Jersey, including New York Latino English). Unlike Virginia Piedmont, Coastal Southern American, Northeast American dialects and Florida Cracker dialect, "Miami accent" is rhotic; it also incorporates a rhythm and pronunciation heavily influenced by Spanish (wherein rhythm is syllable-timed).


title: Miami

text: This is a native dialect of English, not learner English or interlanguage; it is possible to differentiate this variety from an interlanguage spoken by second-language speakers in that the "Miami accent" does "not" generally display the following features: there is no addition of before initial consonant clusters with , speakers do not confuse of with , (e.g., "Yale" with "jail"), and /r/ and /rr/ are pronounced as alveolar approximant <nowiki>[</nowiki><nowiki>]</nowiki> instead of alveolar tap or alveolar trill [r] in Spanish.


title: Miami

text: Miami's main five sports teams are Inter Miami CF of Major League Soccer (MLS), the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL), the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball (MLB), and the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Miami Open, an annual tennis tournament, was previously held in Key Biscayne before moving to Hard Rock Stadium after the tournament was purchased by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross in 2019. The city is home to numerous marinas, jai alai venues, and golf courses. The city streets have hosted professional auto races in the past, most notably the open-wheel Grand Prix of Miami, the sports car Grand Prix of Miami, and Miami Grand Prix of Formula One. The Homestead-Miami Speedway oval hosts NASCAR races.


title: Miami

text: The Heat and the Marlins play within Miami's city limits, at the FTX Arena in Downtown and LoanDepot Park in Little Havana, respectively. Marlins Park is built on the site of the old Miami Orange Bowl stadium.


title: Miami

text: The Miami Dolphins play at Hard Rock Stadium in suburban Miami Gardens, while the Florida Panthers play in nearby Sunrise at the FLA Live Arena. Inter Miami CF plays at DRV PNK Stadium in nearby Fort Lauderdale, temporarily until a stadium is built in Miami.


title: Miami

text: The Orange Bowl, one of the major bowl games in the College Football Playoff of the NCAA, is played at Hard Rock Stadium every winter. The stadium has also hosted the Super Bowl; the Miami metro area has hosted the game a total of ten times (five times at the current Hard Rock Stadium and five at the Miami Orange Bowl), tying New Orleans for the most games.


title: Miami

text: Miami is also the home of many college sports teams. The two largest are the University of Miami Hurricanes, whose football team plays at Hard Rock Stadium and Florida International University Panthers, whose football team plays at Ricardo Silva Stadium. The Hurricanes compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), while the Panthers compete in the Conference USA of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.


title: Miami

text: Miami is also home to Paso Fino horses, and competitions are held at Tropical Park Equestrian Center.


title: Miami

text: The City of Miami has various lands operated by the National Park Service, the Florida Division of Recreation and Parks, and the City of Miami Department of Parks and Recreation.


title: Miami

text: Miami's tropical weather allows for year-round outdoor activities. The city has numerous marinas, rivers, bays, canals, and the Atlantic Ocean, which make boating, canoeing, sailing, and fishing popular outdoor activities. Biscayne Bay has numerous coral reefs that make snorkeling and scuba diving popular. There are over 80 parks and gardens in the city. The largest and most popular parks are Bayfront Park and Museum Park (located in the heart of Downtown and the location of the FTX Arena and Bayside Marketplace), Tropical Park, Peacock Park, Virginia Key, and Watson Island.


title: Miami

text: Other popular cultural destinations in or near Miami include Zoo Miami, Jungle Island, the Miami Seaquarium, Monkey Jungle, Coral Castle, Charles Deering Estate, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, and Key Biscayne.


title: Miami

text: In its 2020 ParkScore ranking, The Trust for Public Land reported that the park system in the City of Miami was the 64th best park system among the 100 most populous US cities, down slightly from 48th place in the 2017 ranking. The City of Miami was analyzed to have a median park size of 2.6 acres, park land as percent of city area of 6.5%, 87% of residents living within a 10-minute walk of a park, $48.39 spending per capita of park services, and 1.3 playgrounds per 10,000 residents.


title: Miami

text: The government of the City of Miami uses the mayor-commissioner type of system. The city commission consists of five commissioners that are elected from single member districts. The city commission constitutes the governing body with powers to pass ordinances, adopt regulations, and exercise all powers conferred upon the city in the city charter. The mayor is elected at large and appoints a city manager. The City of Miami is governed by Mayor Francis X. Suarez and 5 city commissioners that oversee the five districts in the city. The commission's regular meetings are held at Miami City Hall, which is located at 3500 Pan American Drive on Dinner Key in the neighborhood of Coconut Grove. In the United States House of Representatives, Miami is represented by Republican Maria Elvira Salazar and Democrat Frederica Wilson.


title: Miami

text: Miami-Dade County has over 200,000 students enrolled in local colleges and universities, placing it seventh in the nation in per capita university enrollment. In 2010, the city's four largest colleges and universities, Miami Dade College, Florida International University, University of Miami, and Barry University, graduated 28,000 students.


title: Miami

text: Miami is also home to both for-profit and nonprofit organizations that offer a range of professional training and other, related educational programs. "Per" Scholas, for example is a nonprofit organization that offers free professional certification training directed towards successfully passing CompTIA A+ and Network+ certification exams as a route to securing jobs and building careers.


title: Miami

text: Public schools in Miami are governed by Miami-Dade County Public Schools, which is the largest school district in Florida and the fourth-largest in the United States. As of September 2008 it has a student enrollment of 385,655 and over 392 schools and centers. The district is also the largest minority public school system in the country, with 60% of its students being of Hispanic origin, 28% Black or West Indian American, 10% White (non-Hispanic) and 2% non-white of other minorities.


title: Miami

text: Miami is home to some of the nation's best high schools, such as Design and Architecture High School, ranked the nation's best magnet school, MAST Academy, Coral Reef High School, ranked 20th-best public high school in the U.S., Miami Palmetto High School, and the New World School of the Arts. M-DCPS is also one of a few public school districts in the United States to offer optional bilingual education in Spanish, French, German, Haitian Creole, and Mandarin Chinese.


title: Miami

text: Miami is home to several well-known Roman Catholic, Jewish and non-denominational private schools. The Archdiocese of Miami operates the city's Catholic private schools, which include St. Hugh Catholic School, St. Agatha Catholic School, St. Theresa School, Immaculata-Lasalle High School, Monsignor Edward Pace High School, Archbishop Curley-Notre Dame High School, St. Brendan High School, among numerous other Catholic elementary and high schools.


title: Miami

text: Catholic preparatory schools operated by religious orders are Belen Jesuit Preparatory School and Christopher Columbus High School for boys and Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Lourdes Academy for girls.


title: Miami

text: Non-denominational private schools in Miami are Ransom Everglades, Gulliver Preparatory School, and Miami Country Day School. Other schools in the area include Samuel Scheck Hillel Community Day School, Dade Christian School, Palmer Trinity School, Westminster Christian School, and Riviera Schools.


title: Miami

text: The Miami Hoshuko, is a part-time Japanese school for Japanese citizens and ethnic Japanese people in the area. Previously it was located on Virginia Key, at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Currently the school holds classes in Westchester and has offices in Doral.


title: Miami

text: Miami has one of the largest television markets in the nation and the second largest in the state of Florida after Tampa Bay. Miami has several major newspapers, the main and largest newspaper being "The Miami Herald". "El Nuevo Herald" is the major and largest Spanish-language newspaper. "The Miami Herald" and "El Nuevo Herald" are Miami's and South Florida's main, major and largest newspapers. The papers left their longtime home in Downtown Miami in 2013. The newspapers are now headquartered at the former home of U.S. Southern Command in Doral.


title: Miami

text: Other major newspapers include "Miami Today", headquartered in Brickell, "Miami New Times", headquartered in Midtown, "Miami SunPost", "South Florida Business Journal", and "The Miami Times". An additional Spanish-language newspaper, "Diario Las Americas" also serves Miami. Student newspapers from the local universities include the University of Miami's "The Miami Hurricane", Florida International University's "The Beacon", Miami-Dade College's "The Metropolis", and Barry University's "The Buccaneer".


title: Miami

text: A number of magazines circulate throughout the greater Miami area, including "Miami Monthly", Southeast Florida's only city/regional, and "Ocean Drive", a hot-spot social scene glossy.


title: Miami

text: Miami is also the headquarters and main production city of many of the world's largest television networks, record label companies, broadcasting companies and production facilities, such as Telemundo, Univision, Univision Communications, Mega TV, Universal Music Latin Entertainment, RCTV International and Sunbeam Television. In 2009, Univision announced plans to build a new production studio in Miami, dubbed Univision Studios. Univision Studios is currently headquartered in Miami, and will produce programming for all of Univision Communications' television networks.


title: Miami

text: Miami is the twelfth largest radio market and the seventeenth largest television market in the United States. Television stations serving the Miami area include WAMI (UniMás), WBFS (Independent), WSFL (The CW), WFOR (CBS O&O), WHFT (TBN), WLTV (Univision), WPLG (ABC), WPXM (Ion), WSCV (Telemundo), WSVN (Fox), WTVJ (NBC O&O), WPBT (PBS), and WLRN (also PBS).


title: Miami

text: According to the 2016 American Community Survey, 72.3% of working city of Miami residents commuted by driving alone, 8.7% carpooled, 9% used public transportation, and 3.7% walked. About 1.8% used all other forms of transportation, including taxicab, motorcycle, and bicycle. About 4.5% of working city of Miami residents worked at home. In 2015, 19.9% of city of Miami households were without a car, which decreased to 18.6% in 2016. The national average was 8.7 percent in 2016. Miami averaged 1.24 cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.8 per household.


title: Miami

text: Miami's road system is based along the numerical Miami grid where Flagler Street forms the east–west baseline and Miami Avenue forms the north–south meridian. The corner of Flagler Street and Miami Avenue is in the middle of Downtown in front of the Downtown Macy's (formerly the Burdine's headquarters). The Miami grid is primarily numerical so that, for example, all street addresses north of Flagler Street and west of Miami Avenue have "NW" in their address. Because its point of origin is in Downtown, which is close to the coast, the "NW" and "SW" quadrants are much larger than the "SE" and "NE" quadrants. Many roads, especially major ones, are also named (e.g., Tamiami Trail/SW 8th St), although, with exceptions, the number is in more common usage among locals.


title: Miami

text: With few exceptions, within this grid north–south roads are designated as Courts, Roads, Avenues or Places (often remembered by their acronym), while east–west roads are Streets, Terraces, Drives or occasionally Ways. Major roads in each direction are located at one mile intervals. There are 16 blocks to each mile on north–south avenues, and 10 blocks to each mile on east–west streets. Major north–south avenues generally end in "7" – e.g., 17th, 27th, 37th/Douglas Aves., 57th/Red Rd., 67th/Ludlam, 87th/Galloway, etc., all the way west beyond 177th/Krome Avenue. (One prominent exception is 42nd Avenue, LeJeune Road, located at the half-mile point instead.) Major east–west streets to the south of Downtown are multiples of 16, though the beginning point of this system is at SW 8th St, one half-mile south of Flagler ("zeroth") Street. Thus, major streets are at 8th St., 24th St./Coral Way, 40th St./Bird, 56th/Miller, 72nd/ Sunset, 88th/N. Kendall, 104th (originally S. Kendall), 120th/Montgomery, 136th/Howard, 152nd/Coral Reef, 168th/Richmond, 184th/Eureka, 200th/Quail Roost, 216th/Hainlin Mill, 232nd/Silver Palm, 248th/Coconut Palm, etc., well into the 300s. Within the grid, odd-numbered addresses are generally on the north or east side, and even-numbered addresses are on the south or west side.


title: Miami

text: All streets and avenues in Miami-Dade County follow the Miami grid, with a few exceptions, most notably in Coral Gables, Hialeah, Coconut Grove and Miami Beach. One neighborhood, The Roads, is named as such because its streets run off the Miami grid at a 45-degree angle, and therefore are all named roads.


title: Miami

text: Miami-Dade County is served by four Interstate Highways (I-75, I-95, I-195, I-395) and several U.S. Highways including U.S. Route 1, U.S. Route 27, U.S. Route 41, and U.S. Route 441.


title: Miami

text: Miami has six major causeways that span over Biscayne Bay connecting the western mainland, with the eastern barrier islands along the Atlantic Ocean. The Rickenbacker Causeway is the southernmost causeway and connects Brickell to Virginia Key and Key Biscayne. The Venetian Causeway and MacArthur Causeway connect Downtown with South Beach. The Julia Tuttle Causeway connects Midtown and Miami Beach. The 79th Street Causeway connects the Upper East Side with North Beach. The northernmost causeway, the Broad Causeway, is the smallest of Miami's six causeways and connects North Miami to Bay Harbor Islands and Bal Harbour.


title: Miami

text: In 2007, Miami was identified as having the rudest drivers in the United States, the second year in a row to have been cited, in a poll commissioned by automobile club AutoVantage. Miami is also consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in the United States for pedestrians.


title: Miami

text: Public transportation in Miami is operated by Miami-Dade Transit and SFRTA, and includes commuter rail (Tri-Rail), heavy-rail rapid transit (Metrorail), an elevated people mover (Metromover), and buses (Metrobus). Miami has Florida's highest transit ridership as about 17% of Miamians use transit on a daily basis. The average Miami public transit commute on weekdays is 90 minutes, while 39% of public transit riders commute for more than 2 hours a day. The average wait time at a public transit stop or station is 18 minutes, while 37% of riders wait for more than 20 minutes on average every day. The average single trip distance with public transit is , while 38% travel more than in each direction.