Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Gentrification Rolls On
Tracking the boom-and-bust cycle of the South Florida real-estate market can give you
whiplash. For much of the beginning of the 21st century, Miamians couldn't build condos
fast enough. Then, from 2008-11, the bubble burst in the form of enormous swathes of
foreclosures and vacant housing. Now, South Florida has re-entered boom phase, and
Miami is growing condos like glass-and-concrete weeds. Brickell in particular is becoming
positively Hong Kong-esque with its proliferation of high rise and neon.
Something sets this particular boom cycle a little apart, though. The development,
which is happening at a formerly unimagined pace in areas such as Midtown, is not as
overwhelmingly driven by the champagne dreams of the jet-set tourists who reshaped so
much of South Beach. Rather, this development falls along the lines of traditional (but
hyper-fast) gentrification. The ones behind it are often middle-class kids who grew up in
the suburbs of Greater Miami and want the bright lights of the big city.
As a result, many of the new hotspots of Midtown, Downtown and N Biscayne Blvd
have been created by Miami locals and marketed to Miami locals. That's not to say tourists
aren't welcome; the crowds here are happy if folks visit from Miami Beach. But they can
do without them as well. The flip side of this equation is the Miami locals leading the
gentrification movement are middle class. Other Miami locals - the poor and working
class - are being displaced from areas now colonized by the arts-and-urban-amenities
crowd.
