The Ten Year City

There's a very old and very cool lady who lives here named Ruth Shack.  She used to be a County Commissioner, and I met her when her foundation was on the same floor as my first law job -- at the Southeast Center.  She recently said that Miami is a new city every 10 years.  She's dead on.

Yesterday I was at the office, helping move some cases along so that there might be a few shekels for Paul and me before the end of the year.  Stuart's boy Val had his last day as the office boy, and as Val is a gourmand, Stuart wanted to take him for a gourmet lunch.  I had a 2:30 appointment at the aforementioned Southeast building, so Stu, Val, Vince, and I walked across the Brickell Bridge to a restaurant at the JW Marriott -- DB Moderne.

Val is 14 and I don't think had ever made the walk before.  He's a classic Aventura kid -- his life is essentially his gated community and the enormous mall.  He's a great kid -- typical "been there, done that, bought the T shirt" teen -- and I could detect a tad of wonder as we reached the zenith of the bridge, and we pointed out the port and Miami Circle -- ancient site of Indian trading, currently covered by grass but with plans to make it an exhibit.

Lunch was great -- and the Downtown area was filled with out of towners, including a group of very well dressed African men -- speaking, I think, Swahili.  There was also a smattering of US accents -- NY, and Midwestern, as well as the typical South American visitors.

D1 had decided my face was far too blackhead marked for decent wedding pictures, and urged me to get a facial at her place, by her facialist Betsey.  So after lunch I walked to the two blocks, and met her.  She and her husband are French.  Almost comically so -- their accents reminded me of Peter Sellers playing Inspector Clousseau.  Turns out the husband was a war reporter, who decided to open a salon, and Betsey was a PhD in medicine.  She came here to work on the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, but after she got pregnant 6 years ago, decided to train in facials to help the family business.  She was delightful -- and in an hour, took years off my life -- including a rather painful removal of ear hair...But hey -- the pictures await...

I left the salon and walked back to my office.  The Brickell drawbridge went up, and so I took some photos of the tall buildings.  That's when it hit me -- the city has changed enormously in the nearly 4 decades I've been here.

The streets were crammed -- with young people, many with dogs.  They spoke mostly English.  It was like being in Manhattan -- though much hotter, especially in August.  But the breeze off the Bay of Biscayne was lovely, and again, the view as you walk across the bridge is breathtaking.

NYC is probably the best city in the world -- at least among the cities of the world I've visited.  But I love living here -- and plan to, forever.

I went back to the office, and Val was finishing up.  He succeeded in cleaning out a LOT of detritus -- we can finally walk in the file room again -- the stack of boxes is gone.

Stuart, Val, and I cleared out another space together -- the liquor cabinet.  There were small, colorful bottles of spirits from Ecuador and Peru -- gifts to Paul and me from thankful clients.  I gave them to Val as room decorations -- he promised to not share the spirits with his friends until he was 21...

I drove home, and fetched Wifey -- after telling her she was looking fetching...we went to Titanic next to UM -- I wanted to see Nil Lara -- a local musician who went to UM a few years after I did.  I used to dig his music at the now demolished Tobacco Road.  We had a late (for us) dinner, and waited for the 9 pm show.  A nice crowd was there.

At 930, the band was just beginning to set up.  Wifey and I left -- sleep sounded better than the music.  She drove us home.

I went to sleep thinking of tall buildings -- buildings not in my city years ago.  We change.  The city changes.  It's a much more complete place than it was.  I hope that's true of us, too.