Stepping up its aggressive push for a quieter spring break, Miami Beach announced a three-day curfew starting Friday, citing large crowds expected on the weekend, which is often the height of the season.
The curfew will remain in effect from midnight to six a.m. daily until Monday, the town’s mayor, Alina T. Hudak, announced on Friday morning. It will only apply to South Beach, the a part of the town that’s hottest amongst tourists and revelers.
“We did not make this decision lightly, but it should not come as a surprise,” Ms. Hudak said within the statement. “We have been very clear about our intention to protect the public from the dangerous chaos that has accompanied spring break crowds in recent years.”
The sale of alcoholic beverages “for off-premise consumption” – read: on the road – will even be prohibited after 6 p.m. on every day of the curfew.
How to handle spring break has change into the dominant query for Miami Beach leaders since rowdy crowds began flocking to the town every March after the coronavirus pandemic hit. Some of the town’s tactics have drawn accusations of over-policing and racism, in addition to civil rights lawsuits. This is the fourth straight yr that Miami Beach has implemented an emergency spring break curfew.
Mayor Steven Meiner and a few of the commissioners — elected in November on a law-and-order platform — debuted a digital ad campaign last month saying the town was “saying goodbye to spring break.” They introduced a slew of measures for last and next weekend, traditionally the busiest of the season, which included the usage of license plate readers, restricting access to the beach, closing public parking lots and banning sidewalk cafes on popular Ocean Drive.
As a result, there have been fewer crowds on the streets of South Beach last weekend.
But this weekend is St. Patrick’s Day – one other opportunity to party – and the town says it’s already beginning to look more crowded. City officials decided to be more proactive than up to now two years, when curfews were announced only after the Ocean Drive shootings.
“We did not implement the curfew in response to a specific incident,” Melissa Berthier, a city spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We have made it very clear and consistent in our marketing materials and direct communications that there will likely be a curfew during spring break.”
Even before Friday’s curfew announcement, some business owners he said they were sufferingwith declining sales on account of fewer viewers.
In October, the town sent businesses a letter that included provisions approved by commissioners that might allow the town manager to declare a state of emergency during spring break and impose emergency measures, including a curfew, if essential. Last April, the town announced a 2024 curfew almost a yr upfront, though commissioners later backed away from that concept and opted to impose a curfew if essential.
Some residents welcomed the crackdown on revelers.
“When it gets so noisy that no one can have a good time, that’s when there’s a problem,” said Marilyn Freundlich, a resident of South Beach’s Sunset Harbor neighborhood.
But Jared Galbut, co-founder and CEO of Bodega, a taqueria with a location in South Beach, he wrote on Friday that the town could have given advance notice of this weekend’s curfew.
The announcement of the choice on Friday, after corporations had finalized their schedules and planned entertainment, “shows a lack of caution in making these decisions,” he wrote. “Last weekend, the right medications were administered, there was a strong police force, businesses were open and there were no problems.”
Alain Delaquérière contributed to research.
