Really? I’ve lived here since ’94 and feel that SoBe has lost some its cache. This baby has grown up some,for sure, but it is still not yet an adult. I heard a tourism spokesman yesterday compare Miami [and by Miami, he mostly meant Miami Beach] to Paris, London and Tokyo.

Um, yeah. Not quite. That said, I will always wish this city well. I have been in love with South Beach since I moved here. But traffic is getting worse, the conditions of the roads (like 15th between Alton and Washington, a major E-W corridor) are deteriorating, and housing has become unaffordable for the people who work and support this community.

Not to mention that all of the small mom and pop stores are gone, the restaurants on Lincoln all serve the same Sysco-supplied food (and it tastes that way, too), the visual artists have moved out as well the street performance artists have been forcibly removed, there’s a parking garage being built on every large corner (yet parking for residents in zone 2 remains very problematic after 9pm and all throughout season), and customer service in all sectors is abysmal.

I think the line the “endowments nature has granted the island” speaks volumes about where this beach needs to focus its efforts in this transition: in it’s physical beauty. Clean up these filthy streets (Washington Ave??), empty the trash receptacles (all day long if you have to), open up more public pedestrian meeting spaces (The extension of the boardwalk to 15th St. was BRILLIANT), and punctuate its beauty by making it the greenest (as in recycling and energy use) city of its kind.

Sorry about the rant. I just miss the city I once loved so much.

At least it should be a change for the best.

FD @ W South Beach Condo-Hotel and Residences