South Beach clubs spend big to defeat 2 a.m. booze ban in citywide referendum
Some of Miami Beach’s biggest nightclubs are spending big money opposing a referendum that proposes to restrict alcohol sales past 2 a.m. across the city.
Mango’s Tropical Cafe and the companies that own the Clevelander hotel and Twist nightclub have, so far, spent a combined total of $275,000 funding a campaign to convince residents to vote against a ballot question in the Nov. 2 election asking if alcohol sales should stop at 2 a.m. citywide instead of at 5 a.m.
The referendum — pushed by Mayor Dan Gelber and his allies on the City Commission as a way to tame the disorder in South Beach — is a non-binding straw ballot question. It asks voters if they would support changing the 5 a.m. closing time to 2 a.m. throughout the city “with specific locations and related restrictions and exceptions, to be determined” by the City Commission.
The anti-2 a.m. campaign is being organized by the political committee Citizens for a Safe Miami Beach, which has so far spent over $100,000 in advertising, consulting and calling voters directly. The group also organized a campaign event Wednesday at Mango’s with Miami Beach seniors, busing elderly voters from their apartments and giving them free food, drinks and a show — with a political speech by owner David Wallack as its finale.
The PAC filed its campaign contributions and expenditures with the city of Miami Beach this week, which cover campaign activities between Sept. 1 and Oct. 1. The group relaunched last month after running a similar campaign — with almost identical yard signs — in 2017 opposing a binding referendum that would have banned alcohol sales after 2 a.m. from Fifth to 15th Street on Ocean Drive, except for the “indoor portions of alcoholic beverage establishments that are completely enclosed and located entirely within hotels.”
Voters rejected the 2017 referendum with 65% of them opposing the 2 a.m. rollback.
“Having to go through this again, for the very livelihood of my staff at Mango’s Tropical Cafe, is a great deal of stress and a great deal of work,” Wallack said in an interview.
The political committee argues in its campaign mailers that the 2 a.m. ban would take a chunk out of the city’s tax revenues, force parties into residential neighborhoods and lead to worker layoffs.
“A late night alcohol ban isn’t a real solution to reduce crime,” one mailer reads.
The group has an unclear leadership structure. Its past chairwoman, Ocean Drive Association leader Ceci Velasco, stepped down and handed the title to an elections lawyer in Tallahassee.
After Wednesday’s event, Wallack said he did not know who paid to ferry seniors to his club, where they enjoyed complimentary food and drink. He also wouldn’t say how involved Mango’s was in the political committee, other than being a financial contributor.
“I don’t know that stuff,” he said. “I just do what I have to do.”
Supporters of a 2 a.m. rollback, like Gelber and former Mayor Philip Levine, have also made their pitch to voters in direct emails and mailed fliers. The 5 a.m. business model, they argue, drives the disorder and crime that has frustrated residents and tarnished the city’s brand through unflattering news coverage that often gets transmitted across the world.
While not a “silver bullet,” a 2 a.m. rollback would help the city change its “anything goes” perception, Gelber argues. He said the city has already tried enhancing its policing to fix the problem, but with a new batch of thousands of tourists coming every day with the impression that South Beach is their playground, he said the city needs to send a message that it is no longer a late-night party town.
“It’s not like we haven’t tried anything,” he said in an interview. “We’ve created an armed encampment in our city and it still doesn’t change the dynamic.”
Wallack, whose late-night club has contributed $150,000 to the anti-2 a.m. campaign, said rolling back alcohol sales won’t curb crime and will unfairly punish businesses for what he called the city’s own public safety failures in mismanaging the area.
Over the summer, when the city commission imposed a temporary 2 a.m. rollback in the entertainment district, Wallack took videos showing party crowds dancing and celebrating in the streets even after he closed his club for the night. A judge ruled the restriction to be unlawful after another Ocean Drive mainstay, the Clevelander hotel, sued to challenge the law.
“I got to be out here every night and saw that what is going on in the street, and the havoc going on in the street, has absolutely nothing to do with our businesses,” Wallack said.
This story was originally published October 8, 2021 at 6:16 PM.
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