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Most visitors to the Greater Miami area don't realize that Miami and
Miami are separate cities. But while Miami is Florida's commercial
hub, Miami is widely considered America's Riviera, luring refugees
from winter with its warm sunshine, sandy beaches, graceful palms, and
tireless nightlife. The great part of its nocturnal spark takes place at the
southern end of Miami's 7-mi-long barrier island, in a relatively
small area known as South Beach.
There may be more photographs of South Beach than grains of sand on
its much-praised shoreline. And for all its international fame, stylish
allure, and glossy glamour, it's remarkable that South Beach remains
essentially a mile-long stretch along three parallel avenues. In fact, Ocean
Drive---which separates the most glamorous hotels and restaurants from the
ocean---has pulled the great weight of Miami's revival over the past
two decades.
In the early 1920s a narrow strip of mangrove coast was transformed
into Miami, and tourists wasted no time. In just a few years, Miami
Beach was a playground of the rich, and grand-themed hotels held sway. By
the late 20s, however, shipping problems and a hurricane turned the boom to
bust, and another approach was needed to attract tourists.
Enter the Art Deco hotels of the 1930s, the mostly three-story,
cheerfully colored, sleek-looking structures that alluded to modern ships,
cars, and ocean liners. In the 1950s, larger-than-life Deco hotels, such as
the Fontainebleau and the Eden Roc, were built, and the days of the small
Deco hotels were up. Most aged into flophouses or dirt-cheap homes for
retirees. Now a worldwide synonym with glamour and the good life, Miami
Beach is a study in urban renewal sparked through grass roots efforts, and a
little fortuitous media exposure.
Things started to happen in the 1980s, when the hyperactive cop show
Miami Vice played out against the pastel facades of Ocean Drive. A woman
named Barbara Capitman proposed the buildings---which were set to be
demolished---for the National Register of Historic Places. As bulldozers
waited, the preservationist movement rolled forward, and investors began
restoring the interiors and repainting the exteriors of classic South Beach
buildings.
What followed was a mass influx of glamour industries and new
fun-seeking residents and visitors. As recently as the late 1980s, Miami
Beach was an ocean-side geriatric ward. Today's South Beach residents have
the kind of hip that doesn't break. (The average age dropped from the
mid-60s in 1980 to a youthful early 40s today.)
SoBe---a usefully terse newspaper condensation of South Beach, though
a term probably never once casually uttered by a local---is now a shimmering
condensation of upscale boutiques, trendy restaurants, hot nightclubs, and
restored hotels with slick, avant-garde interiors. Miami finds itself
undergoing a seemingly never-ending process of beautification, making it
perhaps the best place in the world for a people-watching getaway.
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