A sparse crowd of spring break visitors are strolling Ocean Drive as the curfew went into effect across the city as police presence was seen at most of the intersections of Collins Avenue on Thursday, March 25, 2021.
The final call to some South Beach clubs will come soon hours earlier after the Miami Beach Commission decided on Wednesday to limit early morning alcohol sales in the city’s entertainment district as part of a seven-month pilot program that city officials are using to reduce the impact Politics can investigate crimes.
Commissioners also voted unanimously to include a citywide voter referendum in the November vote that would make the temporary restrictions permanent, although a binding vote cannot take place until July.
Despite the protests from club owners – and the recent failure of a 2017 voter referendum to curb alcohol sales on Ocean Drive – the current citywide final 10pm on May 22nd May 22nd for businesses on Ocean Drive will reset to 2am and Collins Avenues from 5th through 16th streets.
The change, which only affects businesses in this particular area, will take effect just days before the commemorative weekend weekend in the city.
Mayor Dan Gelber initially proposed a permanent rollback at 2 a.m. and set it up as a tool to reduce partying and crime in South Beach. But he softened his stance and agreed to support a proposal by Commissioner Micky Steinberg for a temporary restriction that would allow city officials to investigate how the previous shutdown affected police calls in the area and possible crowds in adjacent areas Neighborhoods.
“It’s an opportunity for them to really understand the problem on a higher level,” Steinberg said.
Commissioners Mark Samuelian and Steven Meiner voted on the restriction together with Steinberg and Gelber.
But representatives of the bars that will be affected by the rollback said an earlier final call would not work. And now a lawsuit from at least one affected company – Clevelander South Beach – is imminent, said attorney Alexander Tachmes.
“We’re definitely suing,” Tachmes told the Miami Herald. “What they did … is illegal, and it’s a really bad policy too.”
Critics of the new law – including three commissioners who voted against – note that Miami Beach essentially had a midnight lockdown on alcohol sales for much of the past calendar year due to the COVID-19 curfew, including during a chaotic spring break that prompted the proposed Rollback.
“It sounds like the pilot is a bridge to an election,” said Commissioner Michael Góngora, who voted against the restriction but in favor of the referendum. “I don’t support a pilot without a purpose. I support hearing from the voters again in November. “
David Wallack, the owner of Mango’s Tropical Cafe on Ocean Drive, said his business was not responsible for the parties that break out on the streets of South Beach. He said he would meet with the Clevelander’s attorney to “learn how to do it properly.”
“It will go to court,” he said. “A judge will decide.”
Mango’s, which reopened in April after closing early in the COVID pandemic, could lose millions of dollars if it loses three hours of alcohol sales, Wallack said.
“We’re going to lose mega-millions,” he said. “We need to revise our business plan to comply with the law.”
The rollback is part of a 12-point plan proposed by Gelber after a controversial spring break to break up the block of bars in South Beach and turn the district into a “live work-play” area with boutique offices and new residential buildings to convert.
The city said the rollback would affect 44 companies currently allowed to sell alcohol until 5 a.m.
The commission also voted on Wednesday to remove a noise exemption from Ninth through Eleventh Streets, restrict future stand-alone bars in the district, and remove parking requirements for new housing developments in the district to encourage investment.
The Clevelander’s promised lawsuit, which is located on 10th Street and Ocean Drive, will include a noise control challenge, Tachmes said. The company has a conditional use permit from the city that allows live outdoor entertainment until 5 a.m., and Tachmes said the legislation wrongly violates its long-guaranteed rights.
Gelber said the zoning changes that created the entertainment district in the 1980s weren’t responsible for the growth in residential communities in and around the neighborhood. Even before the pandemic and the spring break, the conditions in South Beach had become more restless.
“The pandemic may have uncovered more fault lines in the area, but it’s pretty clear that over the past few decades this area has become an area where anything is possible,” he told reporters after the vote.
Ahead of Wednesday’s vote, Gelber said critics had sent him messages describing him as “cancer”, threatened to sue the city and promised to run a candidate against him in November’s mayors’ race.
“I know this issue is very emotional,” he said on Wednesday.
Martin Vassolo reports on Miami Beach politics and government for the Miami Herald. He started working for the Herald in January 2018 after attending the University of Florida where he served as editor-in-chief of The Independent Florida Alligator. He previously worked as a general reporter at the Herald’s subway counter and as an intern in political reporting.
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