Through the creation and connection of gayborhoods, the opening of mega nightlife venues, and reinvestment in the Art Deco hotels of yore, South Beach came back to life. Neglected and downtrodden by the late 1980s, the former crown jewel of Miami was somewhere nobody dared to go nobody except the gay community, that is. Following a mid-20th century heyday, South Beach had lost its luster and fallen into disrepair.
