After rainy weekend, sun shines for quiet beach reopening in Broward County
For more than two months, the beach was off-limits for Hollywood residents Amelia Colonna, her 9-year-old son Christopher, and her 11-year-old daughter Sophia — as it was for all residents of Broward County to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
On Tuesday morning, with residents allowed back on the sand and in the water for the first time, the family returned to Hollywood Beach. Christopher waded into the water on a boogie board as his mom and sister stood on the shore.
“I feel like I’m back home,” Colonna said. “It’s beautiful. It’s freeing.”
The beach was anything but crowded, even as the sun shone following a Memorial Day weekend where storms had caused flash flooding. In Hollywood, as well as further north in Fort Lauderdale, only a smattering of people occupied the reopened sand. Police officers and security guards stood watch at a distance.
The uneventful start was likely a relief for local politicians in Broward, who have seen beaches reopen to huge crowds in other parts of Florida, including Naples and Daytona Beach. At a press conference in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday, local officials stressed that although law enforcement will be watching for violators of the county’s rules — which allow swimming and exercising but prohibit sitting and the use of umbrellas — residents will largely be asked to police themselves.
“The success of these efforts relies squarely on the shoulders of the community,” Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said. “We are going to hope that the people understand the importance of protecting themselves and protecting others.”
Still, if people aren’t responsible, said Broward County Mayor Dale Holness, they could be fined up to $15,000 or even arrested.
“We don’t want to go to the extreme, but we must ensure that we’re protecting the health and well-being of the people of Broward County,” he said.
After the 11 a.m. press conference Tuesday along the Fort Lauderdale beach at Las Olas Boulevard, a brief rain shower around noon scattered most of the remaining beach goers, thinning the crowd even further. Around 3 p.m., the rain came down in torrents.
Broward County brass decided that Tuesday was the right moment to reopen beaches in the face of mounting pressure from the county’s coastal cities, where officials said their residents were itching to return.
Hotels and commercial gyms were also allowed to reopen Tuesday in Broward.
Miami-Dade County will wait until June 1 to reopen beaches and hotels and has yet to make an announcement on commercial gyms.
Some hotels open, others wait
Hotels in Broward County were allowed to reopen Tuesday to guests other than essential workers and other high-need groups defined in the county’s emergency orders.
The Snooze Hotel, a 19-bedroom, oceanfront boutique with a rooftop terrace in Fort Lauderdale, has for 50 days been hosting a woman from New York who was displaced and couldn’t return home, according to the hotel’s general manager, Matt Denson.
But on Tuesday, Denson welcomed additional guests for the first time since March. The hotel is now about 70% occupied, Denson said, mostly with local visitors who are staying three or four nights as “a nice economical way to enjoy the oceanfront.”
A few potential guests have pushed back on a requirement to wear masks in all common areas, which is included in the county’s emergency order. Denson has stood firm, he said.
A message from Denson greets guests in their rooms: “For your safety, the safety of my team, and the safety of other guests we require that you wear a mask at the office and on our second floor terrace when other guests are around,” it reads. “Please be considerate and protect each other from this deadly virus.”
“Guest safety is far more important than anything else,” Denson said.
Not all hotels are ready to take the next step. At the Ritz-Carlton in Fort Lauderdale, a sign on the ground-floor windows Tuesday said hotel operations were still “temporarily suspended.” An employee at the hotel said she wasn’t sure when they will reopen.
The Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort, a hotel staple along the Broadwalk in Hollywood, plans to reopen June 1, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Gyms, a source of controversy, start to reopen
After Broward County and the city of Fort Lauderdale issued dueling executive orders regarding commercial gyms, Fort Lauderdale backed down last week and gave way to the county, ordering gyms to close again.
But on Friday, the county’s executive order letting beaches and hotels reopen added provisions for commercial gyms and fitness centers to open Tuesday, too, at 50% capacity and with requirements for members to wear masks when they’re not mid-workout.
Holness, the Broward mayor, alluded to the controversy during his press conference Tuesday, saying that although he “might not always see things the same way” as municipal leaders, “we’re still always working together.”
But he didn’t directly answer a question about why the county changed its tune on commercial gyms, and why they’re safe to reopen. Some studies point to a relatively high risk of spreading COVID-19 in enclosed spaces where people are exercising vigorously.
“I don’t know that anything reopened is safe,” Holness said. “We put the precautions in place. If you don’t take the precautions, it’s not gonna be safe.”
Trantalis, the Fort Lauderdale mayor, said the city relied on guidance from gym owners and the medical community in creating its rules for reopened gyms.
“No one knows for certain what the outcome of these restrictions will be,” he said.
Some larger gym chains, including LA Fitness in Fort Lauderdale, remained closed Tuesday. But other, smaller facilities reopened in the city, including Riptide CrossFit, which operates out of a one-story warehouse at Southwest Seventh Street and First Avenue.
The facility’s owner, Santiago Callejas, said Tuesday afternoon that he held two classes in the morning and planned to hold two more in the evening, limiting the number of participants to seven instead of the usual 15 to maintain at least six feet between them.
“We just want to make sure that the first week we do this, our coaches, our staff get the flow of how it’s going, and just allow people to settle into the new routine, the new protocols,” Callejas said.
He said the gym has kept afloat over the past couple months by coaching clients virtually.
“Now, we’re excited to be back again,” he said.
Not every city in Broward is on board yet. Joy Cooper, the mayor of Hallandale Beach, said Tuesday the city is asking gym owners to share their proposed safety protocols before they’ll be allowed to open.
“We’re being a little more proactive on our gyms,” she said.
This story was originally published May 26, 2020 at 3:21 PM.
