What is Opa-locka, anyway? A guide for those outside the 305

We know what Opa-locka is.

But now the nation is hearing the name because the northwest Miami-Dade city’s massive U.S. mail sorting facility near the Opa-locka airport became ground zero as federal investigators investigated how at least one of the 12 bomb-filled packages targeting major Democratic figures — including the Clintons and Obamas — passed through the location.

Friday morning, Cesar Sayoc, 56, a South Florida man from Aventura, was arrested in connection to the string of suspected pipe bomb packages, law enforcement sources told the Miami Herald and other news outlets.

But Opa-locka. For those outside of the 305 who have come up with myriad ways of mispronouncing the municipality, here’s a little 411 on the city with the, well, unusual for some, name.

That name

Opa-locka’s name comes from the Seminole’s Opa-tisha-wocka-locka, but the city’s founder, aviation icon Glenn Curtiss, shortened it to Opa-locka. (Note the lower-case locka, journos).

Perhaps Curtiss, who also developed Hialeah and Miami Springs, figured the tongue-twisting Indian handle, which loosely translates to “a big city covered with many trees,” or more closely, “a wooded hammock in a swamp,” according to The New Tropic, would be easier to pronounce, even though its abbreviated form still stymies unfamiliar news anchors.

Say it: oh-puh-lock-uh.

That look

Curtiss was inspired by the exotic sounding name and figured it for Arabic so he designed the city with Moorish-style architecture and he took his inspiration from the Arabian Nights, a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales also known as “One Thousand and One Nights.”

Hence, street and avenue names like Aladdin, Bagdad, Sinbad, Sharazad and Sultan.

Curtiss commissioned New York City-based architect Bernhardt Muller to design Opa-locka. He sent him a copy of “Arabian Nights” as a guide. Basically, “design me this.”

Opa-locka’s former City Hall building at 777 Sharazad Blvd. is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and one of 20 buildings listed in the city. Others include Baird House, Cravero House, Etheredge House, Haislip House, Helms House, Higgins Duplex and the old railroad station at 490 Ali Baba Ave.

A McDonald’s on Northwest 19th Ave and Opa-locka Boulevard even reflects the city’s Moorish architecture.

Where is it

Opa-locka’s city boundaries are: Northwest 151st Street on the north; Northwest 125th Street on the south, including a section that extends to East 65th Street; Northwest 47th Avenue to the west; and Northwest 17th Avenue to the east.

Opa-locka was incorporated in May 1926.

Scandal magnet

Alas, Opa-locka has also found itself in the local news for a series of political corruption scandals that drew years-long investigations by the FBI and state officials.

The corruption scandals were detailed in a recent Miami Herald investigative series, “City for Sale.”

Opa-locka, the series noted, “was hopelessly broke and the mayor [Myra Taylor] and others were targets of the largest public corruption investigation in South Florida in a generation.”

In June, “Opa-locka fixer” Dante Starks, a former cop, political aide and lobbyist once dubbed “the shadow mayor” known for making secret deals throughout his career in Miami-Dade, agreed to plead guilty to a bribery and extortion conspiracy along with failing to file a tax return, according to the Miami Herald.

Hollywood closeup

Opa-locka isn’t only seen on news reports for, well, shady things. Movies such as “Living Dreams”, “Texas Justice,” “Bad Boys II” and “2 Fast 2 Furious” had scenes shot in the city over the years.

Honoring a president

Opa-locka was the first municipality in the country to commemorate the first African-American president of the United States, South Florida Times reported. A mile-long section of Perviz Avenue — from Oriental Boulevard to Ali Baba Avenue — was renamed President Barack Obama Avenue on President’s Day, Feb. 17, 2009. The city council voted in favor of the designation a mere month after Obama was elected the 44th U.S. president in November 2008.

This story was originally published October 26, 2018 at 12:20 PM.