Spring Break curfew in Miami Beach to stay, despite South Beach business worries
Miami Beach’s spring break crackdown may have evoked backlash from business owners and inspired late-night TV parodies, but city leaders said Monday that emergency curfew and travel restrictions had made a difference: crowds last weekend were smaller and calmer than in past weeks.
“The curfew has been working,” said Interim City Manager Raul Aguila. “We’ve seen arrests go down, the size of crowds go down and safety restored in South Beach.”
Despite what he called a “quiet and safe” weekend in South Beach, Aguila told the Miami Herald that he will extend the 8 p.m. curfew in the city’s entertainment district for at least another weekend, dashing the hopes of local business owners who thought the curfew would be lifted once the big crowds left and the city restored order.
Aguila has permission from the city commission to keep emergency restrictions in place through April 12, but said he will be easing restrictions on entry to Miami Beach by reopening the MacArthur Causeway on weekend nights. With the Julia Tuttle Causeway already reopened, the Venetian Causeway will be the only other thoroughfare affected by the original closures, Aguila said.
The emergency measures only go into effect Thursday to Sunday evenings.
“I think the curfew, coupled with the causeway closures, [is] having the intended result,” he said.
Aguila said he has community support to continue sending spring breakers back to their hotel rooms shortly after the sun sets. But his decision will disappoint some business owners who have seen their bottom line hit by the curfew.
Thomas Donall, owner of Palace Bar on Ocean Drive, had hoped that with crowds gone, the city would open back up.
“Safety is important, but I think that there’s no reason why not to open this up,” he said. “Everybody knows it’s a lot less people.”
Intermittent violence, crowd stampedes and police altercations led Aguila to first impose the new measures in the middle of the weekend on March 20. Police struggled to disperse crowds during the first two nights of the curfew, but encountered less difficulty this weekend.
Donall, who said spring break always hits its peak in March before dying down, said he expected the city to rescind the curfew after seeing how quiet things had become. After losing “a lot of money” last weekend, he now fears the drawn-out state of emergency in South Beach — and all the negative publicity that has come along with it — is hurting the hospitality industry that the Beach relies on to function.
“The publicity has killed the Beach now because a lot of people are canceling their reservations,” he said. “It was just one weekend that was really bad and now it kind of levels itself out.”
South Beach has been at the center of the media world in recent weeks. International news outlets have broadcast videos of the raucous parties and clashes with police, and TV shows like “Saturday Night Live” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” have openly ridiculed the dynamic playing out between rowdy spring breakers and Miami Beach City Hall.
Mayor Dan Gelber, who was called out by name on “The Late Show,” said he is less worried about the city’s brand than he is about maintaining safety in South Beach. He hesitated to call the curfew a victory because he blamed the city’s own party scene for requiring the use of emergency orders to control crowds.
“We haven’t solved anything, we just stopped the hemorrhaging,” he said. “I don’t worry about the brand if we take action, I do worry about it if we declare victory when there really hasn’t been any.”
Residents rallied outside City Hall on Saturday to protest the city’s handling of the spring break crowds, urging more forceful action to limit the party scene in South Beach.
But Commissioner Mark Samuelian, who said the goal of the emergency orders is to maintain safety, said the city’s crackdown has “sent a message out” that aberrant behavior won’t be tolerated in South
Beach.
“Overall, the curfew has been very, very effective,” he said. “For me, our goal is to keep our residents, visitors and businesses safe while minimizing the impact that it has.”
For restaurants in the curfew zone, some not far from the unaffected Lincoln Road, the extended curfew will limit profits during what had been supposed to be the busiest month of the year.
Jessica Knopf, owner of the Sriracha House, said sales plummeted after the city imposed the curfew — even during days when it was not in effect.
“The weekend ended and immediately on Monday the Beach was quiet,” she said. “The crowds left, clearly sales dropped. Clearly we don’t need a curfew at all.”
Aguila said he understood that the curfew is hurting the nightlife industry but remains concerned that large crowds may again overwhelm police and overrun South Beach.
After meeting with police on Monday, he said Easter weekend may again bring big crowds to the city, reinforcing the need to stay alert.
“Spring break is not over yet,” he said.
Martin Vassolo: 305-376-2071, martindvassolo