How to solve the Beach’s drinking problem: compromise

Having lived in New York City for almost 20 years, I consider Miami Beach’s Ocean Drive much like I considered Times Square: a place out-of-town visitors want to see, generally from the safety of a car, but otherwise to be avoided. Maybe it’s a place for an outdoor breakfast on rare occasions, but not otherwise.

There is, for example, no adjacent theater district, as there is in NYC, making avoidance easier to justify. Yet, in my few excursions to the area, the never-ending party atmosphere is all too apparent. My sympathies abound for the residents who purchased expensive condos there and are pretty much locked in their apartments after the sun goes down.

I also grew up on the Beach, when avoiding the area also was in vogue, but for entirely different reasons.

So how do we retain the tourist-appealing aspect of the area and still make its atmosphere safer for those wanting to stroll sober in the warm and otherwise lovely evenings?

Given how the area’s party atmosphere has grown, largely based on the universal ability to obtain alcohol at all times day and night, cutting it suddenly back three hours seems a bit Draconian, even though some reduction seems warranted.

Here is one suggestion: take the divisive binary choice off the ballot, and let the parties sit and work out a compromise. Perhaps a 3 a.m. closing for the outdoor bars, or at least keep public drinking off the street. Bring out the cops at that time to enforce the new rules politely, perhaps as a pilot program. Modify it as needed, but the underlying message ought to be clear.

This is a solvable problem. There is no right or wrong dispute here; no need to make the issue more divisive than it needs to be. The country is already divided too much as it is.

– Michael Peskoe,

Miami Beach