My hometown regularly gets written up in travel magazines, especially this time of year. It's usually amusing to see what travel writers choose to emphasize.
Here's one with a particularly odd and sexist leed: Coral Gables – The Hidden Gem of Miami
South Beach might be the party girl that you stay out with until the sun comes up, but its neighbor Coral Gables is much more like the girl-next-door. A bit more quiet and reserved, yet classy and upscale with substance and style, while showing off its classic beauty.
How should one anthropomorphize Coral Gables? Some kind of (sub)urban professional who likes a good time, but in moderation?
[Comments re-opened]
That’s a hard one. The city has many great qualities, but it goes overboard on the ‘yuppie’ factor and does everything it can to keep the ‘po people’ out which I’ve always found to be hypocritical considering how much the city touts diversity. I’d compare it to the successful businessman/small time philanthropist happy to pose for pictures when the cameras are present, but when no one is looking they’re just as likely to spit on a homeless man who asks for help. To outsiders an attractive life, nice family and well liked, but to the neighbors an arrogant rich person who doesn’t really know what it’s like to work for a living.
It’s almost like a macro version of what you see in many South and Central American communities. The big expensive house where the rich live, surrounded by walls, with people living in slum-like conditions outside those walls.
As a former University of Miami Law student, I agree that Coral Gables is a nice suberb of Miami and certainly a fun place for college students to go out on Thursday nights, but anyone who is telling visitors to hang out in Coral Gables over South Beach probably is writing his piece from a location anywhere other than Florida.