Miami Beach is banning some sales of nighttime alcohol in the city’s popular South Beach neighborhood for three consecutive nights, an emergency measure that went into effect on Thursday — the same day as a curfew intended to get rid off any spring break mayhem in the same area.
Under the ban affecting most of the neighborhood, sales of alcohol for “off-premises consumption” are restricted at such businesses as liquor stores and drugstores after 6 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The ban does not impact alcohol sales at bars and restaurants, though it coincides with a curfew imposed by the city for the same area from just before midnight on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday until 6 a.m. the next day.
“We all knew that this week and next week were going to be hard weekends, because every year, they are hard weekends,” Mayor Dan Gelber said at the Tuesday meeting, adding that the commission had “reached clarity” about how to address this year’s spring break. “Frankly, optimism, hope and luck are not plans.”
“Our objective is compliance,” Ernesto Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Miami Beach Police Department, said on Thursday night.
