MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - Dozens of protesters marched to Miami Beach City Hall Wednesday, to fight against the idea of rolling back last call on South Beach’s entertainment district from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m.
“The 2 a.m. alcohol ban, people are going to lose a lot of jobs,” said Mango’s Tropical Cafe Employee Lazaro Berrio.
Miami Beach’s mayor Dan Gelber and other city leaders have been pushing for the change for a while due to a recent increase in chaotic and violent scenes.
“Our city, our residents, no longer go to Ocean Drive,” said Gelber. “They haven’t for 10 or 20 years, so we got to change something. We cannot keep the current system simply because a group of people want us to.”
Many protesters agree that crime has gotten out of hand in the area, but they also said this isn’t the right move.
“If they want to make the city a safe place, they should hire more cops,” said Berrio. “If we have a crime problem that’s what you do. You don’t close down the business.”
Workers said if the closing time moves to 2 a.m., their livelihoods will be severely impacted.
“We all want a safer Miami Beach,” said Mango’s Tropical Cafe Employee Brieanna, “but this attempt to take away our jobs would destroy our livelihoods and threaten how we provide for our families, and this is not the answer.”
“Rolling back to 2 a.m. won’t solve everything,” said Gelber, “but what it does is allows us to re-imagine this area as a mixed used area.”
Copyright 2025 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.