Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 29, 1990 TAG: 9004290212
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUGLAS PARDUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MIAMI BEACH LENGTH: Medium
The changes are as obvious as the expansive beach across Ocean Drive, the Cardoza itself and the people strolling by.
Just a few years ago, beach erosion almost put Ocean Drive into its namesake, and the Cardoza was just one of many run-down beachfront hotels from Miami Beach's art deco past.
Today, after $65 million in dredging, the beach is wide enough to play the Super Bowl, and the Cardoza is the glitzy centerpiece of an art-deco revivial.
The Cardoza is a place to dine in elegance, or sit back in the afternoon, sip cafe con leche (coffee with milk), munch on date-nut bread, a house specialty, and gawk at the street scene.
Elderly retirees, sitting on benches, are still there enjoying the subtropical warmth, but they have been joined by young people on roller skates, romantic couples walking hand-in-hand, street artists and occasional movie stars.
Several new modeling agencies have opened, and outdoor fashion shoots occur constantly in the art-deco district. It's not unusual to dine next to a model who is posing for an ad photographer. Hollywood has rediscovered the beach, using it for several movies. "Cocoon II," "Scarface" and "Absence of Malice" are a few of them.
Ocean Drive between Fifth and 15th streets is the heart of Miami Beach's transformation into a resort city with something more than sand and water.
The city discovered its future in its architecture. It boasts "the largest concentration of art deco and Mediterranean revival architecture in the world." In 1981 much of Miami Beach was designated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as the nation's first 20th Century Historic District.
Since that designation, renovation has restored many of the old buildings and sparked a cultural explosion.
Miami Beach is no longer just a place to sunbathe or swim; it has become an entertainment,art and cultural center.
Bruce Singer, a city commissioner and president of the chamber of commerce, says the city has grown from a strip of beach hotels into a "beautiful, vibrant, exciting city" with an international flair.
Miami Beach is home for numerous cultural organizations such as the South Florida Arts Center, Bass Museum of Art, the New World Symphony, Miami City Ballet, the Colony Theatre and the Jackie Gleason Theater of Performing Arts.
In the last two years alone, Singer says 30 restaurants and nightclubs have opened.
But the art deco glitz is just a veneer in many places. Tourists still need to be careful where they venture.
Singer readily admits that Miami Beach has only just begun recovering from nearly two decades of bad times.
In the late '60s and '70s, the beach lost out to Caribbean islands and other resorts for the fun and sun set. Its tourist industry was further undermined when it became a Mecca for the elderly retirees. Even now many of the older buildings in the Art Deco district are apartments for retired people.
The buildings, their covered porches lined with elderly folks sitting in chairs, have suffered over the years from lack of care.
By the late '70s, the elderly were joined by the poor, many of them Caribbean immigrants, and crime soon followed.
By the early 1980s Miami Beach's resort reputation had disappeared with its beaches.
Since then, Singer says, the city has fought back, restoring the beaches and gaining recognition for its unique architecture.
The decay for which Miami Beach had become known is fast disappearing, Singer says, and the new flashy veneer is being backed with solid development and renovation.
by CNB