Until now, Coral Gables — unflashy, uncool, a Mediterranean-themed bastion of affluent suburban stolidity — seemed a bulwark against the wave of redevelopment that’s swept through neighboring Miami and Miami Beach, turning derelict areas from South Beach to Brickell and Midtown into dense urban enclaves a-glitter with the young and hip.
Not that anyone in the City Beautiful was complaining. And not that there wasn’t the occasional big new residential and commercial project downtown, or some hot restaurants opening amid the bridal shops, to enliven the worn sidewalks of Miracle Mile, its once-sleepy main street. But wander a couple of blocks off the Mile, especially after office hours, and the Gables still seems more City Quiescent than City Beautiful.
That may be about to change.