Beach streets to be named for Jimmy Buffett, Gloria Estefan

Miami Beach is set to name 13th Street after Gloria Estefan and 12th Street after Naomi Wilzig, the city commission voted last week.

City officials unanimously accepted the recommendation of the Public Safety and Neighborhood Quality of Life Committee to co-name 13th Street between Ocean Drive and Meridian Avenue as Gloria Estefan Way. The commission also passed a separate item accepting the recommendation from the committee to co-name 12th Street between Ocean Drive and Washington Avenue as Naomi Wilzig Way.

In September 2023, the Miami Beach Commission for Women recommended the city co-designate streets to honor women who have impacted the city’s history and culture, says the commission memo. The Commission for Women recommended “Naomi Wilzig, American erotic art collector and the founder and director of the World Erotic Art Museum in Miami Beach,” as a candidate.

The Commission for Women also recommended Gloria Estefan, a Cuban-American artist, long-time Miami Beach resident and Grammy award-winning singer.

Songs such as “Conga” and “Anything for You” when Gloria Estefan was the lead singer of Miami Sound Machine propelled her career forward during the 1980s.

“Everybody knows who Gloria Estefan is, and that’s just who we named the street after, but not everybody knows who Naomi Wilzig” is, said Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez. “If you’ve ever seen the World Erotic Art Museum on Washington Avenue – if you’ve never visited I encourage you to go once and take a walk through – it really is a tremendous collection of erotica memorabilia, she was a tremendous woman and ahead of her time… her husband survived Auschwitz. She’s not just representative of our community because of her world erotica museum, but also she was an advocate for Holocaust survivors and very generous with our community.”

In October 2023, the commission referred to the committee two items to co-name the streets along with any amendment to the city code “which may be required to accomplish the co-naming.”

Ms. Rosen Gonzalez said the commission has protected against too much naming pollution.

“The reason that we’re doing this is because when we drove around the city of Miami Beach, there was only one street named after a woman, [Art Deco District restoration pioneer] Barbara Capitman,” said Ms. Rosen Gonzalez, “and that’s unacceptable because … we’re 50% of the population. As we drive around the streets of Miami Beach, we need to set the example that not only did prominent men build this city, but so did women. We’re just trying to equalize things.”

In February 2024, the committee recommended an amendment to the city code “to create the criteria for the co-naming of a city street in honor of a notable woman who made lasting and significant contributions to the Miami Beach community through arts and culture.” City officials passed in second reading in last week’s meeting for streets to be co-named in honor of notable women who have impacted the city’s civic, cultural, or political history.

The next steps to co-name the streets would be for the proposed co-naming to be sponsored by a county commissioner and approved by the county commission via a resolution.