I'm still weak from the huge pancakes, but, man, that Arturo thread on SRK is exhausting. I can't believe the level of hate he's getting on that corny Japanese message board.
And I lived in South Florida from 95 up until I joined the military in 2001. I used to go to Boomers (in Davie) and Cloverleaf mini golf (North Miami). I went to this arcade in Hialeah I want to say once, around the time of SFA3. But I've never seen much comp in South Florida (in my limited scope). I'm sure there's a scene but it's on some fight club ish.
Whereas if you go to CTF, you're going to run into good comp. I remember playing SFIV for the first time. I got my butt kicked cuz I had no clue what was going on (plus the Sanwa joystick didn't help).
If you're in the area, you should definitely check it out. Who knows, maybe you can make some local connects and find out the gathering points. Online sucks ass.