Miami Beach voters said “yes” to a 2 am alcohol ban on Tuesday and approved a non-binding referendum that served as the focal point of a debate over whether the city has outgrown its world-famous entertainment district.
A majority of voters supported the poll question, which asked if the city should withdraw its last call on alcohol at 5 a.m.
City commissioners, who temporarily restricted early morning alcohol sales in South Beach last summer before a judge blocked the new law, put the referendum on the ballot to judge residents’ support for a 2am withdrawal. The successful referendum went back just four years after voters rejected a similar proposal in 2017 to ban alcohol sales at 2 a.m. on Ocean Drive.
Mayor Dan Gelber, who campaigned for re-election and the 2 a.m. referendum in parallel, declared victory in both efforts shortly before 8 p.m. on Tuesday.
“This is what our residents want,” Gelber told reporters while he was surrounded by supporters and his family at a campaign party at The Carlyle Hotel.
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber hits a cake that says “Third Time is the Charm!” With a hammer and was honored with his Swedish favorite fish sweets filled. Emily MIchot [email protected]
Gelber said he expected city officials to work out laws to codify the referendum. He also expects his colleagues on the commission to support any measure to restrict alcohol sales after 2 a.m. after seeing a majority of voters support such a move.
The referendum provided for possible exceptions that the Commission would have to determine. Gelber said he was open to allowing larger hotels with their own security and indoor queues to serve alcohol until 5 a.m.
Gelber said a 2am rollback would be the first step in repositioning South Beach’s entertainment district as “living, working, playing” with new homes, offices and cultural spaces. The “party-night-party” atmosphere in South Beach, he said, adds to the crime and disorder in the area.
Critics of the 2am proposal argued that it would cost the city millions in tax revenue and do nothing to stop the crime in South Beach. The club owners in South Beach invested $ 675,000 in a campaign to end the referendum. They organized protests in town hall with hotel workers, filled mailboxes with campaign flyers, and paid to contact voters directly by phone to get voters to oppose the referendum.
Mango’s Tropical Cafe and the Clevelander hotel’s parent company, the Jesta Group, each donated $ 325,000 to citizens for a Safe Miami Beach political committee that was organizing against the referendum.
“Today’s non-binding straw poll was an attempt to mislead leaders who failed to contain the growing problems of crime in Miami Beach,” said Citizens for a Safe Miami Beach, the political committee that campaigned against the election question , in a statement Tuesday night. The committee promised to reject “solutions that do nothing to solve the crime, but will cost 4,100 local workers their jobs, raise property taxes and cut tens of millions of dollars from city revenues.”
A Pro-2 am Political Committee raised nearly $ 100,000.
The controversial debate over the 2am proposal became more intense in recent weeks as hospitality workers cut short a press conference Gelber and his supporters held to ask voters to vote for the referendum. The protesters were stimulated in part by the release of an audio recording of a meeting between Gelber, former Mayor Philip Levine, and real estate developers in September, at which Levine discussed the formation of a political committee to fund candidates for a commission that would bring Gelber’s vision for one newly developed south support beach. During the private meeting – attended by the city manager – Gelber asked the assembled builders for their ideas for redesigning the area and pledged his support for building incentives or other proposals approved by the city employees.
Critics of the push to revamp the Miami Beach party scene cited the audio recording as evidence that the effort to kill South Beach’s nightlife was not about crime, but about money. Gelber said he did nothing wrong and criticized the opposing campaign for misleading voters and “throwing a lot of mud” in their campaign ads.
“Our residents saw through it,” said Gelber on Tuesday evening.
Holocaust memorial and other voting issues
The nightly drinking referendum wasn’t the only electoral question asked of Miami Beach voters.
Voters overwhelmingly voted for a referendum to expand the city’s Holocaust memorial and extend its lease for another 21 years. The vote proposed that the memorial, operated by the Greater Miami Jewish Federation on the city property, be expanded to include a new 7,000-square-foot learning center to be built in a city parking lot south of the property.
The referendum required 60% support. She received around 80% of the vote.
According to the referendum, the learning center is to be built with private funds. The new lease would expire in 2120.
More than 80% of voters also voted to extend the city’s lease to Smith and Wollensky restaurant, which operates in South Pointe Park. The extension takes place for a further 20 years in return for an increased annual rent, certain “community benefits” and a new parking regulation that allows more public parking spaces.
According to the city, the restaurant operator has leased the parking area since around 1997. The new lease would expire in 2045, with an option to extend it for a further 20 years.
The city commission decided to use some of the new rental income for police and security expenses in South Pointe Park and the surrounding South of Fifth neighborhood.
A majority of voters also approved a non-binding straw vote calling on the city commission to urge Florida lawmakers to allow the city to waive a 1% food and drink tax for the homeless and domestic violence.
Miami-Dade County has a 1% homeless and domestic violence tax in most cities, but state law exempts cities that have their own resort taxes, such as Miami Beach. The referendum asked voters whether the commission should ask state lawmakers to allow Miami-Dade to tax the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust’s sales of food and drink for consumption in buildings other than hotels and motels and centers for to finance domestic violence.
This story was originally published November 2, 2021 8:43 pm.
Martin Vassolo reports on the politics and government of Miami Beach 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. Before that, he worked as a general contract reporter at the Herald metro counter and as an intern in political reporting.
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