Part of being a local entails babysitting out of town visitors staying on South Beach. That can be a drag if you don't actually live on Miami Beach. Especially, if they ask for ideas on what to do besides clubbing on a Saturday night. Your might be tempted to suggest Saturday Art Walk over in Wynwood, but stop short when you realize they're probably going to ask you for a ride. So you keep your mouth shut. After all, they're not that good friends.
Well, starting with tomorrow's monthly Art Walk you can feel free to promote bejesus out of the event, and not fear being on the hook for a ride. The Miami Design Preservation League is sponsoring a new shuttle to ferry South Beach tourists to and fro Wynwood's Saturday Art Walk, and to different stops during the night. But besides getting you out of having to drive friends around, is the ferry a good idea?
The Design District, Midtown & Wynwood (DMW)
Experience Gallery Shuttle costs $20 - a savings of more than $3 for a similar trip
using a taxi, according to taxifarefinder.com. It departs the Art Deco Welcome
Center on South Beach at 4:45 p.m. and has stops at all 3 neighborhoods with at
total of 7 shuttle stops running on rotation. Riders can get on and off
as much as they want. The
shuttle returns to South Beach at 11 p.m.
Conventional wisdom would suggest that any additional option for
transportation is a good thing, especially one that is
cheaper and probably safer than other alternatives. But considering the
nature of the Art Walk scene and recent complaints about the how crowded
it has become, more people might not be so great. The prospect populating Wynwood
with more bodies, many of who probably have even less a clue about the
art that's being shown than those booze hounds that congregate their now
could make it even more of a circus.
Exactly what will result from the new shuttle is not clear but
we'll get our first taste of it at tomorrow's Art Walk. The inaugural shuttle ride will be full of pomp and circumstance with
ribbon cutting ceremony at 5 p.m. and reception at LMNT Gallery from
5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
The DMW Shuttle costs $20 and leaves from the Art Deco Welcome Center at
4:45 p.m. and makes three stops in the Design District, three in
Wynwood, and one in Midtown. For more information call 786-237-7567, for
reservations call 305-763-8026, or visit www.mdpl.org/events/special-events.
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