Off-the-wall Miami calls to adventurers | Star Tribune: ". . . . Lined with motels designed in modernist style, all acute angles and futuristic accents, MiMo was the city’s gateway from the north in the postwar years when the auto was the main mode of middle-class vacation transportation and the resort economy was booming. It was also the site of the first Playboy Club franchise outside of Chicago. “If you were coming from anywhere on the East Coast, Biscayne was the way to Miami,” said Jeff Donnelly, a retired history teacher and historic preservation enthusiast who leads monthly tours of the area through the MiMo Biscayne Association. After air travel and the siren call of a ritzier beach led the tourist crush away, the area became a red-light district, the vestiges of which have not entirely dissipated. “After Interstate 95 opened up, these family places became no-tell motels and flophouses,” Donnelly said. But several years ago, MiMo was marked by city officials for a good scrubbing and buffing, and the results are beginning to pay off. Chic restaurants like Michy’s and Soyka, where you can lunch on a tasty fruit-and-quinoa salad, are popping up between old neighborhood standbys like Andiamo’s Pizza, located in a former gas station so space-age sleek, you expect Judy Jetson to glide up and take your order..." (read more at link above)
Follow @playaisla Seguir a @playaisla Suivre @playaisla
No comments:
Post a Comment