Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Fort Lauderdale leery after spring break chaos in Miami
Spring breakers are on the move — with some of them starting to head to Fort Lauderdale to avoid a curfew sparked by violence and unruliness in Miami Beach.
The trouble to the south led to mounting concern Monday among workers who’ve started bracing for more crowds along Broward County’s beaches. Workers say they’re leery of trouble.
“I was really shocked and scared because Fort Lauderdale is the hottest beach next to Miami,” said Amaya Etheart, a clerk at Rita’s Italian Ice and Frozen Custards on Las Olas Boulevard. “So South Beach is closed, a lot of them come over here.”
Managers at Fort Lauderdale hotels said Monday that they’ve started to answer more calls from people asking if Fort Lauderdale has a curfew in place, like Miami Beach. The callers are trying to find last-minute openings.
One manager at a Marriott said the hotel has been 80% occupied through spring break, but calls for rooms have increased, with many asking whether Fort Lauderdale has a curfew, too.
Anticipating a large spillover from Miami onto the
Fort Lauderdale beaches, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis called for additional police officers when Miami Beach announced curfews over the weekend. While Fort Lauderdale has been spared of problems, he said he is monitoring the situation day to day.
“It could all change,” Trantalis said. “People may migrate here because I am seeing that people want to continue to party in Miami Beach.”
A chaotic weekend
The concerns about being overwhelmed with revelers comes after spring breakers overran South Beach, the famous tourist destination in Miami Beach. The last few days have been volatile, with thousands of mostly maskless partiers spilling into the streets and climbing onto cars with abandon. There have been brawls, stampedes and shootings. South Beach has gone into lockdown mode with an 8 p.m. nightly curfew through April 12.
The most recent development: Two men from Greensboro, North Carolina, drugged and raped a 24-year-old visiting from Pennsylvania, police said. The men, 21 and 24, then took the woman’s credit cards and continued to party on the beach, the Miami Herald reported Monday. The woman died.
In Fort Lauderdale, a few scuffles and arguments have broken out on the sidewalks outside Rita’s Italian Ice and Frozen Custards on Las Olas Boulevard, but Etheart worries that the crowd in Miami Beach may now come to Fort Lauderdale. “We’re gonna be on our toes,” the 17-year-old clerk said.
Etheart said she has noticed some people from Miami who said they came to Fort Lauderdale because there isn’t a curfew. And so far, they have not brought the South Beach drama with them. “It’s been really relaxed these past few weeks,” Etheart said.
Hectic beach day
Fort Lauderdale saw its share of fun- and sun-seeking beachgoers Monday. Hundreds were spread out along the beach. Fort Lauderdale police officers patrolled the sidewalks and hit the sand with four-wheelers, while others stood outside bars.
Queen Bui, a spring breaker from Boston, said she and her friends had planned to party in Miami, but that all changed because of the curfew. She and her friends are now partying in Fort Lauderdale.
“It’s pointless, spending money to go on vacation if the curfew is really early, so we said, ‘Let’s go to Fort Lauderdale since everything closes at 6 a.m., basically,’ ” she said.
She said she and her friends went to Miami Beach once while down here but she didn’t like what she saw.
“It was fun, but it’s crazy down there! It was scary,” she said. “There were a lot of fights. We saw a girl get beat up by her boyfriend. We tried to come in and help and she yelled at us.”
Kaitlyn Hoeffner agreed to go with her friends to Fort Lauderdale, saying she was less worried about COVID-19 in Broward County instead of the more crowded beaches in MiamiDade.
“Everyone here has been so nice and so fun,” said the 18-year-old from Kansas City. “We’re all just here to party.”
Making arrests
Hundreds have been reported arrested in Miami Beach in recent days. By contrast, only a few Spring Break-related arrests have occurred in Fort Lauderdale.
Decades ago, Fort Lauderdale used to be a mecca for rowdy college kids. But then the welcome mat was pulled in the mid-1980s when city officials said enough, and no more.
The result were higher-end hotels, fewer headaches for locals and cops, and an enormous boost to tourism overall. Perhaps that has helped ward off any out-of-control crowds.
“Kids are here. Families are here. Seniors are here,” Trantalis said. “It’s a place for everyone.”
Whether it stays that way this week is not yet known.