A Memorial Day curfew? Miami Beach mayor floats idea after county says it’s lifting curfew
After spring break crowds overwhelmed Miami Beach last month, the city is preparing for another tourist wave during Memorial Day Weekend by considering a series of events and, if the mayor gets his way, another curfew.
The plan, which has not yet been finalized, would include the annual Hyundai Air & Sea Show military demonstration in South Beach and at least one public concert, according to a city memo.
Mayor Dan Gelber said he also wants the city commission to consider a COVID-related curfew ahead of the May 31 holiday — even though Miami-Dade County is lifting its midnight curfew April 12.
“I’m supportive of a curfew because I think we need to act before Memorial Day, not in the midst of it,” Gelber told the Miami Herald. He later added: “Obviously, COVID isn’t over by any stretch and it’s a little disconcerting that people seem to think it is.”
He said he plans to ask the commission to consider a holiday curfew because he anticipates that large crowds will again descend on South Beach next month like they did during spring break. Notably, the county curfew will expire right as spring break ends.
But as it currently stands, Gelber does not have the support of the city manager, who gives the commission recommendations prior to votes. He assuredly won’t have unanimous support from the seven-member commission either, after Commissioner Ricky Arriola said there was no reason to impose a new curfew.
“There’s no justification for” it, Arriola said. “The county mayor said it herself.”
Interim City Manager Raul Aguila, who on Wednesday said he would recommend a holiday curfew if the county lifted its curfew, reversed himself Monday and said he would not recommend a curfew for Memorial Day Weekend.
He said he would have “reservations” imposing a new COVID-related curfew after hearing publicly from Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and her public health advisor. At Monday’s press conference, Levine Cava said declining hospitalizations and deaths and an escalating vaccine effort assured her the curfew could be lifted. It was first imposed in July, nine months ago.
Aguila, Miami Beach’s former city attorney, also cited an active lawsuit against the city and Miami-Dade filed by Lincoln Road nightclub Mr. Jones, alleging the county curfew violates an executive order by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“[I]f the County is no longer requiring the curfew as a health and safety measure, then I have reservations with recommending that the City adopt a curfew,” Aguila wrote in a text message. He said if the commission directed him to impose a new curfew, he would.
Memorial Day concert will cost city $255,000
Whatever the City Commission decides, the holiday plan will be a balancing act for city leaders navigating persistent coronavirus concerns and plans to celebrate Memorial Day with annual events like the Air & Sea Show. Not to mention the crowd-control difficulties the city faced over spring break, which resurfaced years-old policy debates about the role city-funded events play in spreading out big crowds during busy weekends.
Memorial Day Weekend, also known as Urban Beach Week, has traditionally attracted crowds of largely Black visitors to Miami Beach for loosely affiliated hip-hop concerts and parties.
Just like during spring break, the city treats Memorial Day Weekend as a “high-impact” period, flooding the South Beach entertainment district with extra police. This year, rowdy spring break crowds — along with the bouts of violence and vandalism that followed — led Aguila to impose an 8 p.m. curfew during weekends in the South Beach entertainment district.
After scrapping plans to fund a $1 million spring break festival due to COVID-19 fears, the city will cover $305,000 in permit fees and public services for the Air & Sea Show and pay $255,000 to hold an evening concert at Pride Park near the Miami Beach Convention Center.
The city has the option to fund a separate $250,000 concert and fireworks display organized by the Air & Sea Show that would otherwise be canceled due to a lack of sponsors, Aguila wrote in a memo Thursday. The Air & Sea Show, which has been held in South Beach since 2017, was canceled last year due to COVID.
The plan, which Aguila said includes enhanced policing and code enforcement, will be presented to the City Commission on April 21.
“I’m also curious to see how the crowds, if they are the spring break crowds that we saw, will react and coexist with the programming,” Aguila said at a community meeting Wednesday.
Gelber said he was not thrilled with the idea of having an evening concert that would draw a crowd because public health experts still recommend social distancing to reduce the spread of COVID.
He said he’ll be interested to see data showing what kind of impact spring break crowds had on COVID infections. In the meantime, he would like to consider a Memorial Day curfew ahead of time, so the city does not resort to a last-minute decision.
“We can’t act in the midst of Memorial Day,” Gelber said. “Rather than hope that it’s just fine, it might just be smarter to hedge our bets.”
Arriola, who has been critical of the city’s COVID restrictions, said he would support the Pride Park concert and consider the request for funding for the additional concert and fireworks display, depending on the details of the proposal.
He said if the outlook of the pandemic improves, the city should look to host more events, including some catering to Black tourists.
“We can always cancel if for some reason this thing reverses on us,” Arriola said of the pandemic. “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”
This story was originally published April 5, 2021 at 6:28 PM.
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