Miami Beach, overwhelmed by spring break, extends emergency curfew

Ricky Arriola, another city commissioner, told the group’s emergency meeting: “Stopping things can’t be the way the city does business. It’s embarrassing and it just shows that we don’t know what we’re doing.

Mr Arriola also said the city should start planning for its next busy period. “We’ve been caught off guard this spring break and we’re going straight into the Memorial Day weekend punch.”

Companies about 30 miles north in the city of Fort Lauderdale are monitoring developments in Miami Beach. “We watched it very closely,” said Dan Lindblade, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce on Sunday evening. “We will do whatever we need to do to make sure the same situation does not happen again here.”

Fort Lauderdale faced similar issues during spring break in the ’80s and early’ 90s, until the city and businesses decided to make changes, he said. A major change: hotels have started charging more money for rooms. “We don’t serve customers under $ 150 a night,” Mr. Lindblade said, adding, “We’re $ 300 to $ 500 a night, and it’s just a different crowd.”

The effect, Mr Lindblade said, has been notable. “It’s a family atmosphere,” he said, “and it’s been great for our economy.”

Seemingly undeterred by the police presence on Sunday night in South Beach, two maskless men in their twenties, who wore swim shorts and gripped hard seltzers, took turns sniffing white lines on a postcard. Around the corner, a group of policemen stood calmly, talking to each other and shouting for people to come home.