Proposed South Beach 2 a.m. last call unpopular among club owners, resident-activists
A proposal to ban alcohol sales after 2 a.m. in South Beach either goes too far or not far enough, depending on whom you ask.
Moving up last call from 5 a.m. — which Mayor Dan Gelber proposed Tuesday amid fallout from a challenging spring break — would effectively impose a “death sentence” on Miami Beach’s world-famous nightlife scene, said attorney Steve Polisar, who represents several bars and restaurants on Ocean Drive and Washington Avenue.
The city should use a scalpel, not a sledgehammer, to cure what ails
South Beach, he said.
“That should be the thing of last resort,” he said of a 2 a.m. last call.
But for resident-activists like former Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, who recently helped organize an anti-nightlife protest outside City Hall, more drastic change is needed. Maybe even a 10 p.m. last call in the entertainment district.
“For the past year we’ve been under a midnight curfew and that hasn’t solved the problem,” Rosen Gonzalez said, referring to the countywide COVID-19 curfew in effect since July.
Gelber’s proposed booze ban, which includes a carve-out for businesses with adequate security and
“stellar records of compliance,” is one of 12 policy proposals outlined in a memo Tuesday. The 12point plan also proposes upgrading the entertainment district’s land-use regulations to encourage more residential and office uses, removing a two-block noise exemption on Ocean Drive and deploying more police in the entertainment district.
“Right now I think that the place projects out to the world what it is,” Gelber said. “We just need to project something else out.”
Although more specific details of the proposals have not been made available, South Beach’s three main strips — Ocean Drive,
Collins Avenue and Washington Avenue from Fifth to 16th streets — will be affected by some or all of Gelber’s plan, he told the Miami Herald.
Gelber said the alcohol cutoff would help the city project itself as a more mellow destination. The plan earned the preliminary support of Jonathan Plutzik, owner of the Betsy Hotel and chairman of the board for the Ocean Drive Association. Gelber said the city has a “right to define what this area should be,” and he’s not naive that every plan will have its critics.
In July, he proposed a 12 a.m. alcohol cutoff, a removal of the noise exemption and zoning reforms to encourage development in the district. The midnight cutoff failed, the exemption was tightened but not removed and the zoning changes have yet to be voted on.
The commission, which has been divided on how to handle the nightlife scene, is scheduled to meet next on April 21. Gelber, who is just one of seven votes on the board, has directed city staff to craft a legislative package from his 12-point plan to present to commissioners.
“The 2 a.m. [rollback] is not a silver bullet but the mosaic of the ideas creates a different sense of place,” Gelber said. “It’s not a hard-party area; it’s a livework-play area.”
CLUB OWNERS, RESIDENT-ACTIVISTS DIFFER ON HOW TO FIX SOUTH BEACH
But both club owners and their biggest critics agree on one thing: Gelber’s 2 a.m. cutoff will be ineffective at curbing crime, elevating the quality of business or repairing South Beach’s strained reputation.
Since 2015, the city has had a 2 a.m. last call for sidewalk cafes. And since July, the county’s COVID curfew has effectively acted as a 12 a.m. alcohol cutoff. Still, rowdy crowds filled the streets and gave City Hall headaches. During spring break, police became so overwhelmed that the city imposed an 8 p.m. curfew in the South Beach entertainment district that remains in effect during weekends.
“We don’t have the money; we don’t have enough police to enforce our way out of this,” Rosen Gonzalez said.
She said the commission should tap into the “momentum” fed-up residents have built up to pass stricter restrictions, like not renewing sidewalk cafe permits until the city develops a plan to reform the area. While many businesses will suffer, including “good operators,” drastic action is needed, she said.
“There’s going to be casualties, and it’s sad,” she said.
Mitch Novick, an activist and part owner of the Sherbrooke Hotel on Collins Avenue, said Gelber’s plan featured recycled ideas that don’t address the issues with South Beach’s open-air party problem. He recommends taking sidewalk cafes off the street and turning down the music on Ocean Drive.
He pointed to a cost-benefit analysis conducted by a city consultant that showed the South Beach entertainment district ran a $6 million deficit in 2017-2018. The study, by Lambert Advisory, showed that the city’s costs in the area — for police, fire and emergency, and sanitation services, among others — were $6.4 million higher than revenues generated in the area.
“Taxpayers are fully funding this area,” he said.
While a group of vocal residents and activists have called for a crackdown on the nightlife industry, in 2017 voters rejected a proposed 2 a.m. last call on Ocean Drive by a margin of nearly 2-1.
That vote made clear that the public doesn’t support a rollback, wrote Alexander Tachmes, an attorney for the Clevelander South Beach, in a letter to the Miami Herald.
Tachmes said the 2 a.m. last call would “unfairly” target South Beach institutions like the Clevelander and Mango’s Tropical Cafe while leaving other late-night hangouts elsewhere in the city free to serve until 5 a.m.
“The Clevelander strongly supports city proposals that are logical and focused on the actual problems at hand,” he wrote. “Targeting businesses like ours that have, for decades, promoted fun, safe and inclusive entertainment is a terrible mistake.”
Josh Wallack, the COO of Mango’s, said he opposes a blanket 2 a.m. last call but would expect to be exempted from the order considering the club’s legacy and track record. Mango’s has been closed since last March due to COVID-19.
The city, he said, should work to perfect its brand, not destroy it.
Wallack traces the roots of South Beach’s problems back about six years, to relaxed marijuana laws and eased police enforcement in the city, a ban on offduty police work inside nightclubs and a 2014 commission vote that scrapped plans for a $1 billion convention center campus in South Beach.
He said he supports the vision of turning South Beach’s entertainment district into a more cultural and residential space, but he noted that Mango’s was unsuccessful in trying to sell its property and three nearby parcels on Collins Avenue to build a mixedused development.
“Let’s just shut it down is not a vision,” Wallack said. “We agree that in its current state and its current form it’s not sustainable. That much we agree on.”
WHAT DO COMMISSIONERS THINK?
The reaction to the plan has been mixed among the city’s elected leaders.
Commissioner Mark Samuelian, who supports the earlier last call, said Gelber’s proposals function as a blueprint on which the commission can map out the future of South Beach. But leaders must move quickly.
“I believe that we can have a thriving tourism and entertainment environment without necessarily having the hard-partying environment of the current [entertainment district] until 5 a.m.,” he said. “The most important thing for me is that we have fair and consistent policies and that we protect our residential neighborhoods.”
Commissioner Michael Góngora, who expressed concern about closing businesses at 2 a.m., said the commission should work to activate Ocean Drive with art installations and cultural displays in order to bring in a more sophisticated crowd.
“I’m less inclined to support closing indoor facilities because they take people off the street,” he said.
Commissioner Ricky Arriola, who is opposed to the 2 a.m. last call, said the plan is overly focused on restricting business activity and does not offer a detailed vision for the future.
“These restrictions are not going to get us to the promised land,” he said. “We need to focus on programming, which we know works. We need to focus on getting investment in the area.”
Martin Vassolo: 305-376-2071, martindvassolo