MIAMI — Stores must halt alcohol sales at 6 p.m. starting Thursday in South Beach as part of the city’s new emergency rules that also impose a midnight curfew in the area targeting spring break crowds.
The city announced the details of the regulation imposed by City Manager Alina Hudak in an emergency order signed Wednesday morning.
“The message is don’t come party here,” Mayor Dan Gelber said.
The curfew rules were imposed after two shootings injured five people in the South Beach area last weekend, and are part of a city response that elected leaders say is prudent and critics portray as singling out largely Black crowds.
The curfew rules run from Thursday night through Monday morning, and prohibit most travel to the South Beach area after midnight, according to the city order and a statement.
Restrictions on off-premise alcohol transactions start at 6 p.m. Thursday, and resume at the same time Friday and Saturday. Existing city rules allow alcohol sales to resume at stores between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. the following day.
The order includes no restrictions on beer, wine and liquor sales for Sunday evening, though the curfew resumes that night.
Other restrictions include:
—City parking garages will close at 11 p.m. during the curfew period, but people can leave with their vehicles during the curfew restrictions. Residents and employees with access cards will be allowed to enter the garages during the closure hours.
—Food deliveries are allowed after midnight, but to-go pickup orders are not.
—Businesses must adjust operations so that customers are able to “leave by 11:59 p.m. each night.” Hotels are allowed to continue operating normally after midnight, provided they are only serving guests.
—The curfew ends each morning at 6 a.m.
—The boundaries of the curfew area are 23rd Street and Dade Boulevard on the north (including properties fronting the north side of 23rd Street or Dade Boulevard), Government Cut on the south, Biscayne Bay on the west, and the Atlantic Ocean on the east.
—Residents “requiring access to or from their homes” and guests requiring access “to or from their hotels” are allowed to travel after midnight during the curfew, but they’re “advised to return to the City prior to 11:59 p.m. each night, in order to avoid any potential traffic delays once the curfew has taken effect.” Hotel guests returning past the start of curfew may be asked to show a reservation to prove they have lodging in Miami Beach.
—Employees working on Miami Beach also are allowed to travel to and from work after curfew.
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