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| The Belvedere |
It’s been eight
years since I was last on Fire Island and it seems to be experiencing a simultaneous renaissance and decline.
The Belvedere,
the wedding cake of a hotel where I usually stay, has a fresh coat of paint and
eye-popping new carpeting but, a block away, a showcase house near the beach
seems abandoned and in need of serious maintenance.
The Ice Palace
has gone upscale with video displays and a new dj booth, and there’s a newly
rebuilt Pavilion (which was destroyed in a recent fire) in the Pines. But The
Tides (formerly the Bay Leaf) sits empty, as does Sunsets on the Bay.
Promoter Daniel
Naridicio has made headlines by bringing big-name entertainers such as Liza
Minelli and Carol Channing to the Ice Palace on the weekend but, during the
week, crowds empty out of the bar as soon as the show is over.
What is the
message to be drawn here?
It’s ironic that
the growing acceptance of gay people in society at large has caused the
simultaneous decline of once exclusively gay places such as Fire Island and gay
neighborhoods such as the West Village and Chelsea. The feeling now is that gay
people don’t need those places anymore, but I would argue that they need them
now more than ever, especially in a world where everything is increasingly
homogenized.
I’ve heard
reports during my most recent trip to Fire Island that the local police have
been handing out tickets to people caught having sex in the infamous “meat
rack” between the Pines and Cherry Grove. What could possibly be the motive for
this? Are they attempting to make these communities “family friendly,” much the
way the Giuliani administration did with Times Square in New York City? Isn’t
it enough that there are already “family friendly” communities on Fire Island,
such as Ocean Beach?
Some would argue
(especially those older than I) that Fire Island peaked in the ’70s, before
AIDS decimated an entire generation of gay men.
Being alive these
days is like counting the rings inside a tree. You know how old someone is by
how many places they can name that used to be something else. Before the Tides was
the Bay Leaf, it was the Monster. (And before that, those older than I will
recall, the Sandpiper.)
The restaurant
that sits in the center of town in Cherry Grove used to be Michael’s before it
burned down.
That other
restaurant near the ocean used to be Rachel’s.
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| The new Pavilion |
Who among the
twenty-somethings now spending their first summer on Fire Island remembers (or cares) what
the old Pavilion looked like?
This kind of
change happens all the time in New York City but, for some reason, I find it
more jarring on Fire Island.
I was devastated
to learn that the first room I stayed in at the Belvedere (the Seasons) was
recently cut in half to make room for a fire escape. Or that the pool was moved
(and seems smaller).
Walking down the
beach, I saw one house in the Pines that had its deck destroyed (probably in a
recent hurricane) and another that had all the sand washed out from beneath its
foundation.
On the other
hand, I’m happy to report that my worst fears have not been realized and the
Belvedere has not been turned into a Marriott (and it’s still, thankfully,
all-male).
Fire Island will
always have its natural beauty (I hope), but there are other things that may be
even more fragile and cannot be replaced.
I will always
remember my first time staying at the Belvedere. I was returning to the hotel
at the end of a sensually overstimulating couple of days and, after climbing
the spiral staircase to the second floor, noticed that the door to the room
next to mine was slightly ajar and there was a full moon shining through the
window.
Let’s just say
that the vision shining through that window wasn’t the only full moon I saw
that night.
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