Desire and Felicity shamble down the scorching sidewalk, sodden makeup smearing sullen faces. They’re looking for the telltale sign from a driver rumbling through midafternoon traffic on Biscayne Boulevard: prolonged eye contact and a chin nod. Or maybe the reliable standby: “Excuse me, miss, but I need directions.” Both women are black, and both claim to be twentysomething, though it’s difficult to see faces behind the impassive mask of the professional sex worker.
The effects of a condo boom just a few miles south in downtown, which includes 12,000 units and more than a half-billion dollars in city-approved condo and retail construction, has sown the seeds of change along Biscayne Boulevard in Miami’s Upper Eastside — long Miami’s Skid Row. From tasteful tapas bars such as Mosaiques (at 70th Street) to brie-on-a-baguette sandwicheries like Uva 69 (at 69th), more than a dozen cafés and restaurants have opened in the area since 2003 — and at least six have survived.