Miami Herald

The curfew will close part of South Beach. The rest of Miami Beach will remain open

- BY DAVID J. NEAL dneal@miamiheral­d.com David J. Neal: 305-376-3559, @DavidJNeal

As any Miami Beach resident can tell you (usually through gritted teeth), South Beach is not Miami Beach. And Miami Beach wants folks to know it’s still open and accepting money from visitors, even after the weekend curfew.

Just not from Thursday through Sunday after 8 p.m. in the area covered by the reaction to Spring Break mayhem.

Miami Beach city commission­ers lamented on Sunday’s special commission call that potential visitors would think the curfew closing the “High Impact Zone” — Ocean Drive, Collins Avenue, Washington Avenue and Pennsylvan­ia Avenue from Fifth Street to 16th Street — means Miami Beach as a whole would come to a stop.

Actually, that’s not even true for the whole of South Beach. For one thing, the restaurant­s in the curfew area can still deliver.

Lincoln Road: The restaurant­s and shops of South Beach’s iconic openair mall between 16th

Street and 17th Street and running from Alton Road to Washington Avenue remain open.

North Beach: The cool kids live, eat and beach north of 71st Street these days.

South of Fifth Street: None of the places in the southernmo­st part of Miami Beach are affected by the curfew. If you don’t want to wait for the summer solstice to be seated at Prime 112 or Joe’s Stone Crab, do what locals do — slide over to Prime Italian or Joe’s Take Away.

Sunset Harbour: Over on the bay side of South Beach, this residentia­l area from 17th Street to 20th Street between Alton Road and Biscayne Bay keeps adding restaurant­s you can hit after kayaking or paddleboar­ding. And, if you get towed, it’s a two-block walk, maximum, to either Tremont Towing or Beach Towing.

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