Party to end earlier in Miami Beach as spring break last call moved

Commission approves 3 a.m. booze cut off

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. ā€“ The partyā€™s over early on South Beach, at least for the days when spring breakers descend on the city.

Commissioners voted 5-2 to ban booze after 3 a.m. in the entertainment district, for six days in March.

This comes after last yearā€™s beach brawls and street fights that made for embarrassing headlines for the city.

Still, most people inside commission chambers were not happy about the decision.

ā€œWe donā€™t feel these measures are going to make any difference at all," said Joel Stedman, owner of Twist nightclub, who brought his workers to the meeting for support. ā€œItā€™s hurting small business. And weā€™re just devastated.ā€

Other club and restaurant owners spoke out, too, saying it was going to harm their businesses.

Commissioner Michael Gongora was among the ā€œnoā€ votes.

ā€œThis ordinance is a solution looking for a problem,ā€ he said.

Mayor Dan Gelber told Local 10 he thinks the last call rollback is the best solution, for now.

ā€œI donā€™t believe that this is the silver bullet," he said. ā€œI think this is part of the tool kit. Itā€™s not the first thing weā€™re going to do. And if it doesnā€™t help, if we think thereā€™s a metric that tells us that. Then we wonā€™t continue to do it.ā€


About the Author:

Janine Stanwood joined Local 10 News in February 2004 as an assignment editor. She is now a general assignment reporter. Before moving to South Florida from her Washington home, Janine was the senior legislative correspondent for a United States senator on Capitol Hill.