South Beach curfew and causeway closures extended for the rest of spring break
MIAMI — Curfews and causeway closures to control unruly spring break crowds in South Beach will be extended through April 12, the Miami Beach City Commission unanimously decided Sunday during an emergency meeting.
An 8 p.m. curfew in South Beach’s entertainment district and a 10 p.m. shutdown of the eastbound lanes of the MacArthur, Julia Tuttle and Venetian causeways will remain in effect Thursday through Sunday for the remainder of spring break.
Residents, hotel guests and local business employees are exempt from causeway closures on the MacArthur and Tuttle. The Venetian is resident-only during the causeway shutdown hours, which were initially set at 9 p.m. The curfew affects South Beach’s main strips of Ocean Drive, Washington Avenue, Collins Avenue and Española Way from 5th to 16th streets, an area bound by Ocean Drive to the east and Pennsylvania Avenue to the west. Restaurants in the zone can remain open for deliveries until 6 a.m., but their sidewalk cafes and COVID-era outdoor seating expansion must close at 8 p.m. Interim City Manager Raul Aguila, who imposed the spring break measures Saturday, needed commission support to extend them for more than the 72-hour period allowed in city code. He said the measures will seek to “contain the overwhelming crowd of visitors and the potential for violence, disruption and damage to property” during what has at times been a chaotic spring break period.
In recent weeks, South Beach saw brawls, crowd stampedes and police confrontations involving the use of pepper balls. Miami Beach police have made over 1,000 arrests since February and at least five officers have been hurt on the job, the department said.
“These aren’t your typical spring breakers,” Aguila said. While the causeway shutdowns are meant to thin the spring break crowds, some tourists got caught in the traffic tie-ups. An Oklahoma couple were in one of hundreds of cars stuck on the other side of a causeway from 11:30 p.m. Saturday to 3:30 a.m. Sunday after driving back toward the Beach from Fort Lauderdale. “There was no place to eat, no place to eat on South Beach. Horrible, horrible,” said David Collins, 57.
“We won’t come back during spring break,” said Ericka Collins, 47, who traveled with her husband to the epicenter of spring break madness to celebrate her marriage anniversary. “We’re too old for spring break.” And some residents fumed as well. “What are you doing??!!! Residents cannot get home to their children and families,” Dr. Lawrence Schiffman tweeted. “This is unacceptable, poorly planned and a dangerous situation. We have been sitting in the causeway for two hours not moving. … What is the point of this? Why even let us on the causeways?”
Despite the curfew that went into effect again at 8 Sunday night, hundreds of singing and dancing spring breakers crowded some areas of South Beach an hour after the restrictions took effect. Though there were no early reports of mass arrests or major confrontations in the entertainment district just a day after chaos broke out and between crowds and cops, police detained several people on Ocean Drive.
And in some sections, the party went on. A small money-tossing crowd gathered near an impromptu-twerking show. Then, around 8 p.m., police officers on ATVs slowly made their way through an emptying Ocean Drive to announce the curfew and disperse anyone lingering. Squeezed out crowds continued to regroup at other cross streets.
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, who called Sunday’s emergency commission meeting, said the big crowds have made South Beach’s party hub “a tinder over the last couple of weeks.”