MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Just weeks after a chaotic spring break in Miami-Dade County, especially in the Miami Beach neighborhood of South Beach, multiple curfews are being lifted in the county.
Tuesday morning, Miami Beach’s interim city manager updated the city’s State of Emergency relating to the High Impact Period during spring break and officially canceled the 8 p.m. curfew. The curfew had been imposed each Thursday through Sunday evening in the declared “High Impact Zone” of South Beach, where chaos had ensued throughout March.
The “High Impact Zone” covered the area between 5th Street on the south, 16th Street on the north, Pennsylvania Avenue on the west, and Ocean Drive on the east.
“At this point, we’re not planning on extending it [the curfew],” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said. “We may consider Memorial Day at some point.”
Also to be lifted is the countywide curfew in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which remains in effect from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. until April 12. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced the lifting of this curfew on Monday.
However, the City of Miami Beach is reinforcing its guidelines in the “High Impact Zone” until April 12. According to the City of Miami Beach, on Friday, April 9, and Saturday, April 10 a license plate reader police detail will be utilized on the eastbound lanes of the MacArthur Causeway from approximately 10 p.m. until no later than 6 a.m. each night.
Mitch Novick of the Sherbrooke Hotel told Local 10 he is not a fan of the curfews. However, after this past spring break, he says he’d like to see more be done to keep Miami Beach and its residents safe. “Their failure to address the entertainment zone is the crux of the problem,” he says.
Furthermore, beginning Thursday, April 8 through the morning of Monday, April 12 from 8 p.m. through 6 a.m., all sidewalk café operations, including expanded outdoor restaurant seating, will still be suspended in the “High Impact Zone.” All sidewalk café operators are directed to stack or remove tables and chairs no later than 8 p.m. each night. These measures will not apply to the Española Way corridor between Pennsylvania Avenue and Washington Avenue.
Nevertheless, all curfews will cease to exist beginning at 6:01 a.m., Monday, April 12.