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The
images
of
half
naked
muscle
boys
on
the
Boulevard
Theater’s
wrap-around
marquee
might
be
the
most
obvious
sign
that
a
significant
gay
community
lives
around
Biscayne
Boulevard’s
Upper
East
Side
Corridor.
But
even
though
the
theater,
now
operating
as
At
the
Boulevard
nightclub,
is
currently
advertising
all-male,
all-nude
entertainment,
a
little
more
than
a
month
ago
it
was
operating
as
“Black
Gold,”
and
featured
female
strippers
for
a
decidedly
straight
male
audience.
The
strip
club,
owned
by
adult
entertainment
impresario
Leroy
Griffith,
seems
to
have
flipped
from
straight
to
gay
and
back
again
more
times
than
a
gay-for-pay
porn
boy.
And
while
there
was
little
ambiguity
at
the
Boulevard’s
audaciously
gay
reopening
Aug.
30,
the
club’s
straight-gay
identity
switch
reflects
part
of
what
is
happening
in
the
fashionable
restaurants
and
funky
boutiques
that
have
emerged
as
the
neighborhood
around
it
continues
to
gentrify.
At
Biscayne
nightspots
like
Michy’s,
Red
Light,
Soyka
and
the
newly
opened
News
Café,
the
tables
are
often
full
of
gay
couples
and
their
straight
friends;
you’re
likely
to
see
straight
people
singing
show
tunes
at
the
nearby
gay
piano
bar,
Magnum
Lounge.
Of
course,
there
are
stories
of
straight
men
hanging
out
in
the
backroom
of
the
Jamboree
Bar,
but
that’s
another
thing
entirely.
“I
love
it
here,”
says
Gerardo
Loret
de
Mola,
a
professional
ballroom
dancer
who
moved
into
the
Upper
East
Side’s
Palm
Bay
neighborhood
in
the
late
90’s.
“I
found
that
here
there’s
a
nice
balance.
Everything
is
not
all-gay
or
all-straight,”
he
says.
“We
all
mesh
well
here.”
As
with
many
places
throughout
south
Florida,
the
line
between
gay
and
straight
worlds
is
fading
fast.
And
nowhere
in
the
city
is
it
more
apparent
than
in
the
burgeoning
scene
in
the
Biscayne’s
Upper
East
Side.
The
metrosexual
mix
is
apparent
at
parties
like
Good
Life,
DJ
Jody
McDonald’s
Sunday
fete
at
the
News
Café.
McDonald
fashions
his
party
along
the
lines
of
an
old-
school
t-dance,
mixing
Donna
Summer
anthems
with
house
music
and
soul.
By
9
pm
the
café’s
court
yard
is
buzzing
with
a
fashionable
mix
of
lesbians,
gay
men
and
straight
people,
most
of
them
locals,
all
of
them
grooving.
“I
like
mixing
it
up,”
McDonald
says.
“It’s
not
about
being
straight
or
gay.”
The
Upper
East
Side
Corridor
is
roughly
defined
as
the
collection
of
enclaves
that
stretch
north
along
Biscayne
Boulevard
from
N.E.
36th
Street
to
just
past
85th
Street.
It
brings
together
new
high
rise
condos
in
the
new
Midtown
development,
with
canopied
tropical
streets
in
Morningside,
and
the
urban
mix
of
Haitian,
Latino
and
Caribbean
pockets
throughout
Palm
Grove
on
the
grittier
west
side
of
the
boulevard.
“Everybody
knows
each
other,”
says
Bob
Powers,
president
of
the
Palm
Grove
Neighborhood
Association
and
among
the
most
frequently
recognized
personalities
at
the
diner.
Palm
Grove
lies
west
of
Biscayne
Blvd.,
between
54th
and
78th
Streets,
and
is
otherwise
known
as
“Little
Haiti.”
Powers
describes
his
neighborhood
as
a
nonstop
“cavalcade
of
characters.”
Biscayne
Boulevard
has
been
plagued
with
prostitution,
drug
dealing,
and
violent
crime
that
has
thrived
in
the
tropical-glam
motels
along
the
corridor.
Powers
and
a
cadre
of
his
gay
neighbors
have
been
on
the
front
lines
of
changing
that
gritty
profile:
they
lobbied
for
their
neighborhood’s
historic
designation,
fought
off
developers,
and
forged
better
ties
with
police
and
politicians.
“Gay
people
provided
the
structure,”
says
Powers,
who
hosts
regular
dinner
parties
at
his
apartment
where
neighborhood
leaders
and
public
officials
meet.
“We
had
the
time
and
the
energy
to
get
things
done.
Without
gay
people
being
here,
the
redevelopment
would
never
have
happened.”
What
made
the
gays
leave
South
Beach?
“It
was
cheap,”
explains
salon
owner
Jack
Spirk,
who
moved
to
a
three-bedroom
1940’s
home
in
Shorecrest
in
2000.
He
moved
with
his
partner
Richard
Hughes
after
living
15
years
in
Forte
Towers
(now
the
Mirador),
the
gay
enclave
of
Miami
Beach’s
gay
90’s.
“As
gay
as
the
beach
was,
the
Upper
East
Side
was
never
known
as
a
gay
neighborhood,”
Spirk
explains.
“You
wouldn’t
say
it’s
gay.
It’s
mixed
-
and
we
fit
right
in.”
The
blend
is
so
good
that
nobody
bats
an
eye
when
larger-than-life
drag
performer
Elaine
Lancaster
runs
out
of
the
Art
Deco
apartment
building
she
bought
on
NE
63
Street.
Lancaster,
who
did
not
want
to
be
identified
by
her
male
name,
was
drawn
to
area
by
the
eye-popping
...
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