In four measures the city commission will consider tomorrow, the mayor wants to suspend promoters' business tax receipts during "high-impact events" including spring break and Memorial Day Weekend, which draws thousands of mostly black revelers each year for Urban Beach Weekend. He's also proposing to hike the penalties on bars that serve minors and to give the city manager authority to suspend sidewalk café operations and stop nonresidents from parking in city lots.
And Gelber is not the only commission member looking to add more post-spring break regulations — Commissioner Mark Samuelian wants to make it a misdemeanor crime to sell things on public property without authorization. That means police would be able to arrest the coconut and mango peddlers who roam the beach, as well as the amateur python handlers who try to get tourists to pay for photos.
In recent years, spring breakers in Miami Beach have caused havoc, including stampedes, hit-and-runs, and even deadly shootings. City commissioners tried to get ahead of the chaotic season this year with a marketing campaign that essentially told college students to stay away. That definitely didn't work: Thousands of spring breakers arrived beginning the first week of March. Residents soon became apoplectic over beachfront fight videos circulating on social media, and officials responded with riot police and paddy wagons.
Gelber's proposed ordinances, which were first reported by the RE:Miami Beach newsletter, state that the growing number of visitors during spring break, Memorial Day, and other large-scale events "have caused extensive damage, personal injury, property degradation, and have dramatically affected the quality of life of the city's residents." He zeroes in on bars and promoters as partly responsible.
Excessive drinking "creates volatile and dangerous situations throughout the city, that directly leads to criminal activity, conduct
The ordinance restricting promoters, meanwhile, says they often "attract patrons who are underage, engage in disorderly conduct, or violate the occupancy limit of the alcoholic beverage establishment." The city would stop issuing business tax receipts to promoters for any event that occurs over Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Columbus Day, or other high-impact periods. Although Art Basel is almost certainly considered a high-impact event under the city's code, there is no mention of it in the new ordinance.
If the ordinances pass on first reading tomorrow, they would require a second approval before going into effect.
