Monday, October 20, 2008

Progress... yeah right.



Dude, where's the beach? A sliver of light marks the public's right of way to the beach.

The Foutainbleau and Eden Roc Hotels are competing again; side by side punch-listing their respective multi-million dollar renovations, which include additional 600 hotel rooms to add to the resort town pillow tax glut. There was a time when these places were fabulous autonomous entities. Today they are mostly uninviting glorified condo barriers to the sea shore.



Back in the moist old days, when the land grab took hold, swamp salesmen were swamped with buyers. Northerns with visions of a tropical playground for the nouvelle rich were lured to the land of sunshine with a new contraption called air-conditioning. The hook was land speculation and Bunny Yeager girls.



Looking North at Collins and 41 Street before the Fountainbleau Hotel and the Boat Show.
Flagler and Fisher rested on the seventh day... after laying the tracks, trashing the sanctuary by leveling the mangrove and unleashing dredging rigs on the bay to back-fill the barrier island.




Was South Point over-built back then, not really. But today it most definitely is; over-the-top and very avoidable.

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2 comments:

  1. I like this a lot - thanks for the perspective. It really gives a picture of how jammed everything is on the beach.

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  2. you are right, 100%. But this is what they call progress and growth. NYC used to be a beautiful island that, because of its location and port, became the cement jungle it is today. There was a time when there was no such thing as central park. then the built it to appease the public. Soon Miami and the surrounding areas will look like NYC with all this growth and our beaches will be gray and garbage strewn.

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