Pickleball! Miniature golf! Miami Beach tries to attract more sedate visitors. Will it work? | Editorial

Pickleball courts are exploding on Miami Beach. Mini-golf is coming to Ocean Drive for the first time.

Take that, Spring Breakers!

Or at least that’s what we imagine Miami Beach leaders are saying under their breath as they try to attract more subdued, family-oriented visitors. At this point, we can’t blame them.

Enter pickleball

Last month, Spring Break crowds on South Beach led the city to impose an emergency curfew in the area after five people were wounded in shootings on Ocean Drive. Similar chaos broke out last year, and two years before that.

Enter pickleball and miniature golf and concerts headlined by more adult pop artists like Alanis Morissette and Jon Batiste.

We suspect the city is sending a subtle message. Will it be heard? We hope so. Many residents, on Miami Beach and on the mainland, have grown weary of the annual battle between Miami Beach leaders and their police department vs. unruly spring breakers.

Next year, when Spring Breakers Google “what to do in Miami Beach,” pickleball and miniature golf may be included, not just bar and club hopping by the Atlantic Ocean.

The pickleball court expansion is due to residents’ demand for the game, which combines elements of tennis, badminton and ping-pong. The city’s parks department is increasing the number of tennis courts suited for pickleball, once mainly a staple at retirement communities.

“Pickleball is growing in popularity on the Beach as it is everywhere in the country,” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber told the Editorial Board.

Still, it is for an older, exercise-conscious crowd.

And miniature golf, a once famed but forgotten roadside attraction in tourist areas, is also making a comeback. Take note that both sports are distinctively suburban, middle class and white, not necessarily college-age kids.

Sedate visitors

”The idea of mini-golf on a small swath of Lummus Park is a little out of the box, but let’s see if it attracts a more family-oriented crowd,” said Gelber, who is strongly on the record trying to end the annual assault by unruly Spring Breakers on his city.

Commissioner Steven Meiner, who sponsored the mini-golf proposal, said he hopes the project will curb crime in South Beach.

The plan is to build an 18-hole outdoor mini-golf course on Ocean Drive between Fifth and Seventh streets at the edges of Lummus Park.

A private company will foot the bill to construct and course; players pay to tackle the course, whose holes pay homage to Art Deco architecture and the ocean.

”I actually view this as a public safety item because the more we have positive activity in that area the less problems and crime we see,” Meiner said from the dais.

Like Fort Lauderdale did more than decade ago, Miami Beach wants to end its reign as a college kid’s favorite destination during Spring Break.

We agree: Hosting throngs of young people is just not worth the trouble or expense anymore.

This story was originally published April 16, 2022 at 5:30 AM.