Bars, restaurants ordered to clear out by 11 p.m. in Miami-Dade as beaches close
In a balancing act meant to both stifle the spread of the new coronavirus while not letting the global pandemic completely capsize their tourism-based economies, the cities of Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale announced sweeping measures on Sunday that will see stretches of their most popular public beaches shut down indefinitely and “non-essential” businesses shuttered by 10 p.m.
Hours after the Beach and Fort Lauderdale announced the changes, Miami-Dade announced a countywide rule that will force bars, restaurants and nightclubs to close at 11 p.m. starting Monday and halve capacity at those businesses and at theaters. Even with a 50 percent reduction, Mayor Carlos Gimenez imposed a cap of 250 patrons at any time. Gimenez said restaurants could remain open for take-out food and deliveries, and he urged proprietors to convert wait staff to drivers to earn extra cash in an economy facing an unprecedented deceleration.
Restricted to his home over fears of possible COVID-19 exposure days earlier, Gimenez made the announcement in a video message that also included a plea for residents to stop hoarding supplies.
“There seems to be panic setting in about food supplies in the long-term,” he said. “Let me stress that the food chain is operating without problems. Pharmacies, food stores and gas stations will remain open. There’s no need to overwhelm those stores.”
Gimenez’s decree on Day Four of an official coronavirus state of emergency did not include stricter measures called for Sunday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC recommended a halt for eight weeks of gatherings larger than 50 people, including weddings, games, concerts and festivals. Shaving operating hours off the hospitality industry also contrasted with far more draconian measures happening elsewhere in the country. In Ohio, the governor ordered all bars and restaurants to close.
Shortly before the release of Gimenez’s video, Miami issued a similar set of rules for businesses inside city limits. The county rule applies to all municipalities and areas outside city limits, but cities can go farther.
The day began with Miami Beach joining Fort Lauderdale in trying to rein in large crowds tied to Spring Break, and reverse widespread indifference to calls across the state for social distancing and avoiding large groups to stop the spread of the highly contagious virus.
Beginning Monday, Miami Beach will enact an 11 p.m. curfew for eleven blocks of South Beach’s Ocean Drive and Washington Avenue, two arteries of the city’s entertainment district that have been inundated by spring breakers in recent weeks.
The city will also shut down the public beaches in South Beach from Fifth through 15th streets — including Lummus Park — and force every bar, restaurant and retailer in the city to close early. It is also urging restaurants, bars and nightclubs to decrease their capacity by 50 percent to create social distancing.
Exempt businesses include grocery stores, pharmacies and medical centers, banks and gas stations. Miami Beach will also shut down city-owned parking garages except those only accessible to residents.
In Miami Beach, the emergency measures will run through at least March 19, but City Manager Jimmy Morales — who invoked his emergency powers on Thursday through a declaration of state of emergency — will ask the City Commission to extend them.
The directives expand the scope of an emergency measure Morales ordered Saturday to close three blocks of beach in South Beach early beginning at 4:30 p.m. On Friday, Morales issued his first emergency order requiring the city’s most popular restaurants and clubs to limit their capacity to under 250 people. Fort Lauderdale has also prohibited gatherings of more than 250 people.
“The status quo with crowds of spring breakers is absolutely unacceptable,” said Miami Beach Commissioner Mark Samuelian in a statement. “Every health expert is telling us we need social distancing — less interaction to reduce transmissions. While I empathize with our businesses and their employees, I fully support the City Manager’s additional emergency measures to enhance public safety.”
The emergency orders in Fort Lauderdale, which began Sunday and includes the closure of public beaches from Harbor Drive through Oakland Park Boulevard and the closure of restaurants and bars at 10 p.m., will last until April 12.
With 36 known cases of coronavirus, Broward County is the largest cluster for the disease in Florida. There are 13 known cases in Miami-Dade County. Of the state’s more than 100 confirmed cases, three patients have died. A fourth Floridian died while in California.
“Our cities — because they typically receive crowds, they embrace gatherings, they have wonderful hospitality industries — we typically want everybody to come here and not practice social distancing,” said Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber at a joint press conference with the mayor of Fort Lauderdale, Dean Trantalis, on Sunday. “But that would be business as usual. And clearly if there is one thing that is happening right now, it can’t be business as usual anymore.”
With colleges and high schools sending their students home, Gelber said South Florida’s allure as a tourist destination has only grown stronger. The confluence of challenges, from coronavirus and spring break, is straining city resources and could potentially make residents and tourists less safe.
“We simply can’t be the place for people to go to,” Gelber said. “We can’t become the Petri dish for a very dangerous virus.”
The emergency measures began as Miami-Dade prepared for its first work week in an economy, social fabric and government drastically changed by the pandemic. Schools are closed. The county’s Parks Department announced Sunday that while parks, golf courses and marinas would remain open, all games, practices and activities were canceled and pools closed. Senior activity centers are also closing Monday as Miami-Dade and providers prepare to deliver thousands of home meals to seniors across the county.
In Miami, City Manager Art Noriega used emergency powers to curtail business hours at entertainment establishments, force such business to cut their capacity by 50 percent, combat price gouging and close down any protest or gatherings in public spaces. Noriega signed the order for the emergency regulations Sunday evening.
“These measures are a direct and prudent step to reduce close person-to-person interactions, which are medically confirmed to be spreading the COVID-19 coronavirus in South Florida,” Noriega said in a statement. “We’re in this together and will prevail if all Miamians make a conscious decision to do their part for the greater good.”
Late-night food and beverage spots will have to cut their capacity by half to allow room for people to keep an appropriate distance from each other, and they’ll have to be closed between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. No business will be allowed to have more than 250 people at one time. Businesses that don’t comply can be shut down. The new rules go into effect Monday night.
Businesses that are excluded from the hours and capacity limits include pharmacies, grocery stores, convenience stores, private offices, banks, hotels, hospitals, medical service providers, medical supply stores, hardware stores, gasoline service stations and automotive supply/repair centers.
Preventing a ‘Petri dish’ of disease
The emergency measures are among the most restrictive actions local governments have taken to stop the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by coronavirus.
The announcement comes the same day Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vasquez ordered a curfew in the U.S. territory and ordered the shuttering of all non-essential businesses there, including restaurants and bars. The governors of Ohio and Illinois also announced Sunday the states would close their bars and dine-in restaurants until further notice.
The mayors of Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale discussed the measures with Gov. Ron DeSantis before announcing them Sunday.
During a press conference in Tallahassee on Sunday, DeSantis said he supported the local efforts to “pull the plug on these big spring break gatherings” but was not convinced that closing restaurants would be feasible. He mentioned cutting capacities in half or enacting social distancing to keep restaurants running.
“To have people congregating in these bars or on these beaches like this I think undercuts the efforts to protect our vulnerable populations,” he said.
MIami Beach Commissioner Ricky Arriola said the city’s emergency orders would set the example for the rest of the state.
“This step is leading other cities that have not been faced with local outbreaks,” Arriola said. “This is probably one of the first cities to do so with without having had a local outbreak.”
“This step is leading other cities that have not been faced with local outbreaks,” said Commissioner Ricky Arriola. “This is probably one of the first cities to do so with without having had a local outbreak.”
And while coronavirus is not nocturnal, and assuredly does not discriminate between those who party in the day time or the night, Arriola said the city is leading other local governments in taking decisive, yet incremental, action to curtail the spread of the disease.
“It’s an attempt to balance,” he said. “We’re clearly taking big steps but also incremental. We are not locking things down, but in any other situation but coronavirus this would have been a very dramatic decision.”
Some major cities across America have yet to put significant restrictions on social life. In New York City, city leaders have called for a closure of non-essential businesses after bars and restaurants remained packed over the weekend. The city has mandated that restaurants operate at half capacity.
Even in King County, Washington — where there are 420 confirmed cases and 37 deaths — the local government has not forced businesses to close.
The City of Hoboken in New Jersey has gone further, making national news Saturday when leaders there announced the city would close down its restaurants, bars and movie theaters, among other businesses, to limit social gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic.
On CNN, Dr. Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, said Sunday that “Hoboken is our model.”
“I think restaurants and bars need to close,” she said, according to the Bergen Record. “I think people cannot congregate not until we have a much better understanding of how widespread this disease is across our country.”
Trantalis declared a state of emergency in Fort Lauderdale on Friday, a day after Miami Beach did.
“The key to fighting coronavirus lies with everyone doing their part,” Trantalis said. “I want to be clear that this is not an overreaction, but a way for us to help stop further cases of COVID-19 in our community.”
Spring break hampers coronavirus efforts
The stress on Miami Beach’s resources brought on by the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by coronavirus, has been compounded by the influx of spring breakers visiting sub-tropical paradises and partying at all hours of the day and night.
Despite evidence of community spread of COVID-19 in Florida, as confirmed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Beach has been saturated with spring breakers in recent days. And with St. Patrick’s Day on Tuesday, city leaders expected this weekend to be one of the busiest of the month.
These college-aged partyers may not care about coronavirus, but they could infect their families or others with underlying medical ailments, Miami Beach leaders have said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised local governments to limit large gatherings of more than 250 people and to practice social distancing in public.
“Let me tell you something, especially to the young people out there: You have a mother, you have a grandmother. Maybe you have a great-grandmother,” he said. “That virus can be extremely deadly to them. The whole concept of a pandemic is to work as a community.”
Gelber said he hopes the emergency measures send a strong message to potential visitors to South Florida.
“The party is over,” he said.
This story was originally published March 15, 2020 at 9:36 PM.
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