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I grew up in Miami and Miami Beach since the 80s. Miami Beach, and Ocean Drive have never been what you described. When I lived there fights, shootings, and prostitution was quite flagrant on Ocean. Before being redeveloped into million dollar condos, SoFi was a ghetto.

Spring Break is fairly new to the area. Prior to that the college students would hit Daytona, Panama City, or Key West. And long before that Fort Lauderdale was the Spring Break destination (showing my age).

The traditional family-owned restaurants started being driven out in 2014, to be replaced by new investor backed concepts because the rent was too high. Joe's Stone Crabs owns it spot and isn't going anywhere, I can't say the same for the restaurants around it. AirBnB didn't cause restaurants to close, speculators did.

Finally, it is the season of the snowbird. Every beach is packed with foreign tourists staying in their vacation homes on 6 month visas. When June arrives they'll leave, they always do.

Also, prior to this spring break there was only a few reasons to go to Ocean, Spring Break, Memorial Day, and Fourth of July. Now, city council and local organizations have planned street festivals basically every weekend between here and eternity.

All to say that very little of what's going on on Ocean Dr has anything to do with AirBnB.

First of all the 80s were close to 40 years ago. How about the period 2000-2010? What did change after 2010 that wasn't there before? Miami Beach was always a touristy place. Spring Break and Memorial Day were always rowdy affairs.

And when I talked about shop/restaurants closing I emphasized their replacements. It's one thing for restaurants to close in Miami Beach (happens every year). It's quite another for same restaurant to close and be replaced by a kebab or pizza place. Entire streets that were lined with upscale shops have been turned into cash extraction mechanisms for unsophisticated, drunken passers by. What does that tell you about the character of the neighborhood?

Today's SOBE bears little resemblance to SOBE of the pre-Airbnb past.

The carnival like open air entertainment district on ocean drive.

It certainly was a factor. As was "black beach week" [1]. The Clevelander and Mango's were there in 2010 however, as was urban day weekend (as it was called then) long before Airbnb came to town. The situation started to rapidly decline after Airbnb enabled masses of low-class, unruly crowds to come to town and party, every day of the week. Every weekend of the year is a carnival-like orgy of debauchery now.

[1] http://www.blackbeachweek.com/urbanbeachweek1.html

> change after 2010 that wasn't there before

Miami real estate was especially hit hard after the financial crisis of 2008. Rich investors, American, European, and South American, were snapping up South Beach properties for pennies on the dollar and reselling them for tidy profits. I lived in an apartment in Flamingo Park that was almost 50% absentee European owners. The trendy European neighbors you were referring to upthread are the same ones renting through AirBnB while they are back home. Even though it was against the condo bylaws (long before code enforcement cracked down) they did it anyway.

> It's quite another for same restaurant to close and be replaced by a kebab or pizza place.

Because when you are on a month to month lease, which speculators love to do before razing everything before building condos <cough>Wynwood</cough>, you tend to get cheap popup places that can move in and out quickly. A pizza place just needs cheap tables and an oven. Decor and kitchen workstation planning isn't a consideration.

> Today's SOBE bears little resemblance to SOBE of the pre-Airbnb past.

I agree but not for the reasons you think. 80s South Beach was geriatric, 90s South Beach was club grungie, giving way to 00s gay/artsy South Beach, to gentrification through the 10s, until here we are today. It's trendy but tourist trendy.

Locals have already moved on to Surfside and Hollywood. Cleaner lest crowded beaches.

> Here is a story about Miami Beach:

> I moved there 9 years ago and have spent the last 8 years > living on Ocean Drive in South Beach.

Hello neighbor! Interesting connection - I never linked the two together but it's certainly possible.

The story of Miami Beach the last 5 years is so true and so sad.

> When I first moved there the neighborhood was full of high-class tourists, a lot of Europeans. ... By 2014, a lot of restaurants and shops had closed down, to be replaced by 5 dollar souvenir shops (surf style!), kebab and pizza places. ... The ghetto criminal element is numerous and ever present.

Your idea is that AirBnb provided cheaper lodging that made South Beach open to people outside of the European tourists that the hotels were targeting?

Exactly. Entire blocks of stacked, brick-like units are being rented out dirt-cheap through Airbnb and of course attract the clientele one would expect.

South Florida literally invented Spring Break destination travel so I'd hardly blame Airbnb for this. The street racing and machismo culture has been there as long as I can remember (easily back through the 90s) and its the locals doing that.

I'd blame Winter Music Conference and the constant stream of other huge party events as much as anything.

I've been living here for 9 years now, I think I'm in great position to see what's going on. I don't buy your argument for many reasons, most of which I mentioned in my original post. The low-class, ghetto criminal element has nothing to do with Winter Music Conference or South Beach culture. If you go through the links I included in my original post and look at some videos, it'll quickly become apparent.

These people have been enabled by dirt cheap Airbnb prices. Traditional hotels have higher prices but also enforce codes of behavior that tend to limit if not outright ban the incidents I described. Simply, you can't get away with behaving like that in a hotel. You have to keep up appearances. Even in a party town like Miami Beach. Not to mention there's competition for the rooms with regular tourists. Airbnb allows a gang of 20 ppl to rent a single room and come here to wreak havoc.

> These people have been enabled by dirt cheap Airbnb prices.

Also, look at sites such as Hotel Tonight. Personally seen < 50 a night rooms.

Yes the idea that its something unique to Airbnb is a myth. Miami Beach is dominated by hotels and they have strong anti-Airbnb messaging. Meanwhile their hotels dominate the skyline and take up all of the beachfront property. Some of the hotels will act like the beach is private if you don't rent their beach chairs which is of course not true.

The hotel industry distortion field is probably stronger in Miami Beach than almost anywhere because so much money depends on it.

I also don't believe that most the Airbnb rentals on Miami Beach are particularly cheap. The one nearby that I know of charges many thousands per night as its a mansion.