Miami beach is one of those eclectic gathering places for the western world, and what makes it all the more colourful is the Art Deco hotels and buildings concentrated in around the area known as Miami South Beach. There are two places in the world according our friends at Wikepedia that have this style of Architecture, Miami South Beach and Napier New Zealand. They go onto to tell us that the official style name is called “Art Deco, Stremeline Moderne or Nautical Moderne.
This trip is really a trip back in time for me . In the early 70’s I had made two journeys to Miami in the late Fall after finishing a summer of work or just trying to get away from school. It was a time when Miami South Beach was in a state cryogenic hibernation and the smell of mothballs was everywhere. In the 70’s Miami South Beach was basically a haven for retired New Yorkers and others coming for the winter. On each trip I would stay in one of the cool old ocean side hotels for the paltry sum of 12 bucks. It was unbelievable.
Now here I am again during Miami’s rebirth. The clerk at the front desk of the Marseille Hotel, where we are staying tells me he had just come to Miami South Beach as it was just rebuilding itself in the 80”s. His math doesn’t jive as he has been here 17 years and you know the rest. Anyway today South Beach is home to some of the most expensive and sought after real estate in the world. But wait a minute this is October 2008 melt down time in the US real estate market.
So I do a little research are there good deals to be had? Scouring the Miami papers, and talking to local folks and others yields a bushel of information. I am not sure if that prairies measurement works with a port city like Miami, but I am from Saskatchewan and bushels are big and quantifiable. Here is what I heard and saw. The liquor store clerk an elderly man shares “ be careful insurance rates our sky high due to the damage recently done by hurricanes and watch out for unscrupulous real estate transactions”. I ask him will prices come back, he says “ they had better or we are all done”. I query our hotel clerk, a recent arrival from India his English is perfect. I studied in English schools in India, and later I took lessons here in Miami to get rid of my accent. We are not used to living like this here, it is just our family here, my mother’s new car got flooded last month and she is still fighting to get it right”. “ I guess Miami has poor drainage in some areas” I add in, he nods. He goes on people come here to party they are crazy, we had to lock all the hotel windows as some people jumped out of their rooms. He tells me he loves the hotel trade in Miami and is going to school for it
Later, a camera shop owner tells me he just bought a 2 million dollar condo for 500k and he goes to say, “I am going to clean up, you know, Miami is a town where rentals are hard to find and I can make positive cash flow from this investment”. Backing up his statements, I see local papers publish weekly auction of houses, condos and other realestate some with minimum pricing others not.
Out on the street I cannot help but notice the Ferraris, Aston Martins, and new Rolls Royce convertibles, and countless other Bmmmers, and Jag, this town sports its toys. On the beach, cruising boats anchor off shore allowing their occupants to swim to the beaches, small airplanes pull airborne signs that advertise drink specials, jet skis whiz by and cigarette tourist boats ply the waters giving the passengers the voyeuristic sense of being smugglers. But the singular thing that stands out most are the Art Deco hotels, shops and public buildings of South Beach Miami. Italian designer Versachi’s former mansion on Ocean Drive now a restaurant and hotel is typical of the colourful architectural Heritage in South Beach.
On Wednesday, I am heading off to see a small part of Miami South Beach called the Venetian, it is really a series of small island connected by bridges between Miami proper and South Beach. My wife and I are on bicycle and have been assured by the very friendly staff at Fritz’s bike shop the Venetian is a cool ride. So off we go, and we are not disappointed each little island has its own bay of waterfront homes with most of them in the Spanish Mission style architecture. The brown tiles, rounded roof edges and smooth lines are accentuated by the brown and beige stucco walls. The area is home to celebrities, and well off entrepreneurs. The one thing that really hits home to me is how crowded these small street are with not visitors, but trades vans of all sorts. Companies specializing in plumbing, yard maintenance people all over the place. I notice one company advertising its specialty is finding those hard to find pool leaks, a nasty problem I am sure. Again our trusty hotel clerk tells me that his uncle lives in this area, and has lost his dock several times due to hurricanes, and he is having flooding issues now, who knew, is it Global warming or just the usual story of old building having issues.
After fanatizing about owning one of the smaller cute ones, I tell my wife she points out its For Sale sign price included, what, 1 what is that, 900 hundred thousand, one point nine million, can’t be, its cute. Oh well we wonder back to the beach by way of Lincoln outdoor Mall where we leisurely pedal amongst the shops . We come across a cool retro theatre and many other odidities parakeets hanging out in one particularly bunch of palms. This is a town full of surprises. We ride back to our hotel determined to have supper on the famous Ocean Drive
As we head out on our bikes in the evening along the board walk behind our hotel, and in front of the beach I can’t help notice even in the evening after dark how many people are walking. Our goal is Ocean Drive and soon we are there, it is immediately apparent that this is a happin place. The hotels are nothing less than spectacular, lights, music and their Art Deco colors illuminate out to us. Bright Blues, Pinks, Lavenders you name it. The streets are lined with people, and all the languages of the world. We settle in for a pasta dish and find that in late October the deals are great, the server tells us a free glass of wine comes with our dinner at 50% off the meal. The whole bill comes to 31.00 including gratutity which is convienently added to the bill.
The next day I strike out to check out in detail some of the smaller hotels and apartments in the Art Deco area. I find streets full of them, the colors are bright, the signature curves and faux balcony windows and mosaic tiles and sculpted figurines on many of the buildings are almost Picasso inspired. I think to myself no wonder Pierre Trudeau bought an Art Deco house on Pine Avenue in Montreal they are just plain cool. We lunch on Lincoln Mall amongst the many Art Deco shops and buildings our fare is again pasta at an outdoor Italian restaurant. Here we are again treated the excentricitries of South Beach, a half dozen Grey Hounds walk by with their master sporting Obama sweaters. My wife tells about a Bull dog perched as a mast head on an extra long skate board that I just missed and who got a real laugh from the crowd she says.
We finish this our second last day sitting on a couch lounge in front of one of the many Art Deco hotels on Collins Avenue, it’s a warm Miami evening and Karioki singing is drifting out of the open bar windows, its Riders in the Sky by the Doors all the couch patrons laugh yes we have heard better. But this is Miami South Beach the coolest place to be in October at the end of the Hurricane season, and we have one more day to take it all in.
Our last full day is spent on the beach, the winds have really picked up, but the air is really warm and it amazing to be able to sit on the beach. I tell my wife that a number of the sun bathers must be from Europe as the women seem comfortable utilizing only half of their bathing suite. This is the new Miami no cops on patrol here, looking for minor violations. She looks at me and I focus on the ocean rollers coming to our spot on the beach. Later in the afternoon we on Lincoln Mall again only to be entertained at lunch by Circ de solei doing a promo show on stage.
For our final evening we go a few doors to the north of us and end up at the Raleigh Hotel as local fanfare says this hotel has the most beautiful and famous pool in all of South Beach. Esther Williams of Hollywood fame hung out at this pool. And you know what we were not disappointed, the pool, is right out of some 50’s glamour movie. The best way to describe it, is to say it belongs in a Chanel Ad which I think it might have. Now we are done, and a local bus ride the next morning to the airport caps off the color and contrasts that are Miami South Beach.
