‘Peacefully off the street.’ Curfew set for spring break in South Beach this week
Miami Beach commissioners voted to approve a midnight to 6 a.m. curfew in South Beach, starting Thursday and ending Monday morning, to manage spring break crowds after two shootings on Ocean Drive over the weekend.
They also asked City Manager Alina Hudak, at a meeting Tuesday, to set an earlier deadline for the sale of alcohol at liquor stores and other retailers in the South Beach entertainment district. The current cutoff for bottle sales is 8 p.m.
The commission did not specify what time they would want to stop alcohol sales and left that decision up to Hudak, who said she would support further restrictions but did not specify a set time.
Hudak said she would sign an emergency declaration Wednesday, allowing her to order the curfew under local laws. The curfew zone stretches from 23rd Street to South Pointe Park, from the Atlantic Ocean to Biscayne Bay.
After midnight Thursday, police will begin clearing crowds from Ocean Drive, then Collins and Washington avenues, followed by the rest of the designated area. Visitors will be given “every opportunity” to go to their cars or hotel rooms, Police Chief Richard Clements said.
“Our goal is to get people peacefully off the street in an orderly manner,” he said.
Miami Beach will not shut down or close the major causeways accessing the island city, but Hudak said visitors should carry proof of residency or hotel stay in the city. Traffic may be backed up in the area due to the curfew, she said.
Last spring break, when the city imposed an 8 p.m. curfew, Miami Beach residents complained of long delays getting home from the city of Miami. That curfew was announced a few hours before it took effect and led to a clash between police and Ocean Drive crowds, with police firing pepper-spray balls at the revelers after curfew.
“Our residents may feel the impact of some of this,” Hudak said.
Clements said drivers would not be turned away from South Beach. Police will focus on crowds in the streets, he said.
City says crowds out of control
City leaders said despite months of planning and the mobilization of hundreds of police officers, it seemed nothing more could be done to prevent further violence other than shut the party down.
Along with the two back-to-back shootings that injured 5 people over the weekend, there have also been multiple reports of guns being fired, officials said.
“It’s literally by the grace of God that we haven’t had a tragedy in our city,” Commissioner Steven Meiner said. “I can’t think of a more fitting public safety emergency than this one.”
Commissioners said they felt sorry for late-night businesses in the area that make a lot of their revenue in March, and they raised the possibility that business owners could sue them over the curfew. Hudak said restaurants would be allowed to make deliveries after midnight during the curfew period.
Mayor Dan Gelber said no matter how difficult the curfew would be to businesses, the city could not balance public safety with concerns about revenue.
“Five people getting shot could have easily been five people getting killed,” he said.
Hudak, who has the authority to impose a curfew for 72 hours, needed commission approval to extend the curfew an extra day to go through Monday morning.
She had previously said she would request extending it an additional weekend but she did not propose that to the commission Tuesday.
Meiner suggested that Hudak provide the commission with a list of all the possible emergency actions she could take if the situation in South Beach does not improve. The 8 p.m. curfew last year worked to thin out crowds, he said.
“Hopefully it doesn’t get worse and we wont have to consider anything further,” he said.
Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, who floated the idea of paying businesses in the city to close next spring break, said the city should be communicating a positive message to the world despite the turmoil in South Beach. The rest of the city has had a “lovely” spring break and the local economy is “booming,” she said.
“While we have a small area where we are having some issues, and those are very grave issues,” she said, “I don’t think the message we want to send to the world is that all of Miami Beach is dangerous, because that’s not true.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 2:43 PM.
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