‘What our residents want’: Miami Beach voters pass 2 a.m. alcohol sales referendum
Miami Beach voters said “Yes” to a 2 a.m. booze ban on Tuesday, approving a non-binding referendum that served as a flash point in a debate over whether the city has outgrown its world-famous entertainment district.
A majority of voters supported the ballot question, which asked whether the city should roll back its 5 a.m. last call for alcohol.
City commissioners, who temporarily restricted early-morning alcohol sales in South Beach last summer before a judge blocked the new law, put the referendum on the ballot to gauge resident support for a 2 a.m. rollback. The successful referendum passed just four years after voters in 2017 rejected a similar proposal to ban alcohol sales at 2 a.m. on Ocean Drive.
Mayor Dan Gelber, who ran parallel campaigns for reelection and to pass the 2 a.m. referendum, declared victory in both efforts just before 8 p.m. Tuesday.
“This is what our residents want,” Gelber told reporters while surrounded by supporters and his family at a campaign watch party at The Betsy Hotel.
Gelber said he expects city staff to develop legislation to codify the referendum. He also expects his colleagues on the commission to support any measure to restrict alcohol sales after 2 a.m. after seeing that a majority of voters support such a move.
The referendum envisioned possible exemptions, which the commission would need to determine. Gelber said he would be open to allowing bigger hotels with their own security and indoor queuing to serve booze until 5 a.m.
Gelber said a 2 a.m. rollback would be the first step toward repositioning South Beach’s entertainment district as a “live, work, play” area with new housing, offices and cultural spaces. The “all-night party” atmosphere in South Beach, he said, contributes to the crime and disorder in the area.
Critics of the 2 a.m. proposal argued it would cost the city millions in tax revenue and do nothing to stop the crime in South Beach. South Beach club owners poured $675,000 into a campaign to kill the referendum. They organized protests at City Hall with hospitality workers, stuffed mailboxes with campaign fliers and paid for direct-to-voter telephone outreach to get voters to oppose the referendum.
Mango’s Tropical Cafe and the parent company of the Clevelander hotel, Jesta Group, donated $325,000 each to the Citizens for a Safe Miami Beach political committee organizing against the referendum.
“Today’s non-binding straw poll was an attempt at misdirection by leaders who have failed to stem the growing problems of crime on Miami Beach,” Citizens for a Safe Miami Beach, the political committee that fought against the ballot question, said in a statement Tuesday night. The committee promised to “oppose solutions that do nothing to solve crime, but will cost 4,100 local workers their jobs, increase property taxes, and cut tens of millions of dollars from city revenues.”
A pro-2 a.m. political committee raised just under $100,000.
The contentious debate over the 2 a.m. proposal became more intense in recent weeks, as hospitality workers crashed a press conference Gelber and his supporters held to ask that voters approve the referendum. Protesters were galvanized, in part, by the release of an audio recording from a September meeting between Gelber, former Mayor Philip Levine and real-estate developers in which Levine discussed forming a political committee to bankroll commission candidates who support Gelber’s vision for a redeveloped South Beach. During the private meeting — which was attended by the city manager — Gelber asked gathered developers for their ideas to redevelop the area and pledged his support for building incentives or other proposals that city staff approve.
Critics of the push to overhaul Miami Beach’s party scene cited the audio recording as proof that the effort to kill South Beach’s nightlife isn’t about crime, but money. Gelber said he did nothing wrong, and slammed the opposing campaign for misleading voters and “throwing every amount of mud” in their campaign ads.
“Our residents saw through it,” Gelber said Tuesday night.
Holocaust Memorial and other ballot questions
The referendum over late-night drinking wasn’t the only ballot question put before Miami Beach voters.
Voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum to expand the city’s Holocaust Memorial and extend its lease for 21 additional years. The ballot question proposed to expand the memorial, which is operated on city property by the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, to include a new, 7,000-square-foot learning center to be built on a city parking lot south of the property.
The referendum required 60% support. It received about 80% of the vote.
The learning center would be built with private funding, the referendum says. The new lease would expire in 2120.
More than 80% of voters also approved an extension of the city’s lease with the Smith and Wollensky restaurant, which operates at South Pointe Park. The extension is for an additional 20 years in exchange for increased annual rent, certain “community benefits” and a new parking arrangement to allow for more public parking.
The restaurant operator has leased the park space since about 1997, according to the city. The new lease would expire in 2045, with options to renew for an additional 20 years.
The City Commission voted to dedicate a portion of the new lease revenue toward police and security expenses in South Pointe Park and the surrounding South of Fifth neighborhood.
A majority of voters also approved a non-binding straw ballot asking the City Commission to urge the Florida Legislature to allow the city to enact a 1% food-and-beverage tax for homeless and domestic violence services.
Miami-Dade County collects a 1% Homeless and Domestic Violence Tax in most cities, but state law exempts cities that charge their own resort taxes, like Miami Beach. The referendum asked voters whether the Commission should urge state lawmakers to allow Miami-Dade to tax food and beverage sales, for consumption on premises except at hotels and motels, for the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust and to fund domestic violence centers.
This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 8:43 PM.
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