An ocean view may just not be enough when this building is your neighbor. Photos by staff

The Dilapidation of Deco Drive
Do Some South of Fifth Residents Live in a Slum Neighborhood?

By Lee Molloy

The modest, but cute, condominium on Ocean Drive would make anyone feel at home. 

Under the family photos in the living room is a Wurlitzer piano that Susan Reddish has had since she was a little girl. A collection of hats, including some in antique boxes that belonged to her grandmother, add color and history to the cozy environment. 

It is obviously not some investment property, but a home that represents not only a life already lived, but a portrait of the heart and soul of a person, and her goal to grow old near the sea.

However, due to the downturn in the economy, shady developers and crumbling buildings nearby have halved the value of her home, and she is desperately hanging on to her dream.

“I was 50 years old, and one of my bucket list wishes was to live on the beach,” Reddish told The Lead.

Reddish, a registered nurse of 32 years, works at the recovery room and pain treatment center at the Baptist Hospital in Miami. She explains that when she decided to move to Miami Beach, there were not many places that would accommodate dogs, which is why she was thrilled to ride her bike past a building that she knew allowed canine friends when she saw a “For Sale” sign. “This is where I’m supposed to be,” she said to herself, and moved in during April of 2006.

Looking out from her balcony, the fantastic views across the beach to downtown Miami make the attraction seem obvious. However, in the near distance, the crumbling façade of the hotel to the left and the two dilapidated buildings across the road tell another tale.

“Beirut. I call it Beirut,” she says. “When I moved in, one of the buildings opposite was habitated, the other was fenced and painted. I was told that this one next door [The Hotel Simone] was going to be demolished,” she said. 

The Hotel Simone was never demolished, however, and the fences surrounding another crumbling building across the road eventually caved in, leaving the abandoned building a target for graffiti artists. Soon, another building on the block was also declared uninhabitable, making it an attractive destination for uninvited guests.

Local celebrity runner Robert “The Raven” Kraft, whose unbroken daily running regime on the sands of Miami Beach has spanned more than 35 years, lives in the immediate neighborhood.

“Some homeless people try to get in the building [next door] in the middle of the night,” he says. “And a lot of cats live in the one on the corner.” Raven, who owns his home outright in the South of Fifth neighborhood, doesn’t intend on moving, or see the urgency to see a resolution. “To me it doesn’t matter, I’m fine the way it is,” he says. “I just wish they would fix them up and make them look nice.” 

However, as Raven pointed out, dozens of feral cats live one of the abandoned buildings, along with possum and raccoons, which create a stench of feces. The steps of the building have also become a meeting point for vagrants.

“I have the lifestyle of the Beach but I am living next door to unsafe, rat and cat-infested, vagrant-infested, unsanitary, and structurally-unsafe buildings,” Reddish said. “Why is it acceptable to the Miami Beach bureaucracy to have this in such a beautiful area?” 

The dilapidated Hotel Simone, along with the other abandoned buildings, were originally designated as ‘historically significant’ upon the establishment of the Ocean Beach Historic District in 1996. The designation means the buildings can’t just be demolished. 

Community activist and resident of the blighted neighborhood Frank Del Vecchio believes the city dropped the ball back in 2001, when he asked the Historic Preservation Board (HPB) to enforce the rules that would have compelled the developers to shore up and protect the Hotel Simone’s façade while they still had the money to do so.

“The HPB bungled it,” Del Vecchio told The Lead. “They didn’t act when they should have in 2001.” Now he believes it is too late, and in his opinion “there is no longer any historic value,” he says.

The current chair of the HPB, Jeff Donnelly, explained some of the criteria for a building to be designated “historic.”

“Among [the designations] works of a recognized architect, the exemplifying of a style that is significant to its time, and high quality in terms of architecture,” he says. It is also important that “the building really is a part of a historic record of a particular time and a particular community.”

Donnelly was unable to comment on the specifics of The Hotel Simone because it is an open item before the HPB, but he did say that within the Ocean Beach Historic District, “there are both contributing buildings and non-contributing buildings” to the historic record, which may leave some wiggle room.

“We are aware of the interests and needs of the neighbors of the Simone and will make every attempt, and have a desire, to come to a satisfactory resolution,” Donnelly told The Lead.  

Reddish, however, is sure about what she wants. “In my dreams, I would like to see the building next door to me demolished,” she said. “I would love to see that turn into a victory garden. … To take a little piece of land and make a community garden — It would cost nothing.”

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