Affluent and unhampered by children – or so the myth goes – LGBTQ+ city-dwellers have long been at the vanguard of transforming rundown neighborhoods. They call them Gayborhoods. And no Gayborhood in America has been more talked about than Wilton Manors, Florida and it’s famous Wilton Drive. Wilton is actually a 14,000 resident city surrounded by Fort Lauderdale and Broward County. Wilton, once upon a time was rundown. In the 50’s and 60’s it was filled with cheap housing trailer parks. Today its hard to find property under seven figures. But the real draw to Wilton is it’s LGBTQ+ business corridor on Wilton Drive full of gay bars and nightclubs, galleries, restaurants, shopping and more. Like South Beach, the Castro, the west village before it… Wilton Manors may be seeing signs of Gentrification. Many call it GAY-trification. How does affordability change neighborhoods and even entire communities? While we concentrate on housing costs it actually may be business rent that is far more telling of the coming change to Wilton Manors. One example is the 2200 Block of Wilton Drive. It happened over the weekend as the beloved LGBTQ+ activist Claudia Castillo moved her long time art studio to new retail space at The Gables. When asked about why the move from such a longtime address, she said “My lease was coming to an end this Spring and the Rent at my long term location was going to more than double.” Castillo, an active member of the Wilton gay business community, said that many business owners are talking about significant rent increases since the pandemic. This block of Wilton Drive includes many well known LGBTQ+ names including Eagle Bar, Too The Moon Novelty and Candy store, True Blue Clothing, Restaurants like Myth Gastrobar, New York Grilled Cheese and Sushi Song, South Florida Symphony Orchestra and Castelli Real Estate. A bar owner at a recent city meeting tried to expand an outdoor area and nixed the plans not because of city rules but rather the rent would be dramatically increased because of a lease change. Is the Castillo Gallery move a warning of what is happening in Wilton Manors? Could significant rent increases have dramatic effects on what the LGBTQ+ embracing city represents? While Queer News Tonight has been focusing on all the new development underway it seems that we must watch closely what happens to our longtime business community interests. After all, what happens now could represent a Gayborhood and city that could be vastly different in the future.
#LGBTQ+ Civil Rights