🍾 Voids, Mistakes, DUIs! A Commission Recap (in GIFs!)
Last Thursday, Miami Beach held a special commission meeting to discuss crime on Ocean Drive. Luckily, no action was taken, and commissioners have agreed to wait until next Thursday’s Ocean Drive and Washington Ave Workshop (add it to your calendar!) before making any decisions.
The discussion was long! (Watch is all here) Below are some highlights of what commissioners had to say specifically about cars on Ocean Drive.
Freddy Ramires, director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, started by clarifying that there is very little that could have been done to prevent the shooting that happened three weeks ago on Ocean Drive.
I know you’ve seen terrible crimes like the tourist that was killed last week. Those types of killings are very difficult to stop, someone just decides to shoot an innocent person. You can have five police officers around that circle, but you cannot control somebody’s will to do evil, someone who has evil to hurt somebody. What I do know is that your police responded immediately and made the arrest and that person will no longer victimize this community.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Góngora was the first elected official to comment on the pedestrianization of Ocean Drive and invited his colleagues to chime in.
I know that I have spoken with many people in the administration who think that this openness is contributing to the problem and creating a void that’s making people feel like we have a party atmosphere. So we need to do something about that and I need to hear from my colleagues at some point whether they are open to doing something to change this. We opened it up overnight during the pandemic and I think it was a good thing at that time but maybe it’s not the right thing anymore.
This statement was immediately followed by…
Number two. I think that the DUI traffic stop that you did last Friday was incredibly helpful. Whether or not you are making a zillion arrests or not it’s sending the message that Miami Beach is not a city to come to whether you are drunk, whether you are on drugs, whether your car smells like marijuana, this isn’t the right city to come to because you might get stopped and you might get arrested.
So, let’s get this straight... Ocean Drive is too “open”, we need to fill the “void” that the “openness” has created, Commissioner Góngora believes that the void should be filled with cars, and… Let’s also have more DUI traffic stops because people are driving into the city while drunk and on drugs in cars that smell of marijuana.
… O.K.
Luckily, Commissioner Samuelian accepted Góngora’s invitation and brought some sound reasoning into the mix.
My colleague invited the conversation about Ocean Drive, and I think we should absolutely have that conversation.
I think we can make improvements, I think we need to look at the valet system, I think we need to look at our signage. I do want to keep in mind a couple of things though, I think it’s important that we are listening to our residents. There was a recent survey that was conducted, three hundred people, 77% of our residents supported keeping Ocean Drive closed and having it pedestrian like Lincoln Road. When we –we, and many in this body spent a lot of time on the G.O. bond– we made the commitment to pedestrianize Ocean Drive, that’s what people voted for.
One of the things that we need to do as we transition from the MXE to, as the mayor describes it, the Art Deco Cultural District, is listen to our residents. I want to hear what the residents who live in those businesses, do they want scooters back on Ocean Drive? Do they want vehicles that make noise? Vehicles that sometimes have people with guns? I ask that rhetorically, I can’t believe that that’s what they would want.
So yes, let’s improve. Let’s pay attention to what Sobe Safe said. Let’s carefully, carefully, engage with the Ocean Drive Association, very thoughtful perspective there, and let’s find a way to improve it. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. We just made an important intervention with forty, fifty officers, let’s see what that does. You know if you start changing too many variables and then wake up and say “well, what worked?”, we have no way of figuring it out. So let’s be very careful about that, and I believe putting pedestrians first is the right approach.
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Lastly, Commissioner Richardson unsuccessfully attempted to keep restaurants from reopening their parklets after the upcoming Pride celebrations.
On Ocean Drive. I have said two or three times right here, sitting, that the biggest public safety mistake we made last year was closing Ocean Drive without a plan, because we created an open-air arena where people could bring their alcohol, their drugs, and party all night.
I am fully open to looking at all options. I support a revitalization plan for Lummus Park and Ocean Drive, I think some of the early designs I’ve seen are very encouraging.
I think, Madam Manager, we are going to open Ocean Drive for a Pride Parade soon, isn’t that true? And that’s going to happen I think pretty soon, on Sunday? The 19th, and then we are having a meeting on the 23rd, I believe to talk about Ocean Drive, is that right? What I would propose here, and I don’t know how my colleagues feel about that. Since the street will be cleared for traffic on the parade, I would like the city manager to not put anything back on the street until we have a meeting on the 23rd so that we don’t waste dollars and so forth. So I’m making that motion that the city manager is directed, once the street is open on the 19th, that we will not put furniture, and so forth, out there and have businesses incur expenses until we meet on the 23rd when we see all these plans and we can decide what is best. And I want to make a couple more points and if anybody wants to second that motion, then they can do that, if not, it will die right here.
… It died right there, y’all!
But closing Ocean Drive without a plan was a big mistake, and we need to fix that big mistake. Now, I’m tired of that open-air arena out there, where people bring their alcohol and party all night. Enough is enough. But I am open to hearing options, and I do think the parking on the east side of Ocean Drive is a mistake, for people to park a car out there and then have a bar out of their trunk, so I don’t want to have any parking, that’s my personal opinion on that.
Got it! No parking! So… The plan is to keep all those drunk drivers cruising their cars on the street because that is so much safer.
THE TAKEAWAY
While it may seem like pedestrian Ocean Drive is a done deal, it’s not, and Commissioners need to hear from you, the residents that support it.
So email your commissioners! Call them! But most importantly, show up and speak up at next Thursday’s workshop!
What? Transportation / Ocean Drive and Washington Avenue Hybrid Commission Workshop
When? Thursday, September 23rd at 3 PM
Where? In-person at Miami Beach City Hall's Commission Chambers (1700 Convention Center Drive, 3rd Floor, Miami Beach, FL 33139) or virtually at https://miamibeachfl-gov.zoom.us/j/81392857671
Can’t make it? Email them right now!
Otherwise – Click here to add a reminder to your calendar!
HOW TO SUBMIT A PUBLIC COMMENT IN PERSON
Speak in person at Miami Beach City Hall's Commission Chambers (1700 Convention Center Drive, 3rd Floor, Miami Beach, FL 33139), members of the public are required to wear facial coverings (pursuant to City of Miami Beach Resolution 2021-31825) and observe social distancing consistent with CDC guidance to limit the spread of COVID-19.
HOW TO SUBMIT A PUBLIC COMMENT VIRTUALLY
The public may join the webinar at: https://miamibeachfl-gov.zoom.us/j/81392857671 or via telephone at: 1.301.715.8592 (U.S.) or 888.475.4499 (Toll Free). Webinar ID: 81392857671#. Members of the public wanting to speak virtually on an Item during the Workshop must click the “raise hand” icon if using the Zoom app or press *9 on the telephone to raise their hand.
HOW TO SUBMIT A PUBLIC COMMENT VIA EMAIL
The public may submit written comments by sending an email to CityClerk@miamibeachfl.gov. Emails received will be forwarded to the Mayor and Commissioners and will be included as a part of the Workshop record. Please identify the Agenda Item Number in the email subject line.