Photos: Miami Beach curfew clears out Ocean Drive during peak spring break weekend

Thirty minutes before a curfew in South Beach took effect Friday, a parade of police ATVs rolled down Ocean Drive, blaring a prerecorded message.

“Good evening. As we continue to prioritize public safety, there is a curfew in effect from midnight until 6 a.m. Please return to your hotel or residence,” police announced.

Relative to last weekend, Friday night saw larger spring break crowds in South Beach, despite an announcement Friday morning that a midnight curfew would be in place below 23rd Street throughout the weekend. But enforcement of the curfew got off to a smooth start.

By 12:15 a.m., Ocean Drive had been cleared out almost entirely. Police urged stragglers to leave the area, but there were no immediate indications of physical altercations. A video posted on Saturday morning to the social media account Only In Dade showed officers in South Beach handcuffing a woman after an exchange about compliance with the curfew.

Ocean Drive was the first priority of the curfew push. By 12:30 a.m., officers were making the curfew announcement on Collins and Washington avenues.

“You’ve got to get the f--- out of here,” a Miami-Dade police officer told a group of women at Collins and Eighth Street around that time.

Groups of spring breakers stood at street corners trying to figure out their next plans. Many waited for ride-shares to escape to Wynwood and downtown Miami.

While word about the curfew spread among many spring breakers, not everyone knew about it. Outside M2, a club on Washington Avenue, a young Israeli couple said they were on vacation in Miami and weren’t aware of the curfew. They paid $100 Friday morning for tickets to a party at the club.

Most businesses were abiding by the curfew, although a few remained open after midnight. Police walked into a Burger King at 11th Street and Washington around 12:30 a.m. and told employees to close up shop, but let them complete an order for a group of hungry spring breakers waiting outside.

“Everybody’s happy,” a Miami Beach police officer said as he walked out with a spring breaker carrying several BK bags.

On Friday afternoon and evening, people packed the sidewalk next to bars and restaurants on Ocean Drive, though the mood remained calm in comparison to recent years in which fights, stampedes and shootings have soured the party during the third weekend in March.

Spontaneous dance circles broke out along the strip as music blared from boomboxes, attracting small crowds. But the bouts of fun were short-lived as nearby police officers hurried over, flickered their flashlights and demanded that people turn the music down.

About an hour before curfew, the crowds on Ocean Drive started to thin. Some businesses closed their doors early in anticipation.

‘I miss everybody’

The owner of at least one business, Mango’s Tropical Cafe, decided to close up shop entirely in advance of the curfew. On Friday, the club’s doors were gated shut, and a large sign outside announced that the business would remain shut through the weekend while the curfew was in effect.

Owner David Wallack sat in a chair outside Mango’s on Friday night, observing the scene. He said he feared that, if there were a stampede, “I could not protect my staff or our customers.” Unlike last year, Ocean Drive remains open to cars, with metal barricades separating pedestrians on the sidewalk from the street.

“It’s very hard on businesses right now on South Beach,” Wallack said. “But it would be much more costly for anyone to get injured at Mango’s because of something I didn’t do because I was trying to make a little bit more money.”

Measures in place last weekend were once again in effect, including parking closures, 6 p.m. beach entrance closures, license-plate readers on causeways entering the city and a DUI checkpoint on Fifth Street. A massive law enforcement presence flooded Ocean Drive and nearby streets in the South Beach entertainment district.

While visitors said Friday they were well aware of the city’s viral marketing campaign about “breaking up with spring break,” it didn’t stop them from coming to Miami Beach’s sunny shores.

READ MORE: Miami Beach imposes a midnight spring break curfew starting Friday night

Madison Winston, a 22-year-old from Dayton, Ohio, was unfazed by the parking restrictions, sea of metal barriers and heavy police presence.

“They put in these fake little rules, right, but the rules aren’t ruling because I see everybody out here still,” Winston said early Friday afternoon.

Winston said she attended last year’s spring break and knew about two deadly shootings that occurred. However, that didn’t change her opinion of coming back to party again, nor did additional restrictions the city put in place.

“I’m not gonna lie, last year it was really crowded,” she said. “But I think they scared a lot of people off. It’s less crowded and cool, but it’s better with more people. I miss everybody coming here.”

Bianca Ward, a 21-year-old from North Carolina, said it was her first time in the city, and while the restrictions are quite noticeable, they haven’t stopped her from having “a blast.”

“We still find a way to make it fun,” she said. “It’s just about who you came with.”

Ward and her group of friends said they had not heard about the curfew. But they said it won’t dampen their spring break.

“Just now hearing about it, it definitely doesn’t change anything,” Ward said.

Brittani Miller-Gonzalez, 31, was well aware of the violence and unrest that occurred in Miami Beach last year, she said. But with the city’s focus on safety, she felt this year would be a great time to bring her 3-year-old daughter for good weather during spring break.

“I think that sometimes we can’t have nice things and ... restrictions are required,” said Miller-Gonzalez, who is from New York. “If you look around, it’s very chill. There are families out here.”

Midnight curfew

Despite warnings over the past year that a curfew was likely coming during spring break in 2024, Friday’s announcement jolted some business owners in the South Beach nightlife scene.

Romain Zago, the owner of Mynt Lounge at 19th Street and Collins Avenue, said he didn’t understand why the city imposed a curfew when other measures seemed to be effective in keeping crowds small and calm.

“I don’t understand why this week they would not apply the same system, the same measures,” Zago said Friday afternoon. “What happened all of a sudden today that we have to have a curfew?”

Mynt is open from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m., meaning the curfew will force the club to close this weekend. Zago said the move would be damaging for his business and his employees.

“My staff all live check by check. They cannot afford a week off,” he said. The city, Zago said, is “removing food from our plates.”

Daniel Ribenboim Simon, general partner and co-owner of the Meridian Hotel, at 418 Meridian Ave., was also surprised by Friday’s curfew announcement. His hotel is inside the curfew zone and on Friday, the staff was scrambling to inform guests.

The Meridian is also home to Minibar, a popular bar among locals that is normally open till 3 a.m.

“That business will definitely take a significant hit this weekend,” said Ribenboim Simon.

Like other local business leaders, he said he understood and agreed that things needed to change to avoid a repeat of past years. But he felt several of the initial measures, especially the city’s “breakup” social media campaign, were working, something he said was evident in the first two weeks of spring break.

“We thought we had found a happy medium,” he said. He also felt the city should have done a better job involving local businesses, especially small businesses.

“Nobody asked for our input,” he said.

Mitch Novick, who owns the Sherbrooke Hotel at Ninth Street and Collins Avenue, said he was offering refunds to some guests who were having trouble finding parking in South Beach because of the closures.

“I think it’s only reasonable,” Novick said.

Some business owners were less critical of the curfew or the other strict measures. Paolo Orsolini owns the Italian deli Prima Classe on First Street near Washington Avenue, which usually closes around 9:30 p.m., and a newly opened cigar lounge next door that goes until midnight.

Both are in the curfew zone, yet Orsolini said he was “neutral” about it.

“Things in the past were out of control,” he said, so he supports several of the harsher rules and the large police presence. He predicted that “for us, the curfew will probably be beneficial and not detrimental.”

That is in part because Prima Classe is tucked away from Ocean Drive, and its clients are mostly people who live nearby. Tourists, and particularly spring breakers, don’t typically frequent his establishments.

Still, Orsolini said he would like to see more rigorous justification of the curfew. “Did you analyze the impact it will have on businesses and on locals?” he asked.

Aniya Drake, a 24-year-old nurse from Dayton, Ohio, said she felt the curfew wouldn’t have a big effect on her friends’ plans or other spring breakers.

“Curfew just means more stuff is closed so we have less opportunities, but that doesn’t mean anything,” she said. “We’re still gonna have fun.”