While all looks rosy and robust along Ocean Drive, Lincoln Road and Collins Avenue in South Beach Miami, a few steps off the tourist route reveals overt signs of the second Great Depression. The locale was one of the hardest hit in 2007.
Sigh... one last tour de force up Collins and Ocean Drive, as I prepare to leave the perfection of Miami and head back to New York's perpetual winter. I think I might cry a little.
the largest 
manses in the nation, but what they may lack in square footage, they certainly make up for in water views and an ideal climate. Perhaps they more resemble Beverly Hills than Southampton, where you pay a pretty price for constant sunshine. Sounds like a fair trade-off to meese.
by the latest Great Depression, who knows how much value these Miami estates have lost. One thing is for sure: for sale signs pervade the area, with pleas to purchase "or rent." You know that's a bad sign.
Hey, I think I might be able to afford this one! Lots of "potential," huh?
Oh, SoBe, how I do love you. God-given temps, stunning art deco 
architecture, a true walking v and arguably, 
the most beautiful men in the world. South Beach was the first nabe in Miami to be established, back in 1910, and became a destination for millionaires in the 1920s. Art deco began to commandeer the area's commercial boom during the next decade, although it fell into disrepair by the late 1970s.
"Miami Vice," believe it or not, restored cachet in the 1980s, transitioning Miami Beach back into the one of the most glamorous destinations in the nation. It certainly didn't hurt that the gays also took ownership, further gentrifying the region. We gays are good at that, you know.
The former Georgian Hotel on Ocean Drive, now the restored Betsy Ross Hotel.
Then, Jack's Gift Emporium...
Now.... chain joint Wings...
More retro meets present...
And on to hotel row on Collins Avenue and Ocean Drive...
