Commissioners take first step to tame South Beach. They want ‘law and order.’
Four months after Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber introduced a series of proposals to reform South Beach’s entertainment hub, the City Commission held its first vote on the items Friday, tentatively approving stricter penalties for sidewalk cafe operators that flout city laws and additional noise restrictions on Ocean Drive.
Commissioners, who said the rowdy atmosphere in parts of South Beach fosters disorderly and dangerous behavior, disagreed on how best to shake off the area’s party-hard reputation but spoke with urgency about quickly regaining control of the entertainment district, which spans Collins Avenue and Ocean Drive from Fifth to 16th streets.
“I just think there’s too much bad behavior and crime in the area,” Gelber said after Friday’s special commission meeting. “It’s just not working.”
The board gave preliminary approval Friday to a proposal that would restrict loud music beginning at 2 a.m. at popular Ocean Drive businesses like Mango’s Tropical Cafe and the Clevelander South Beach Hotel and Bar, which have long been exempt from the citywide noise ordinance because they are located between Ninth and 11th streets. Commissioners also voted to more harshly punish sidewalk cafe operators who violate city laws prohibiting the hawking, or verbally soliciting of customers on the public right of way.
Under the new law, the city would be able to suspend a violator’s permit for 24 hours and limit their business hours until the operator submits a plan to correct the violations. Both items require a second favorable vote during the Jan. 13 commission meeting to become laws.
The proposals are part of a wide-ranging legislative package Gelber introduced in July, which aims to both address quality-of-life concerns in the area and spur investment. He also sponsored a zoning change to allow multi-story additions and a 25-foot height increase for buildings on Collins Avenue and a proposal that would require South Beach businesses to apply for a conditional-use permit in order to host live entertainment. Those items won’t be heard until January at the earliest. One of his more controversial ideas, to create an alcohol control board and restrict alcohol sales in the district after midnight, is no longer on the table.
But Gelber has not ruled out proposing other alcohol restrictions.
Some commissioners argued that the proposals they voted on Friday won’t “fix” the entertainment district and they called for tougher or more visible policing to deter dangerous behavior. With all of Miami-Dade County under a midnight curfew due to COVID-19, the 2 a.m. noise restrictions won’t accomplish anything for a while, they said.
Commissioner Ricky Arriola, who voted against the noise restriction, said the problematic behavior in South Beach has not stopped during the pandemic despite business closures and curfews. A man was fatally stabbed well past curfew, at 2:30 a.m., on Nov. 21 near Seventh Street and Collins Avenue. Two days later, residents and city leaders expressed outrage over a video posted to social media reportedly showing a group jumping on a decoy police cruiser.
“We would be misleading the public to think this would cure the problem,” Arriola said.
Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Clements told the commission Friday that he had imposed a new enforcement plan for the district.
For the next two months, officers from across the department will be reassigned to focus on South Beach. The new detail is the second staffing change police have made to address complaints from residents and commissioners. In September, Clements doubled the number of officers deployed to the district per day.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, the city’s code enforcement officers cracked down on sidewalk cafe scofflaws, issuing 18 violations, according to Miami Beach blogger Susan Askew. On Friday, City Manager Jimmy Morales issued an order revoking the permit of the restaurant Il Giardino for the remainder of the year, marking the first revocation of a sidewalk cafe permit since the commission passed a new code of conduct last year, a city spokeswoman said.
Commissioner David Richardson, who also voted against the noise restriction, said public policy alone cannot fix the enforcement issue in South Beach.
“We need to have law and order and public safety,” he said.
This story was originally published December 4, 2020 at 5:39 PM.
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