Shades of New York in Miami Beach

I lived for a short while in the Village, in New York. It was nice, a lot of fun, except for a few things. One of the things that bothered me the most (and any resident, I guess)  was the frequent movie, TV and photo productions taking place in the area, which caused major disruption to daily living.

You see, the theory is that being the site of photo shoots, TV or movies is good for the image of city, brings tourists and money. Nice theory, except that given that most movies these days have tons of crime, blood, crazy people, vampires, mosters and death, I have no idea of what type of tourist is being drawn to these cities. Maybe that guy from Colorado...

That is just a detail. The nastiness of it all is that whole sections of the city were often blocked for days on end. You could no go through a "production" area, not only by car, but also walking. Exceptions were made if you lived in the block.

What bothered me was the truculence of the people who worked in the productions. They behaved as if they had just bought the block and you, the taxpayer, were trespassing it.

If you see a motorhome parked anywhere in Miami Beach beware. Do not even think of parking near it. It is likely to belong to one of the several hundred (dare I say thousands) of photo, TV and film productions that use the city as backdrop. Some of them bogus, by the way.

I can't believe I will say this, but I actually miss the truculent production people in New York, because at least they warned,  in very certain terms, what was going on.

It seems that anything dealing with parking in Miami Beach is shady.

There was such a production with motorhome and  all, nearby at the beach parking lot at 75th street. However, you had to guess it was a production and that you could not park near the bloody thing. No sign, no truculent guy (or gal, for that matter), or MB's finest.

However, they were quick to tow my car. Makes me wonder if the absence of  notice was intentional.

The "production" cost me almost 300 bucks! I wonder how many tourists it will bring the city, at the end of the day.

So follow my advice. Stay as far away as possible from motorhomes parked in public parking lots. Or else, you might be the next sucker to fall for the ever hungrier MB parking money machine.