Your walk continues into Lummus Park, the long green ribbon between Ocean Drive and the Atlantic, and one of the oldest public spaces on Miami Beach. J.N. and J.E. Lummus were among the earliest developers of the southern end of the island, and they donated this strip of oceanfront land to the city in 1912, giving it one of the first public beaches in South Florida. Today it's a wide, palmy promenade where the whole world seems to gather: inline skaters weaving through traffic cones, volleyball players at the nets, personal trainers working clients against the morning glare, tourists photographing each other against the Art Deco backdrop across the street.
The beach itself begins just beyond the dune line — white sand, Atlantic blue, pelicans hunting offshore. In 1992 Hurricane Andrew struck south of here and reminded the region that all of this is precarious. The park has been rebuilt and expanded since then, with new restroom facilities and improved landscaping.
But the essential character — open, democratic, loud, beautiful — is exactly what the Lummus brothers envisioned when they gave it away over a century ago.