lower ocean drive
Unlike its better-known neighbor — Ocean Drive between 5th and 15th Streets — Ocean Drive below 5th Street is an eclectic neighborhood that did not gain historic status (as part of the Ocean Beach Historic District) until some fifteen years after the Art Deco Historic District just to the north. Still, these five blocks are home to twenty Art Deco gems, although they tend to be overshadowed by the presence of a half-dozen condominium structures from the 1960s and some newly constructed buildings. Because it is part of the emerging area of South Beach known as "SoFi" (for South of Fifth), lower Ocean Drive is threatened by developers who want to cash in and erect structures that are out of place in what is primarily a low-rise neighborhood. A half dozen vacant lots are scattered along the west side of the street, beckoning developers to build out-of-scale luxury housing. Happily, Miami Beach has strict (though some would say, and ODPA agrees, not strict enough) historic preservation laws that, with a few exceptions, have kept this neighborhood a part of South Beach with its own uniquely funky character. Come with us, then, for a tour of our neighborhood. We start at perhaps the busiest intersection in South Beach — 5th Street and Ocean Drive — where on weekends, tens of thousands of cars turn north onto Ocean Drive to "cruise." We, however, are headed south.
begin: 400 block of ocean drive