Miami Seashore residents and lodge workers will quickly be heard on the proposal to ban alcohol at 2 a.m.

Miami Beach commissioners attempted to change the city’s final call for alcohol from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m. earlier this year in the so-called entertainment district, spearheaded by Mayor Dan Gelber. However, efforts failed, despite four commissioners voting in favor after the Clevelander was sued on Ocean Drive and a judge from the Miami-Dade Circuit stood on the hotel’s side.

District Judge Beatrice Butchko ruled that the vote was illegal as it was presented as a general ordinance that required a majority vote. Instead, it should have been presented as an amendment to land development regulations. That requires the support of five commissioners.

Now the city is calling on Miami Beach residents to vote on it in this year’s election.

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People who work in Miami Beach say that if they ban alcohol after 2 a.m., they will lose money and so will the city

“Fight crime, save jobs, vote no!” shouted dozen of hospitality workers who gathered outside Miami Beach City Hall on October 13.

“We’re not the problem,” said Mario Trejo, a longtime bartender at Twist. “We’re helping to create safe havens so that they have places to go and not just walk around the streets.”

Trejo said revenue is sizeable between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. and a change in the last call time would prevent people from even getting to South Beach.

David Wallack, owner of Mango’s on Ocean Drive, said over a megaphone that commissioners want venues like his to close the deal “not to improve Miami Beach but to create a real estate land grab for developers.”

“Now they want to harm our tourism industry by harming all of us who provide entertainment and partying in our city and shut the music and go dark,” Wallack said.

While some in Miami Beach heard their voices loud, others say that with all the tensions surrounding tourists, city guides forgot about residents.

Susan Chapelle says she will vote yes for the 2am cutoff. Chapelle moved to Miami Beach about 20 years ago, shortly after September 11, 2001, and plans to sell her apartment. She says there’s nothing left for her in South Beach.

“It was nice to be able to walk down Ocean Drive or Lincoln Road and there were little mom and pop shops,” said Chapelle.

The city, which is heavily reliant on tourism income, needs to work to attract a wider variety of tourists, she said, so that the city’s attraction isn’t just about drinking alcohol into the morning. She says the atmosphere is not welcoming to people who live in Miami Beach.

“Let families come here,” said Chapelle. “Have tourists who want to see Vizcaya, who want to see Coral Castle, who want to see the Everglades. Who want to see something other than drinking at 5am on Ocean Drive.”

The referendum is a non-binding straw poll. Four years ago in 2017, a similar proposal to ban alcohol sales after 2 a.m. was rejected by 65% ​​of residents.