7 March 27 - april 2, 2025 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | Contents | Letters | news | night+Day | CuLture | Cafe | MusiC | miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | SPRING BROKE Business owners say Miami Beach’s spring break crackdown hurts their bottom line. BY ETHAN MANNELLO L ast year, Miami Beach broke up with spring break and their new reality check video shows they aren’t getting back together, but not everyone is letting the rela- tionship go just yet. “These restrictions have left us with a total void of energy,” says David Wallack, the owner of popular South Beach nightclub Mango’s Tropical Cafe. “They end up kicking all the best customers out and the young kids, who don’t spend any money, still come. The police do their jobs very well and it’s a quiet two weeks in March, but that is death for all the businesses.” Wallack says many business owners paid off multiple months of mortgages through their profits in March and he is not alone in his concerns about the restrictions. Jay Shi- rodkar, president of Yes Hospitality Group, which manages Naked Taco located on Col- lins Avenue, expressed similar feelings. “We obviously don’t want to see wide- spread crime or shootings, but we really dis- agree with the way the city has been shut down,” Shirodkar tells New Times. “To have all these restrictions then this video basi- cally saying Miami Beach is not the place to come on a vacation is very extreme. It’s tak- ing away from a city that can be managed in a different way.” The video, released in February, portrays a fake reality TV show set in Miami Beach for spring break. As eager spring breakers arrive, their fun is quickly cut short when they are confronted with the rules the city has put in place like DUI checkpoints and no drinking on the beach. Their dream spring break turns into a nightmare, and the video ends by stat- ing, “The show is fake, but the rules are very real.” This is Miami Beach’s second year rolling out comprehen- sive and aggressive rules to combat the chaos spring break often brings. The restrictions started last year after the City of Miami Beach was forced to declare a state of emergency in 2023 due to two shootings and “excessively large and unruly crowds.” The rules, which apply between March 13- 16 and March 20-23, include DUI check- points, a $100 flat-fee parking rate, enhanced police presence, road closures, and a whop- ping $532 nonresident towing rate. While the rules and messaging surrounding Spring break have “yielded overwhelmingly success- ful results,” according to Miami Beach Police Department (MBPD) spokesperson officer Christopher Bess, some business owners don’t feel the same way. “At the end of the day, to have somebody come and throw up barricades, put in curfews and more than anything use this kind of dialogue is really disappointing,” Shirodkar says. “They’re doing more marketing for us negatively than they’ve ever done positively.” Wallack and Shirodkar are not just con- cerned with what these restrictions and mes- saging do to their best weeks of the year, but what they do to Miami Beach’s overall repu- tation. “People don’t necessarily equate a mes- sage to two weekends or even one weekend. They’re going to take it as a general thing,” Wallack says. “Miami Beach’s industry is hos- pitality, but videos like this are overtly damag- ing the businesses.” The MBPD and City of Miami Beach see the restrictions and messaging differently. In a press release last month, Miami Beach mayor Steven Meiner said the city “set a new standard for spring break in Miami Beach last year,” becoming “a place where residents, businesses, and visitors could truly thrive.” Officer Bess echoed this sentiment to the New Times saying, “Last year, we created the blueprint of a spring break operation plan that was successful, and this year we’re going to implement that plan again but take it a step further.” This step further, according to Bess, is the rolling out of a real time intelligence center where MBPD staff monitor about 850 cam- eras — plus drones that can fly up to speeds of 45 miles per hour and track people in the dark through infrared sensors — covering the seven-mile island. In terms of crime statistics, they are cor- rect, Miami Beach has no doubt become safer. In 2024, from March 1-17, there was an eight percent reduction in arrests compared to the same time period last year, including a 26 per- cent decrease in felony arrests. Bess said that the decrease has continued this year. More importantly, there were no deaths or shootings in 2024, Meiner told Local 10 News, but Bess and Meiner also claim businesses are bene- fiting from these re- strictions. Bess told the New Times that data showed businesses actually did “a little better” in 2024 com- pared to 2023 and Meiner cited the fact that hotel occupancy in 2024 was up from 2023 during the Local 10 interview. Business owners seem to have mixed feel- ings on the restrictions, but like Wallack and Shirodkar, many are not fans. Last year, local business owners reported revenue losses and Miami Beach nightclubs, M2, Mynt Lounge, and Exchange went as far as suing the city over a midnight curfew. Miami Beach is only in the second year of its spring break crackdown, and it’s unclear whether the tough measures are here to stay. Though Meiner claimed in the initial press release that the restrictions “ensure Miami Beach remains a welcoming destination where people can enjoy our world-class beaches, restaurants, and community in a safe family-friendly atmosphere,” Wallack couldn’t disagree more. “Miami Beach can only be one of two things,” Wallack says. “It’s either a hospitality mecca or it’s a retirement community — there’s nothing in between.” [email protected] 2021: Spring breakers leave Ocean Drive as an 8 p.m. curfew goes into effect. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty | METRO | “MIAMI BEACH CAN ONLY BE ONE OF TWO THINGS. IT’S EITHER A HOSPITALITY MECCA OR IT’S A RETIREMENT COMMUNITY.”
