New York Loves/Hates Miami

Mid-beach and South Beach ranked five and six, respectively in a recent New York Times travel piece touting 53 places to visit in 2008.
The writer lavished: "Move over South Beach. The iconic Eden Roc Resort and Fontainebleau Miami Beach — faded glitterati hangouts designed by Morris Lapidus — will reopen in 2008 after multimillion-dollar renovations, returning Mid-Beach to its former glory."
The next day, a New York magazine writer posted her tepid review of an Art Basel fair to take an easy but naive dig at Miami. "Her works were some of the few about sex — there was almost no nudity or politics; a lot of art was about looks and surface. Then again, it was Miami." (Psst, New York. Away from the flashy neon totems to greed and appearance, you'll find a bounty of ugliness and substance on many Miami city street corners.)

--Janine Zeitlin