| South Beach | |
|---|---|
| — Neighborhood of Miami Beach — | |
| Panorama of South Beach from Government Cut | |
| Nickname(s): SoBe | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Florida |
| County | Miami-Dade County |
| City | Miami Beach |
| Subdistricts of South Beach | |
| Government | |
| • Miami Beach Mayor | Matti Herrera Bower |
| • Miami-Dade County Commissioner | Bruno Barreiro |
| • House of Representatives | Luis R. Garcia, Jr. (D) |
| • State Senate | Gwen Margolis (D) |
| • U.S. House | Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 39,186 |
| Time zone | EST (UTC-05) |
| ZIP Code | 33139 |
| Area code(s) | 305, 786 |
South Beach, also nicknamed SoBe, is a neighborhood in the city of Miami Beach, Florida, United States, located due east of Miami city proper between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The area encompasses all of the barrier islands of Miami Beach south of Indian Creek.
This area was the first section of Miami Beach to be developed, starting in the 1910s, thanks to the development efforts of Carl G. Fisher, the Lummus Brothers, and John S. Collins, the latter whose construction of the Collins Bridge provided the first vital land link between mainland Miami and the beaches.
The area has gone through numerous artificial and natural changes over the years, including a booming regional economy, increased tourism, and the 1926 hurricane, which destroyed much of the area. As of 2010, about 39,186 residents live in South Beach.[1]
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South Beach started as farmland. In 1870, Henry and Charles Lum purchased 165 acres (67 ha) for coconut farming. Charles Lum built the first house on the beach in 1886. In 1894, the Lum brothers left the island, leaving control of the plantation to John Collins, who came to South Beach two years later to survey the land. He used the land for farming purposes, discovering fresh water and extending his parcel from 14th Street to 67th in 1907.
In 1912, Miami businessmen the Lummus Brothers acquired 400 acres (160 ha) of Collins' land in an effort to build an oceanfront city of modest single family residences. In 1913 Collins started construction of a bridge from Miami to Miami Beach. Although some local residents invested in the bridge, Collins ran short of money before he could complete it.[2]
Carl G. Fisher, a successful entrepreneur who made millions in 1909 after selling a business to Union Carbide, came to the beach in 1913. His vision was to establish South Beach as a successful city independent of Miami. This was the same year that the restaurant Joe's Stone Crab opened. Fisher loaned $50,000 to Collins for his bridge, which was completed in June, 1913. The Collins Bridge was later replaced by the Venetian Causeway.[3]
On March 26, 1915, Collins, Lummus, and Fisher consolidated their efforts and incorporated the Town of Miami Beach. In 1920 the County Causeway (renamed MacArthur Causeway in 1942[4]) was completed.[5] The Lummus brothers sold their oceanfront property, between 6th and 14th Streets, to the city. To this day, this area is known as Lummus Park.
In 1920, the Miami Beach land boom began. South Beach's main streets (5th Street, Alton Road, Collins Avenue, Washington Avenue, and Ocean Drive) were all suitable for automobile traffic. The population was growing in the 1920s, and several millionaires such as Harvey Firestone, J.C. Penney, Harvey Stutz, Albert Champion, Frank Seiberling, and Rockwell LaGorce built homes on Miami Beach. President Warren G. Harding stayed at the Flamingo Hotel during this time, increasing interest in the area.
In the 1930s, an architectural revolution came to South Beach, bringing Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, and Nautical Moderne architecture to the Beach. South Beach claims to be the world's largest collection of Streamline Moderne Art Deco architecture. Napier, New Zealand, another notable Art Deco city, makes an interesting comparison with Miami Beach as it was rebuilt in the Ziggurat Art Deco style after being destroyed by an earthquake in 1931.
By 1940, the beach had a population of 28,000. After the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the Army Air Corps took command over Miami Beach.
In 1964, South Beach became even more famous when Jackie Gleason brought his weekly variety series, The Jackie Gleason Show to the area for taping, a rarity in the industry. Beginning in the late 1970s and continuing through the 1980s, South Beach was used as a retirement community with most of its ocean-front hotels and apartment buildings filled with elderly people living on small, fixed incomes. This period also saw the introduction of the "cocaine cowboys," drug dealers who used the area as a base for their illicit drug activities. Scarface, released in 1983, typifies this activity. In addition, television show Miami Vice used South Beach as a backdrop for much of its filming because of the area's raw and unique visual beauty. A somewhat recurring theme of early Miami Vice episodes was thugs and drug addicts barricading themselves in utterly run-down, almost ruin-like empty buildings. Only minor alterations had to be made for these scenes because many buildings in South Beach really were in such poor condition at the time.
While many of the unique Art Deco buildings, such as the New Yorker Hotel, were lost to developers in the years before 1980, the area was saved as a cohesive unit by Barbara Capitman and a group of activists who spearheaded the movement to place almost one square mile of South Beach on the National Register of Historic Places. The Miami Beach Architectural District was designated in 1979.
Before the days of Miami Vice, South Beach was considered a very poor area with a very high rate of crime. Today, it is considered one of the wealthiest and most prosperous commercial areas on the beach. Despite this, poverty and crime still exist in some isolated places surrounding the area.[6]
Natalie O'Neill of the Miami New Times said in 2009 "Until the 1980s, Miami Beach was a peculiar mix of criminals, Cubans, and little old ladies. Then the beautiful people moved in."[7] In the late 1980s, a renaissance began in South Beach, with an influx of fashion industry professionals moving into the area. In 1989 Irene Marie purchased the Sun Ray Apartments (famous for the chainsaw scene in Scarface) and opened Irene Marie Models - the first international full-service modeling agency in Florida. Many of the large New York based agencies soon followed.
Thomas Kramer is credited with starting the construction boom in South Beach, driving the gentrification of the area. It is now a popular living destination for the wealthy. Condominium units in the upscale high rises sell for millions. There are a number of vocal critics of the developments. The high-rise and high density buildings are derided as a "concrete jungle". However, even critics concede that the development has changed the area in a pedestrian friendly, low crime neighborhood.[8][9]
State of Florida records stated that four of the anti-homosexual hate crimes in Miami-Dade County in 2009 occurred in Miami Beach.[10] O'Neill stated "South Beach isn't the free-spirited haven of gayness it once was." Regarding the anti-gay hate violence, O'Neill said "It's surprising when you consider South Beach's heyday as a sparkling gay playground."[11] O'Neill said that the language of Florida's hate crime law is "vague" and that police officers "aren't adequately trained to notice and document the signs" and that therefore the true number of hate crimes is higher. Herb Sosa, president of Unity Coalition of Miami-Dade, said that "Police numbers don't match our numbers, and that's a problem."[7] Steve Rothaus of the Miami Herald criticized O'Neill's article, saying that the number of hate crimes reported in Miami Beach, four, was overstated by O'Neill.[10]
In February 2010, ACLU announced that it will sue the City of Miami Beach for an ongoing targeting and arrests of gay men in public.[12] According to the ACLU, Miami Beach has a history of arresting gay men for simply looking “too gay”.[13]
In 2008, Miami Beach Mayor Matti Herrera Bower created a Gay Business Development Ad Hoc Committee, with a mission to bring recommendations to the Mayor and City Commission on initiatives to be implemented and supported by the City regarding a variety of issues to ensure the welfare and future of the Miami Beach LGBT community.
While being a gay mecca of the 1980s and 1990s, Miami Beach never had a city sanctioned Gay Pride Parade until April 2009.[14] With strong support from the newly elected mayor Matti Bower,[15] Miami Beach had its first Gay Pride Festival in April 2009. It is now an annual event. The 2010 Pride drew tens of thousands of people.[16]
In both daytime and at nightfall, the South Beach section of Miami Beach is a major entertainment destination with hundreds of nightclubs, restaurants, boutiques and hotels. The area is popular with both American and international tourists (mainly from Canada, Latin America, Europe, Israel, the Caribbean and within the United States), with some having permanent or second homes. The large number of European tourists also explains their influence on South Beach's lax and overall tolerance of the female monokini, aka topless sunbathing, despite it being a public beach.
The reflection of South Beach's residents is evident in the various European languages, as well as Semitic languages and many other languages spoken. In 2000, 55% of residents of the city of Miami Beach spoke Spanish as a first language, while English was the first language for 33% of the population. Portuguese (mainly Brazilian Portuguese) was spoken by 3% of residents, while French (including Canadian French) was spoken by 2%, German by 1.12%, Italian 0.99%, and Russian by 0.85% of the population. Owing to the area's large Jewish and Israeli community, Yiddish was spoken by 0.81% of resident, and Hebrew by 0.74%.[17]
Another unique aesthetic attribute of South Beach is the presence of several colorful and unique stands used by South Beach's lifeguards. After Hurricane Andrew, Architect William Lane donated his design services to the city and added new stops on design tours in the form of lifeguard towers. His towers instantly became symbols of the revived City of Miami Beach.
After decades of economic and social decline, an influx of gay men and lesbians moving to South Beach in the late-1980s to mid-1990s helped contribute to Miami Beach's revitalization. The newcomers purchased and restored dilapidated Art Deco hotels and clubs, started numerous businesses, and built political power in city and county government.[18] As South Beach became more popular as a national and international tourist destination, there have been occasional clashes between cultures and disputes about whether South Beach is as "gay friendly" as it once was.[19]
South Beach is home to numerous gay bars and gay-specific events, and five service and resource organizations. The passage of progressive civil rights laws,[18] election of outspokenly pro-gay Miami Beach Mayor Matti Herrera Bower (the city's first woman and first Latino mayor), and the introduction of Miami Beach's Gay Pride Celebration, have reinvigorated the local LGBT community in recent years, which experienced a decline in the late 2000s.[20] A handful of anti-gay attacks and some instances of Miami Beach Police brutality against gay men[21] have been at odds with Miami Beach's longstanding image as a welcoming place for gay people.[22]
Miami Beach is home to some of the country's largest fundraisers that benefit both local and national LGBT nonprofits. As of 2011, some of the largest LGBT fundraisers in Miami Beach are:
In 2008, Mayor Bower created a Gay Business Development Ad Hoc Committee, with a mission to bring recommendations to the Mayor and City Commission on initiatives to be implemented and supported by the City regarding a variety of issues to ensure the welfare and future of the Miami Beach LGBT community.
While being a gay mecca of the 1980s and 1990s, Miami Beach never had a city-sanctioned Gay Pride Parade until April 2009.[23] With strong support from Mayor Bower,[24] Miami Beach had its first Gay Pride Festival in April 2009[25] It is now an annual event. The 2010 Pride drew tens of thousands of people.[26]
In 2010, the Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, with support from the City of Miami Beach, opened an LGBT Visitor Center at Miami Beach's Old City Hall.
In 2009, the ACLU began looking into instances of Miami Beach police targeting gay men for harassment.[27] In February 2010, ACLU announced that it would sue the City of Miami Beach for an ongoing targeting and arrests of gay men in public.[12] According to the ACLU, Miami Beach police have a history of arresting gay men for simply looking “too gay”.[13]
At the meeting with the local gay leaders, Miami Beach Police Chief Carlos Noriega claimed that the incidents were isolated, and promised increased diversity training for police officers. He also announced that a captain, who is a lesbian, would soon be reassigned to internal affairs to handle complaints about cops accused of harassing gays. Some members of the committee were skeptical of Noriega's assertion that the recent case wasn't indicitave of a larger problem in the MBPD, and provided examples of other cases.[28]
In January 2010, Miami Beach passed a revised Human Rights Ordinance that strengthens enforcement of already existing human rights laws and adds protections for transgendered people,[29] making Miami Beach’s human rights laws some of the most progressive in the state. Both residents of, and visitors to, Miami Beach have been able to register as domestic partners since 2004;[30] in 2008 this benefit was extended to all of Miami-Dade County.[31]
South Beach is traversed by numerical streets which run east-west, starting with First Street and the largely pedestrianized Lincoln Road (between 16th and 17th). It also has 13 principal Roads and Avenues running north-south, which, from the Biscayne Bay side, are Bay Road, West Avenue, Alton Road, Lenox Avenue, Michigan Avenue, Jefferson Avenue, Meridian Avenue, Euclid Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue, Drexel Avenue, Washington Avenue, Collins Avenue (Florida State Road A1A), and Ocean Drive. There are three smaller avenues (that do not run the entire length of the beach) in the Collins Park area, named Park, Liberty, and James. Most locals agree that South Beach's northern boundary runs along Dade Boulevard from Lincoln Road on the bay side of the island, and heads east-north-east until it connects with 23rd Street, which forms the northern boundary on the ocean side.
Public Transportation in South Beach, along with Downtown and Brickell, is heavily used, and is a vital part of South Beach life. Although South Beach has no direct Metrorail stations, numerous Metrobus lines (operated by Miami-Dade Transit), connect to Downtown Miami and Metrorail (i.e.: the 'S' bus line). The 'South Beach Local' or 'SBL' is one of the most heavily-used lines in Miami, and connects all major points of South Beach to other major bus lines in the city.
The Airport-Beach Express (Route 150), operated by MDT, is a direct-service bus line that connects Miami International Airport to major points in South Beach. The ride costs $2.35, and runs every 30 minutes from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. seven days a week.[32]
South Beach, along with a handful of other neighborhoods in Miami (such as Downtown and Brickell), is one of the areas where a car-free lifestyle is commonplace. Many South Beach residents get around by foot, bicycle, motorcycle, bus or by taxi, as the neighborhood is very urban, and pedestrian-friendly. Automobile congestion in the area is frequent, so getting around in South Beach by car can often prove more difficult than simply walking. Recently, Miami Beach has begun bicycle initiaves promoting city-wide bike parking and bike lanes, that have made bicycling much more popular for residents and tourists. The Venetian Causeway for example, is a popular bicycle commuter route that connects South Beach to Downtown.
Lincoln Road, Ocean Drive, Washington Avenue, and Collins Avenue are popular shopping, eating, and entertainment streets for pedestrians. Lincoln Road is a pedestrian-only shopping street, and Collins Avenue around 5th Street, is mostly upscale retail.
Currently, a streetcar system, named 'Baylink' is in the planning stages. Baylink would connect South Beach to Downtown at Government Center Station via the MacArthur Causeway.
In recent years, bicycling has grown in popular in South Beach. Due to its dense, urban nature, and pedestrian-friendly streets, many South Beach residents get around by bicycle. In early 2011, a bike rental company began operations in Miami Beach, DecoBike. DecoBike operates in Miami Beach with 1,000 bicycles for rent, and 100 rental stations from North Beach to South Beach.[33] The bikes are available 24 hours a day, and have proven very popular with locals and tourists. The service is expected to add more stations in South Beach, as well as expand into Downtown Miami, Omni and Brickell by 2012.[34]
Miami-Dade County Public Schools operates area public schools:
Miami-Dade County Public Schools operates area public schools:
Lincoln Road is an open-air pedestrian mall, considered South Beach's premiere shopping area. It is home to many restaurants and several night clubs, such as Score and Funktion, as well as many retail outlets. While Lincoln Road was one time rather downtrodden, it began a renaissance in the 1980s as an arts and cultural center. With its unique boutique shops and restaurants, it has had "an esoteric chic that maintains its trendy appeal."[37] It is located in between 16th Street and 17th Street and spans the beach in an east-west direction. Among the late 1990s restaurants on Lincoln Road was one owned by actor Michael Caine, and managed by one of his daughters. The restaurant has since closed. The Miami Beach Preservation Board approved the closure of automobile traffic on the westward part of Lincoln Road, in favor of the renovation of the SunTrust building and the development of the acclaimed 1111 Lincoln Road parking garage. Several other parking garages nearby greatly facilitate commerce. The extension of the pedestrian mall is complemented by the opening of STAY at Lincoln in March 2008.
Ocean Drive is the easternmost street in South Beach, and stems from south of First to 15th Street, running in a north-south direction. Ocean Drive is responsible for the South Beach aesthetic that most out-of-town visitors expect. It is a popular Spring Break and tourist area, including the famous, yet predominantly local, Pearl and Nikki Beach night spots. It is also home to several prominent restaurants (including "News Cafe," "Mango's," and the MTV-popularized "Clevelander") and is the site of Gianni Versace's former ocean front mansion.
Collins Avenue runs parallel to Ocean, one block west. It is also State Road A1A. Collins is home to many historic Art Deco hotels, and several nightclubs to the north, including Mynt and Rokbar.
Española Way, which runs from Collins Avenue to Pennsylvania Avenue, was conceived by N.B.T. Roney (of the Roney Plaza Hotel) in 1925 as "The Historic Spanish Village," modeled after the romantic Mediterranean villages found in France and Spain. Today it consists of art galleries, restaurants, and quirky shops. Over the past few years, its bars and restaurants have increasingly become a gathering place for the large Italian community in Miami.
Alton Road is the main westside north-south street located 1-3 blocks from Biscayne Bay. On the part that traverses South Beach, the road is host to many local businesses, including dry cleaners, small furniture stores, small grocery markets, non-chain restaurants and fast food restaurants. It is mainly residential once it crosses Michigan Avenue north of South Beach.
Washington Avenue is one of the best-known streets in South Beach. Running parallel with Ocean and Collins, Washington is notorious for having some of the world's largest and most popular nightclubs, such as Cameo and Mansion. During "season" the street is jammed with traffic until early in the morning (as late as 6 am) every night of the week. In the 1990s explosion of South Beach as a nightclub venue, its nightclub moguls included Ingrid Casares, whose investors included the singer Madonna. Washington Avenue is also home to countless shops, hotels, and such noted architectural features as Temple Emanu-El (Miami Beach, Florida).
South Beach has an active club and bar scene. It is host to more than 150 clubs and other venues, many of which close at 4:30 AM. South Beach nightlife can be expensive, and while bars are welcoming, gaining entrance to nightclubs can be difficult for tourists who do not have connections, an understanding of how to impress door managers, or who do not plan their evenings well in advance. Access to popular nightspots can cost $20–$100 depending on occassion, event and venue, and sometimes comes with a wait of several hours, in addition to evaluation by door staff.
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