Miami-Dade’s big reopening Monday: gyms, dog parks, tattoo shops, youth camps, Airbnb

Gyms, tattoo shops, short-term rentals, youth camps and dog parks can reopen Monday as Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez ends roughly three months of emergency closures designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Gimenez’s office released a collection of amended orders Thursday night that replace the closures with new rules restricting how the businesses and use of public space can operate once they’re allowed to reopen Monday.

Gyms must halt towel service, cut indoor capacity by 50 percent, disable hand dryers in bathrooms, and require 10 feet between people in spinning classes, CrossFit sessions and other intense workout groups.

“This wasn’t an easy one because there’s a lot of heavy breathing and sweating going on,” Gimenez said in a morning news conference.

Gimenez also cleared the way for casinos, movie theaters, bowling alleys and large gathering areas to reopen later. Closure orders remain for them past Monday, but Gimenez said they may reopen once the county approves an operations plan for each facility.

The reopenings come during some reversals in overall positive trends for coronavirus measures in Miami-Dade, along with concern that the weekend’s well-attended demonstrations could be ripe for spread of COVID-19 from participants to their friends and families. New positive cases hit a two-week high on Thursday, according to a county tracking report, and the portion of positive COVID-19 tests has hovered near 10 percent in recent days.

But with hospitalization rates still dropping, Gimenez said he’s comfortable Miami-Dade can continue unwinding the restrictions that have helped cripple the economy and left tens of thousands of Miami-Dade residents unemployed.

“We expect the rest of Miami-Dade County to reopen fairly soon,” he said.

Beaches remain the exception in the reopening blitz as Gimenez said they would stay closed until he lifts the midnight curfew he imposed after isolated ransacking of stores and burning of police cars during and after protests against racial injustice on May 30.

The extent of Gimenez’s reopening plan came later in the day with the release of two decrees unraveling the closures he ordered in March.

He also said Monday would be the first day for summer camps to reopen, along with short-term vacation rentals, banquet halls and massage studios.

“The next thing is movie theaters and bars and lounges,” he said. “We expect the rest of Miami-Dade County to reopen fairly soon.”

Gimenez said the curfew imposed Saturday night will remain in place until further notice, despite his police director having said privately he would be comfortable lifting it entirely given the lack of notable property damage since Saturday’s overnight protests.

Gimenez said police director Freddy Ramirez told him he would be OK with the curfew having ended Wednesday, but instead Gimenez shortened the curfew hours, moving the start time from 9 p.m. to midnight.

Gimenez has tied reopening beaches — which had been planned for June 1 — to his curfew orders.

“We plan to continue with that curfew for the time being,” Gimenez said. “I’ve got to take a look at what’s happening around the country.”

The mayors of Miami and Miami Beach said Thursday they would follow the county and allow gyms to reopen Monday.

Elev8tion Fitness owner Angel Bajana, whose gym has about 1,500 members across three Miami-Dade locations, took part in a call Wednesday with Gimenez and was told gym patrons will be asked to remain 10 feet apart while doing vigorous exercise, like running on a treadmill or taking part in a workout class, and 6 feet apart for lower-intensity exercise, like lifting weights.

He is upgrading his gyms’ air-conditioning systems to include new filters and UV-light technology to kill bacteria before it circulates into the air. Sanitizing stations will be set up around the workout areas, and all equipment will be wiped down before and after use.

“They’re telling us that we do have to keep the locker rooms, showers and water fountains closed,” he said. “It’s a little odd but I think that people will get used to it.

Bajana, who manages gyms in South Beach, downtown Miami and Miami Shores, said he is $250,210 behind in rent.

Members of the fitness community have been frustrated that Miami-Dade is the last county in Florida to reopen gyms, he said. Some have even resorted to working out at makeshift speakeasy gyms inside storage units.

“People did what they had to do,” he said.

Eli Portnoy, a 65-year-old Miami Beach resident and Elev8tion member, said he paid $5 to work out at a storage unit in South Dade that someone converted into a rudimentary gym. He tried getting a day pass to work out in Fort Lauderdale, but the gym he went to was only accepting long-term members. So now he works out on his balcony and rides his bicycle.

To him, singling out gyms without providing specific rationale for keeping them closed has made him lose faith in his leaders.

“Unfortunately about the fitness industry is, none of the powers that be are workout people,” he said. “It made me feel like there was blatant discrimination against the fitness industry.”

Portnoy, who runs a fitness-based talent management company called Cr2 Talent Miami, said the area’s fitness community is among the most popular in the country.

“We get thousands of visitors a year come to see the sexiness of Miami,” he said. “We’re destroying the lifeblood of this city with no rationale.”