Thank you. Hey D. D. All right. Yeah. Hey. Hey. Up feeling down.
Hey, hey, hey. Everything. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey. All right. Hey Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey.
Hey. Hey. Hey. Make it. Don't like that. How do you feel? Please take your seats. The meeting is about to begin. Remember to speak into the microphone as this meeting is being
recorded for public record. Please stand by. We are going on air in 5 4 3 2 1. >> Good morning. Welcome to the February 4th, 2026 uh sunshine meeting of the members of
the public safety neighborhood quality of life committee as well as as well as any other member of the city commission that that wishes to join us. I want to thank vice chair Laura Dominguez, committee members uh Monica Matel Stelenas and Tanya Abbot for joining us as well as our colleague commissioner
Joseph Magazine for uh joining us this morning. Mr. Attorney uh why don't we read the public comment? >> Of course, Mr. chair. Uh during the hybrid sunshine meeting, the meeting the members of PSNQLC will be physically present in the
commission chamber at 1700 Convention Center Drive, 3rd floor, Miami Beach, Florida, 33139. Members of the public who wish to attend this sunshine meeting or provide public comment in person may appear at the commission chamber. Members of the public who want to participate or
provide comments virtually during the sunshine meeting may join the webinar via Zoom. Thank you, Mr. Attorney. The purpose of today's sunshine meeting is twofold. Um, first and foremost, we're going to be discussing at the beginning of of the meeting uh the preparations for the boat
show, the yacht show, uh specifically traffic and safety. Then we're going to be speaking about the city administration's plans as it relates uh to to spring break. Uh I expect a holistic and comprehensive uh presentation on absolutely everything
from transportation and uh traffic flow to our marketing and communication campaign uh to parking accessibility, beach access, sidewalk cafe impacts, sanitation, barricades, everything related uh to spring break. But we're
going to start off the meeting uh by allowing the public with a reasonable opportunity to be heard so the residents and businesses in the community who wish to chime in on spring break or the B show uh can do so. Do are we all on the
same page colleagues on this order for today's meeting? >> Yes. And if I may, Mr. Chair, I just wanted to thank you for calling this meeting because I've had this item on the agenda for several months to discuss spring break. I think our businesses deserve to know how they should be preparing to and planning for what in
many cases is the biggest month of the year for them and it it wasn't called and so I'm really appreciative that we're having this robust conversation in the sunshine today. >> Thank you. Thank you. So with that so that is the order for today's meeting. Uh with that if there's members of the
public wishing to speak you're welcome to approach the podium. Uh and uh so members who are physically present, you can approach the podium if you wish to speak on on any of the issues that we have on the agenda. Uh we're going to start with Mark on Zoom. You have your
hand raised. Uh please unmute yourself. You have two minutes to speak. >> Hello. Good morning. >> Good morning, Mark. Is there a way I could turn on my camera? Not that I'm so pretty, but >> No, we unfortunately that's not allowed, but welcome. You have two minutes to speak. >> All right. I'm I'm SM. Okay. Thank you.
Well, good morning, Commissioner Fernandez and Commissioner Bot and all their commissioners for holding this meeting about public safety and traffic. I think when it comes to these sorts of meetings, we really have to face the most pressing, severe, and immediate concerns. And while spring break is a month away and the boat shows only 4
days, we really should be talking about the proposed water park at the Fountain Blue. It's 250 ft of water slides. It's an 18 ft concrete tower right in the Fountain Blue backyard which is already busting out of the seams of every valet.
Now, if you look at Collins on a regular 2:00 afternoon, I have a photo, which I wish I could hold up, of a fire truck driving into oncoming traffic because it cannot reach the emergency because it is such gridlock. And this is the most pressing issue. This is a permanent
spring break on Collins. This is a permanent uh boat show on Collins. It's like a carnival cruise. And found will continue to lie to everyone, the public, politicians, and they'll say it's not open to the public where I'm holding up a resort pass of 180 guests for a day
pass here at the Fountain Blue. This is a this is a 911 emergency. I'm shocked the fire department's not talking about this. The police department's not talking about this, but everyone looks to you guys for leadership. I know this is going to the historic board, but as
commissioners, you have the strongest voice. you have the most most impact. And you have to alert everyone that on February 10th, this Tuesday, the historic board is going to be voting on this at 9:00 a.m. at 1700 Convention Center. Everyone should be there and
give their opinion and talk about this issue. Thank you, Commissioner. >> Thank you, Mark. And just and just for purposes of the record and obviously the public is always welcome to participate uh and chime in this meeting is specifically advertised for the purposes
of discussing both show and spring break. Uh that is that is what the the confines of upon which we're able or the limits of what we're able to discuss today. So anything outside the topics of spring break or the boat show we're not
allowed to discuss today. Mitch Novik, welcome. You have two minutes to speak. >> Good morning. My comments pertain to spring break. Uh Mitch Novik, uh the Sherbrook Hotel. I've been in the hotel business for 37 years here on Miami
Beach. March, uh traditionally has always been the pinnacle month financially up until recent years. Uh it's more equivalent. Uh I I compare it to June through September in terms of my
numbers. I would ask you to uh not have a marketing campaign that tells people not to come here. Uh my clientele is not a spring break uh uh uh pay patron and
uh but but it it washes over and and diminishes everything. And that's shown by the numbers. Also, uh I would ask you not to close Ocean Drive to vehicular traffic.
When that happens, uh Ocean Court, which my property of butts, becomes a cesspool uh of traffic. uh the state or uh the county's department of transportation has categorically stated that Ocean
Drive or erosion court was never uh designed to handle the vehicular capacity a closed ocean drive creates and uh the this past month with its closure it's it's very disruptive to my
business. Thank you. >> Thank you Mitch. uh and and relating to the marketing campaign. I hope uh we'll be able to see it at today's meeting. Um Mark Gellman, uh you have your hand raised on Zoom. You have two minutes to
speak. Welcome. >> Good morning, Alex and other commissioners and committee members. Uh question regarding the boat show yacht show that's going to be along Indian Creek. Uh yesterday I took a walk east on 41st Street and reached Indian Creek
or tried to reach Indian Creek and there seems to be construction occurring along the sidewalks and uh on the north side of the 41st Street bridge leading to Indian Creek and that will halt any
access over to the boat show. Are you aware of this construction and why is it going on during the boat show? >> Thank you Mark. Yes, that's related to FDOT's dual turning lane uh project on Collins Avenue. There is a moratorum
that we'll be speaking about uh later today that goes into effect I believe today. Um a mor a construction moratorum specifically on the blocking of travel lanes. Uh and that's a moratorum that's being implemented because of policy that
the commission over the years have has passed. And so the blocking of of the sidewalk on 41st Street is directly tied to that. And I believe our transportation director, Jose Gonzalez, who I was speaking with earlier, was going to be looking into the issue of
the pedestrian access on 41st Street so that pedestrians on 41st Street don't need to cross. We'll get we'll be expanding on this specific issue after public comment. Thank you, Mark. Are there any other members present in the chambers wishing to speak? Please
approach the podium. Uh, welcome. Please state your name for the record. You have two minutes to speak. >> Hi, Troy Wright. Um, Washington Avenue Business Improvement District. Um, you know, more than ever, I've heard from the business owners and the property owners regarding Washington Avenue and
spring break. A lot of them are afraid of the economic impact that will happen. Uh many think that they've taken one for the team the last couple of years and they have. Um but now they need reassurance or to hear something from commission or from this body to say
we're going to turn this around. We've heard you. We're listening to you loud and clear, but we need something to make sure that we rel alleviate the fear. There's a lot of fear. We have businesses that are gone now that were not here that were here I should say 10
years ago 15 years ago that lost their businesses because of spring break and the shutdowns that happened. So we're asking that a plan I'm hoping that one is in place today um that we can pass on to the business owners in addition that
we do not have to deal with barricades once again. Uh the barricades are a nightmare for any business setting up. they feel like they're in a prison camp or something like that. And it prohibits good customers from stopping um at their residents and businesses. So, there's a
lot more I could say, but I wanted to listen and hear more um from you. And I didn't really want to say much more because I know there are a lot of people that have a lot more to say about this, but we need some direction from you. We also need some help in helping the businesses on not just Washington
Avenue, but Miami Beach as a whole. Thank you. >> Thank you, Troy. and and please extend to the businesses that you represent gratitude because they have cooperated over the years of the imp of the implementation of all of these restrictions. Some of them actually some of the ideas came from the businesses
because they understood that we had to turn things around and I and I think you're right. We need to be seeing now how do we keep our promise of being able to have a month of March where the city doesn't have to be shut down where we don't need to have barricades where we don't need to have extreme parking
restrictions or you know extreme limitations to the access of our beaches or even our sidewalk cafes for that matter uh when it's most pleasant to sit outside. Um because that that was those were the promises made strict restrictions but not making them
permanent restrictions so that people can come back and enjoy Miami Beach. Uh in this iPhone you have your hand raised. You have two minutes to speak. >> Yes. I want to echo what Troy would just
say and I think that last year uh was an overkill and uh and and those barricades it just makes everything worse. And I think we have a good police department and we pay them very well and
you should trust the police to keep order peace and order in our city without a campaign telling people not to come. I thought it was kind of like a joke to spend, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars to tell people not
to come. So, I hope that this year just just open up, let the streets open, let the police do their job, and let's get back to just a normal life. Thank you for all your service and your time. >> Thank you.
Welcome. Good morning. You have two minutes to speak. Please state your name for that. >> Thank you, Commissioner Fernandez. Steve Pasar, chairman of the Miami Beach Hospitality and Nightife Committee. First, I want to thank you guys for having the committee. Thank you for
having today's meeting. And rather than get into the details, I I've been a resident of Miami Beach all my life. I've been and I've owned businesses on Miami Beach. And I think the city had a a good reason for clamping down on
spring break in the years past. However, we did a good job with that. But now you guys are the city fathers and mothers of this city and uh respect for the balance of the residents and the businesses is part of our our job and I think like to
see a little respect now and give the businesses an opportunity to breathe. I think we have a terrific police force. I think these guys could do a great job. And if we and the marketing situation, we're sending out some messages. I actually heard it on the radio this
morning on the way coming in about how we're clo Yes Yes, it's on the radio today. We're clamping down. We're shutting down for spring break and one of the gentlemen came up here and uh and if Mitch Novak says we should open up, I mean, that tells you an awful lot right there. You know, I thought he was going
to talk about water inside, you know, where >> I thought he was going to talk about the water park at the fountain blue, but he didn't. So, that said, I I think that you guys are in position to give the businesses an opportunity with balance and the police doing their job and let's
see what happens. I think it would be good for the city. Thank you, Mr. >> Thank you, Steve. And and I think what you're mentioning about the campaign is so important. I I haven't seen the campaign yet. Uh I'm eager to see the campaign. I'm excited to see Melissa's presentation later. Uh, Commissioner
Body recognized. >> Um, Steve, if you could um just That wasn't a message put out by the city. So, can you let us know where you heard it so we can >> I heard it on the radio today on channel 610. >> 610. Okay. >> At about 8:45. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Okay. All right. With that, I see we
have David with his hand raised on Zoom. Welcome, David. You have two minutes to speak. Good morning, David. >> You You need to unmute yourself. All right. Uh we'll go back to David. Let's jump. Let's go to Andrea. Andrea,
good morning. You have your hand raised. You have two minutes to speak. Please unmute yourself. >> Good morning. Uh, thanks for having this meeting and and letting us speak. I'm one of the people who emailed as a concerned resident of Miami Beach about the boat show coming back to Indian
Creek. So, I'd like to hear a little bit from you guys how it how it ended up coming back because when I moved here 8 years ago, it it was here and it was the worst traffic nightmare. And as my kids have gotten older and then are in school now, it can take me 2 hours to get to
their school, which is, you know, I'm on 50th in Collins. The school's on North Beach Elementary. It's on 41st in Prairie. So, um, since it's a residential neighborhood and as we've already talked about, the traffic here can get really, really intense, uh,
during the weeks, even from conferences at the Fountain Blue. So, what what's the plan? How did it come here? Is it supposed to be permanently back here? Um, all those things. Can you can you give me give me the context, please? >> Sure. And and um our assistant city
manager, Maria Hernandez, uh will be will be making a presentation after public comments about this. I will tell you that there is a multi-year agreement beginning I believe this year that runs through uh 2030 uh with a 5-year option
for renewal of this of this yacht show coming back to you know I believe our most residential corridor avenue we have so many people that live there and I agree with you there are a lot of concerns um just just for the record you know I did vote against the expansion of
the post show and bringing it back. Uh when this came before us last year in the midst of all the traffic, uh Commissioner Bond, I think you had your hand raised. No. Okay. All right. Uh but uh Andrea, um we will be going into a presentation uh by our administration on the Bush Show right after we're done
with public comments. Um welcome Joel. Welcome. Save your name for the record. We have two minutes. >> My name is Joel Steedman. I'm from Twist Nightclub. I'm also on the uh Miami Beach nightlife committee and I just want to say thank you for letting us speak about this because I think it's
really important you all hear from us that are on the ground level uh experiencing everything as it is. Uh you know, first off, I'd like to tell you a little bit about our experience at Twist last weekend, excuse me, uh last year on the uh uh alleged high impact weekends.
Well, they were not high impact. Uh Washington Avenue was virtually empty. Very little foot traffic. Uh Espanola Way had a few people. Twist had a few people. M2 had a couple, but virtually empty. So I guess what I want to say is
I believe we've achieved the goal of squashing the problems that we had. I'd like to congratulate our police chief and the Miami Beach Police Department. I think they did an amazing job and they've done an amazing job. Uh thank you to the commissioners.
You know, really I think job done. Um now we have to recognize that there's been a lot of collateral damage. A lot of businesses suffered as Troy mentioned on Washington Avenue and throughout. We've seen so many businesses empty out in the last couple years. We have to
stem the tide of that. I feel like uh the commission is getting that vibe and we really appreciate it because it's going to be too late if we don't act soon. But thank you to the police department. You guys are doing a great job. And and honestly, I think we can
entrust in our police to keep us safe. I think we can greet our tourists with palm trees and be open beaches and open garages and and let's get rid of those awful barricades. Let's open up the sidewalk cafes and let
them flourish. We live in the most amazing city in this world. Let's show it off. Really, I It's time for Miami Beach to reopen. It's time for us to get Miami Beach working again. >> Thank you, Joel.
>> I did my two minutes. Thank you. >> All right, Pune Kaplan, you have your hand raised on Zoom. You have two minutes to speak. Welcome. Hi, I'm also on pollins in the 5200s and
I am very concerned about the boat show traffic especially since there's also um closures on Pine Tree and Lagorse which usually takes the brunt of the traffic when you can't get down Collins. So I'm really worried that the next two weeks
are going to be a complete nightmare. And then my other concern is um I feel like there are people especially the construction for the new building next to my building next to the fire.
>> Puna you're you're stating something important but you're cutting in and out. If you could repeat yourself because we missed an important part of what you were stating. So, um, first like I'm worried about the traffic because there's also street closures on Pine Street and Loris which
takes the brunt of the traffic when Collins is backed up. So, I don't know what's going to happen the next two weeks. Where are people going to go? And then the other problem is is I feel like the construction that's happening on 52 or 5300 for the
new building has access to the turning light timing because I live right there and I know they manipulate the time. Like they'll if if they have a truck that wants to come out, they'll stop the light, they'll hold the light and that's not acceptable. I don't know why they
have access. Also, I noticed this week that by Eden Rock, the parking lot there, they had the light also timed for them for getting out of that parking lot. And that's not acceptable either. You're holding up my traffic. I'm a
resident. I want to be able to go and come back. I don't need the light being held in red because they want to get their equipment out for 30 minutes. So, these are my concerns. And then >> to wait, one more thing.
>> Yes. a suggestion to help businesses in Miami during the off- peak months, the summer months. Maybe we can remove resort fees to incentivize people to come here and to help residents to be able to afford going out to eat and
having stations in Miami if they don't have to pay the resort fee. >> Thank you so much. Thank you for your participation, for your comments, and we'll address a lot of these uh when we enter into the boat show discussion. Welcome. You have two minutes to speak. Please state your name for the record.
>> Thank you. Stefan Janz. I'm the owner of the uh hotel gathering 1409 Lincoln Road. Thank you again for giving us uh an opportunity to talk with all of you and appreciate that even uh people were not member commissioners or not members are showing up and for your interest. Um
I I don't want to repeat what was already said. I think we all share from the business side the same opinion. I I think what you've done also is like you have put in gear you know some um some new um initiatives about replacing uh
what was happening in March and we also appreciate that and what I'm concerned about is like it's strictly the image also of the city when we are bringing that new clientele these new visitors um I I think that they would be in shock to
see possibly some aspect of the plans that we had last year regarding ing barricades and all this. It's I don't want to say it's embarrassing, but that we we do get this feedback about what happened. Is everything okay? Um so it worked. It worked extremely well. You
did a great job. Um we you have a full toolbox and we trust uh all of you and the city staff about using that toolbox as needed at the last minute if needed. that um you know just keeping in in in
mind the image of our city with new possible visitors is important to us. So thank you. >> Thank you Stefan. Dana, you have your hand raised in Zoom. Welcome. You have two minutes to speak. >> Hi, good morning. Um I'm a resident of Miami Beach. Um thank you so much for
holding this meeting. Um, right now I just want to know if the city can reconsider hosting the boat show in Miami Beach going forward. I understand the boat show brings visitors and revenue and the reality for the residents is severe disruption. During the show, the traffic on Collins Avenue
and surrounding streets becomes unan unmanageable. Emergency access, daily commutes, school drop offs or local businesses access are all negatively affected. For many of us, it feels like our ability to live and move in our own city is put on hold. Year after year, we hear that traffic mitigation will
improve. Yet, the congestion and the gridlock remain. The burden falls on residents, not on the event organizers. I'm asking the commission to either decline to host the show again in residential areas or require meaningful enforcable traffic and crowd management solutions that truly protect the
residents and quality of life. Miami Beach should prioritize the people who live here year round. Um economic activity is important but it should not come at the cost of basic mobility, safety, livability for residents. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dana. Uh and as I mentioned
earlier, this is a 10-year agreement that the city No, it's through 2030, I believe. >> It's 5 years plus five. >> Yes, it's a 5-year agreement that we have till 2030, then with another five-year option for for renewal. If I remember correctly, um, Maria, there is
a termination for convenience on the on the contract. Um, but that of course, uh, that's that's something that, you know, you know, people would have to analyze at the right time after the B show. All right. Um, any other members of the public attending in person
wishing to speak? Jonathan, welcome. You have two minutes to speak. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First I want to commend the commission and the police department for the efforts over the last couple of years. I mean really quite extraordinary. Um I like others would comment that I think
uh sort of the imposition of barricades and so forth has been probably unnecessarily restricting. I think one of the misconceptions frankly about March even during our most challenging period is all of our or many of our best best
Miami Beach customers are here. grandparents with grandchildren, parents with children, it's not spring break, it's spring vacation. And we gave a message to those folks when they came to town that this is not the place to be. Now, I do want to acknowledge also, and we saw this, by the way, with the
college football DJ events on the beach, which were largely very successful, but what the media covered was moments of terrible activity. They were short-lived, >> a short period of >> I'm saying I'm saying they were
short-lived, but what got projected where some young people jumping over fences. So unfortunately, we have to keep in mind what happens to our brand when bad things occur. So again, I want to commend the commission and the police department. I would say for myself, I
welcome a very active, visible, large law enforcement presence during spring break. I think all of us would. That's a wonderful thing. What we can't have is all of our sidewalks closed, all of our traffic, you know, redirected, people basically here and not being able to
enjoy the things that we are offering for people to enjoy and people simply couldn't cross the street. People couldn't sit on the sidewalks on Ocean Drive. We were saying to people who pay a lot of money in March, March is an expensive month. Don't be here and don't
go outside. Stay inside the lobby of all of our hotels. So, we simply need to find the the right balance where we can to make it a safe safe period, but also one that's welcoming. And I do commend the commission also for the programming that's been added for March. Thank you.
>> Thank you. And Commissioner Magazine, our colleague who's joining us this morning, has been incredibly instrumental in in attracting a lot of that programming. And when we speak about spring break, you know, it was a lot of it was about filling the void. How do you fill the void? We need
positive activation in the city and Commissioner Magazine, thank you for your incredible leadership and bringing good activations into into our city. Uh David, you have your hand raised on Zoom. Welcome. You have two minutes to speak. >> Can you hear me now?
>> We can hear you now. Good morning. >> Good morning. Forgive me. I've been in the whis Whistler uh uh Vancouver airport getting through security right now. Um I I just listened to Jonathan and he's correct. I listened to Troy, he's absolutely correct. I listened to
Joel Steedman, he is absolutely correct. We have all gone through a war for decades in many ways, but we now need to recognize that the war is over. the barricades. Uh, at the very least or the
very most, it should be the west side of Washington going into the residential area. If the people south of Fifth Street, I know they were complaining if they still want barricades on Fifth Street going south, it should be there.
Barricades maybe uh on Fifth Street on the north side should be there again to protect the residential neighborhood. Other than that, there should be no barricades anywhere. We should say welcome to Miami Beach. Uh but what we
should also add is our police. We have numerous numerous numerous troop troops of police that have always sat in the intersections just leaning on their cars uh because of that traffic loop which should absolutely never happen again. Uh
it is the most horrible experience one could ever go through. Uh and albeit in wartime it might have been necessary but the barricades and the loop should be done. Police should be working traffic
detail in every single intersection from 5th to 15th Street from Washington to Ocean Drive. And I do agree with my neighbor Mitch Novik. Please keep Ocean Drive open to traffic. It is the Ocean
Drive. It needs to be accessible. The hotels there need their customers to be able to get to the front door. If people don't realize it, the main the main amenity all of those hotels on Ocean Drive have is their front door access.
It's essential to those hotels. Um, >> thank you. >> I want to thank thank the police. Thank you uh uh Alex and the commissioners for hopefully finally acknowledging that the war is over and it's time to begin
peacetime activities in Miami Beach. >> Thank you, David. And I want to thank you and and your employees and the employees of all the businesses um because a lot of those of what we implemented were suggestions that came from you guys. you guys have also been,
you know, in the front of responding to a lot of the challenges, uh, whether it be violence and stampedes or whether it be economic impact to your businesses. And so we realize and we understand the impact that this has on on all of you. And so, thank you for for having
collaborated uh with our city and understood the need for these measures over the past few years. Any other members of the public in the chambers wishing to speak, please appro approach the podium. Good morning. Morning, commissioners. Thank you for this opportunity. I'm Annabelle Yopis, uh,
executive director at Lincoln Road. Um, I welcome, um, this opportunity to speak on behalf of the businesses and the landlords on Lincoln Road. And while Lincoln Road is not in the epicenter of the entertainment, it certainly has overflowed um, the unintended
consequence that has come from the past couple of years. Certainly parking um has been a challenge uh to tell people not to come because the parking lots, the surface lots, the garages are closed. Uh the perception that Miami Beach was closed. I I welcome to see the
new campaign that not only welcomes the international consumer, but also all the consumers in in the in the county. Um we have a lot of people who say they go from the beach over the bridge. We need to get people from over the bridge to come back to Miami Beach. And I think
that's also a a core component of the the messaging that needs to happen to let people know in our city, in our wider city area, that Miami Beach is open, that we have all these amazing things here. Um, I do welcome the positive programming that's been
happening in March. When I first started here, March was a big month for foot traffic. That no longer happens on Lincoln Road. And I think bringing positive programming, great messaging would welcome people back to Linker Road and to the businesses because they've
had hardship especially the last two years. And of course, we're under construction. So that just is another layer that we have to face. And while it's welcome and we want it, we want Lincoln Road to look bright and shiny, it is going to be hard on these businesses. So we do not need another
layer um of hardship. So thank you again for this opportunity. >> Thank you. Thank you, Annabelle. Uh, we're going to do two more members on Zoom and any other remaining members of the public who are in person. David Simon, you have your hand raised on Zoom. Welcome. You have two minutes to
speak. >> Yes. Hello. Thanks for taking my call. Um, I want to bring to everyone's attention, you know, for this coming spring break and other activities, there's something new in the mix. Florida, as everyone probably knows or
doesn't know, just passed the constitutional open carry for weapons, including uh long guns, AK-47s besides pistols. Last spring break, if
you recall, uh, Mayor Miner said they stopped 60 weapons from coming in by stopping people before they entered the Miami Beach party area, o Ocean Drive.
This year, they're not going to be able to stop those weapons, and people are going to be bringing in loaded weapons. I think it's a bad mix. Uh I don't think there's anything Miami Beach can do to
stop the state law, but they should try. They should try. Our police are great, but uh it's dangerous for them. It's dangerous for everyone. I know if I see a kid with an AK-47 walking down the
street, I'm going to leave the area. >> That's about it. Thanks so much. Thank you, David. Uh, Seth Fure, you have your hand raised on Zoom. Welcome. You have two minutes to speak. >> Thank you very much. Are you able to hear me? >> Yes. Good morning.
>> Wonderful. Good morning, Commissioner Fernandez. I'm Seth Fer. I'm a Miami Beach resident for 25 years. I chair the police citizens relations committee for the city of Miami Beach, appointed by Commissioner Fernandez. I'm speaking independently today as what I say today
has not been ratified by the PCRC. That said, thank you Commissioner Fernandez for holding this meeting today. Thank you to all attending commissioners and a tremendous thank you to Chief Jones and the Miami Beach Police Department for the tremendous job they do at large for the city, especially for their herculean
effort every March for balancing some very difficult circumstances. The city of Miami Beach needs to figure out the future and I know all the powers that be are working on it. I request we get the politics out of it and make Miami Beach the best net it can be. A um a quick
note, I believe that what the Lincoln bid just um pointed out really hits a big nail on the head. One of the best ways to make a difference here is to do things to get locals to come over the causeway to spend time and money here. With respect to spring break, we're in
the 11th hour. plans are pretty much in place, yet we're still waiting to hear them. We have a spring break subcommittee of the police citizens relations committee that is eager to make an impact with it. We need time to make that happen. My request is that we get to work on this in the late spring
this year so we can work with the city commission, city staff, and residents at large to make the biggest possible difference for our great city with spring break next year. One that I truly hope we can show off our best side, let the residents feel safe, that it's easy
to navigate the city, support our local businesses, one that people that work in the city can do so easily, and that all of our visitors have the most incredible, safe, fun, and wonderful experience where the where they are leaving their dollars here and bring
their incredible stories home so more of their friends and families come to find out what Miami Beach is throughout the year. Thank you. Thank you, Seth. And I want to thank you and the police citizens relations committee as well as our black affairs advisory committee. Both committees have been very engaged
and very thoughtful uh over the years uh on the on the issue of spring break and helping guide uh some of our policies. Even even if all the recommendations don't get are not able to be implemented, they do uh help us. Are there any other members of the public
attending in person wishing to speak? Seeing no members of the public wishing to speak, uh I'm going to close the public comment uh period at this time. Uh thank you. Thank you everyone who who who participated. Uh and I think one of the great feedbacks that we have
received is that everyone feels safer. Everyone feels that the challenges that we experienced in in the past have been overcome and it's time to be looking at the future uh so that we don't create self-imposed challenges on our
tourismbbased uh economy in this part of the city. With that, the the the order is going to be uh we're going to talk about um B show next followed by spring break. So, Maria Hernandez, assistant city manager, is going to lead us on the
city's preparations for B show that starts February 11th. >> Good morning, everyone. Um, so I listened to all the commentary uh from residents and I think we can um address all of those comments. Um, but the first
thing I wanted to say because someone said, "Well, why are we having the boat show? Why are we having the yacht show again?" So, um the the the boat show is not just an ordinary show. Um it is the
largest um uh inwater show in the world. Um it brings about 100,000 people to the local economy. It has over a thousand um uh um exhibitors and it has an economic impact um to the
region of almost a billion dollars. So that is really the why more than anything else. Of course, we have a lot of voters in this community and they love their boats and their yachts. Um, so as everyone knows, the event is
actually at the convention center and then there are two special event permits that are issued for the activations that are outside. One in Pride Park and now the one um that is for the yacht show uh which is on Indian Creek. Um, the yacht
show was brought back under a license agreement, like you said, commissioner, for 5 years with a 5-year option starting this year for the first time. They hadn't been here since 2018. Um, and uh um but this show is very
different and the agreement that we have with them is very different than what we've had in the past. So, that agreement was approved on February 3rd. Um, and there was a resident that asked when did this happen? >> February 3rd, 2025. >> 2025, which is actually almost to the
day. Um, but negotiations uh really happened or the discussions were happening in 2024, late 2024 to bring the event back. The agreement was signed in April and um it reestablished that portion of the yacht show which is on
Indian Creek. Now uh the first thing that is very different in this agreement is that it has three major restrictions. The first restriction um well is the land they can occupy the space they can occupy. So the show is
restricted to a strip of land that abuts um the uh Abutz Collins Avenue from the parking lot P71. Um, also the parking lot uh can only give up 150 spaces and
the northern portion of the parking lot which is exclusive of the playground area has um an area of 31,450 ft which is all they can take. So those are one of the restrictions. The other thing to note on this show compared to
last uh shows of the past is that this show is has been reduced by 50%. So whereas yacht shows of the past were a mile long, this show is only half a mile long. Whereas shows of the past had 450 yachts, this show only has 250 yachts.
Still a lot of yachts. Um but uh the yachts are basically being displayed be between 42nd and 44th Street. Uh there's also other restrictions um where no event um uh in no event can the yacht
show or any of their operators conduct any loadin or loadout activities outside of certain hours. Um, and that is between 9:00 a.m. 3:00 p.m. 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Monday through uh Friday and 9 to 11:00 on Saturdays and Sundays. Um,
they also have to comply with a lot of laws having to do with the bridges. So th those laws apply to the 63rd Street Bridge, the East Venetian Causeway Bridge, the West Venetian Venetian Causeway Bridge, and the 79th Street
Bridge. Um they also um will cannot and cannot allow any of their exhibitors or their invitees to mobilize boats under those bridges from certain time frames. And all of this is going to have to be
regulated and overseen by our code enforcement department and other departments. Um so um of course that doesn't apply to small boats that don't need the bridges to open. So in summary, um it's this agreement has a lot of sort of zero
tolerance policies um embedded in it. No lane. >> I don't want to talk too much about the agreement because the agreement was considered last year. I want to talk about >> traffic safety. Yes. >> Uh lane closures, construction,
deviation of traffic, uh messaging about it. Guide us about on the ground. What are we doing to keep traffic flowing uh during the uh boat show activation on Collins Avenue? >> Well, the um the restrictions on the load in and load out, one of the big
changes that happened under this agreement is that the show is basically getting built from the wateride and not from the landside. So, what that does, it creates one challenge. Um we have to be very careful about what happens with the rowing club. We have to have safety
first. um considering that they also use the waterway, but it takes a lot of traffic off of Collins Avenue. So this year, this is the first time we're doing these things. And um uh Informa, we have their senior vice president here, can
take a very deep dive into all the things that they're doing to mitigate all of these challenges. as you um shared with uh earlier, the good news is that the DOT project, which is what was causing all of the traffic problems that
we were having recently, has agreed to um shut down their operation starting today until the day after the boat show is open. That's huge. >> Are there any right-of-way permits that FPL has active? Because FDLT is only one agency, right? Uh and at times we see
utilities out there that might be doing work that are getting permits that block a lane of traffic and then uh creates a congestion. >> Well, this special event is um will fall into the moratorum of that kind of activity especially in this area. So
they're not going to be able to do I mean it's 100,000 people to give you context. Uh Art Basel's only 70,000. So we didn't have a lot of people here. Um uh the other thing that we are um we're
doing is that um we are the the the show is has shuttles and other um ways of getting people in and out of the event so everybody doesn't just come in cars. Um and they can speak to that. I would
like them to speak to that uh because they know every detail of what they're doing that's different. Um and of course if anything um we if anything if we learn anything different this year we will make adjustments for next year and maybe one
of the adjustments is that we have to allow them to stage a little longer on the waterway to bring the boats closer and not take up so much of the waterway. That's something I heard today. um you know, we'll have to make adjustments. >> And that's one of the concerns that I've received from residents along Pine Tree
Drive is that the double stacking of the ZOCS comes extremely close uh to the homes on on the waterway. And so that's something to be aware of and mindful. Next year, Mark Gellman called during public comment and asked about
construction on the sidewalk uh and the and impacts regarding that. Uh I know that that as I mentioned is related to the dual turning lane. Correct. Will the sidewalk be reopened for pedestrians >> because we Gonzalez >> with so much traffic I don't necessarily
feel comfortable having pedestrians forcing them to cross uh 41st Street. >> Correct. >> Good morning, Mr. Chair, committee members. Jose Gonzalez, transportation and mobility director. As recently as as yesterday evening, there have been conversations, discussions between uh
our city manager's office and FDOT leadership with regard to the ongoing lane closures on Indian Creek Drive adjacent to where the yacht show is activating. And uh happy to report that
as we speak, I've been made aware that the lanes the lane has been reopened and will not um close until after the boat show and that's as a result of these uh discussions that we've been having with FDOT.
>> We're so grateful to FDOT for collaborating and understanding the traffic impacts of periods like this and working with the city administration and reopening travel lanes. So if if FDLT is listening, you know, we are grateful for their cooperation. Could you could the
administration speak with FDOT, please? Because my concern is it's great. It's so important to reopen that lane of traffic, but equally important uh is making sure the pedestrianism uh that we don't block that uh that that
sidewalk on 41st Street where then we force pedestrians to cross the street. Can can has that been addressed with FDOT? it it has and we we will continue to impress upon them the importance of pedestrian mobility as well. What they've expressed to us is that um and
for those who may not know the north sidewalk of 41st Street is currently closed um on the bridge itself on that bridge. Uh and so that requires a pedestrian detour, >> right? Uh however, the issue with the
with that pedestrian sidewalk closure is that it is part of a containment area that extends underneath the bridge for work that is being done underneath the bridge. And it does include that sidewalk because they're rehab DOT is
rehabbing the bridge, the uh you know all elements of the bridge substructure, the beams uh for example, and you know the the the railings. And so that sidewalk area is closed as a as part of that containment area that was installed
a month or more ago. So >> So given the amount of vehicles because obviously even in the most minimal of impact we we're still going to be experiencing some sort of of a traffic impact whenever you have a special event of this nature. Even if they're bringing in people through shuttles and all that,
there's always going to be an impact. Will there be any police visibility uh there to or staffing of some sort, public safety specialists to help those pedestrians uh cross the street? Uh and
you know, what are we doing in terms in terms of uh traffic from the police side? >> Good morning, Commissioner Fernandez. Good morning, um uh commissioners. Uh Wayne Jones Police Department. Um, so, uh, we've been planning for the boat
show for, uh, quite some time. Uh, boat show, yacht show for quite some time. I was having a conversation with Robin Rose this morning and told her, um, I remember years gone when the yacht show was was here and the traffic congestion it created. I was so grateful that this
year for the first time they're loading from the water side as opposed to the street side. And share a personal story. At the time I I I lived in North Beach, it literally took me 2 hours to get from 4, I'm sorry, 71st Street to the police department on on 11th Street because of the traffic created by the load in of
the yacht show. That's not happening today, and I'm grateful for it. Um, at every pedestrian intersection, we have police officers assigned uh to them. We actually um have had that in place already, particularly up on uh Collins Avenue where they're loading in now. Um
the Monday prior to the start of the show, the show starts on Wednesday 11th. Uh Monday 9th, uh we're going to be activating uh police officers uh to man all major intersections between 71st Street down to Fifth Street, obviously here on the campus um of the convention center and around the campus itself to
include police officers on the causeways as well um to deal with ingress and eress into the city. Um uh on the peak days Wednesday through Friday we're going to have as many as 128 police officers working in major intersections
in the city. Um on a slower days uh Saturday and Sunday 55 and then a week from Monday um uh down to 30 police officers again manning all major intersections in the city particularly during rush hour time. Chief, u just want to following up on the comment that
we received about the pedestrian access being blocked on 41st Street because of the construction project that's going on there. Will there be uh public safety specialists or some sort of staffing on 41st Street um you know, Pineree Drive
and then at the foot of the bridge on the other side to help pedestrians if the if the detour the pedestrian detour is going to be there. I just want to make sure that with the amount of traffic that we have coming in or that's anticipated to to come in that we do
have staffing there that will help the pedestrians cross the street safely. >> There will be um you know on a daily basis now we have folks assigned along the 43rd Street corridor. That number has increased dramatically during the boat show up to 18 people at every intersection from Indian Creek um to
Alton Road on 41st Street. >> Okay. Starting at at Indian Creek. Okay. Very very well. Maria, one of the I see Commissioner Bond, you've had your hand raised. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, quick question about the timing of um of the restricted
loadin times. It seems like they cover sort of general um rush hour. I would encourage I don't know if it's possible to revisit for starting this week and next week, but I would encourage reaching out to the schools because nine
o'clock is you know that's that's complicated and 3:00 that's too late because um you need to generally be at school earlier than that to pick up your kids. So I would encourage you to reach out to the Montasauri school to North Beach Elementary to Nautilus um anybody
else who's directly on that corridor as a first starting point to see if you know tweaking it by half an hour here or there gives relief to the very many residents who are are um dealing with that. Very good point >> and that's such a great point and I just want to follow up on that point because
as it relates also to communication. >> I think you know our city does such a great job in communicating with our residents traffic impacts plans uh you know detours and all that type of stuff. >> What are we doing? Because we know a lot
of the traffic that that affects our community is not even our own traffic. It's cut through traffic from Bah Harbor, Bay Harbor, North Bay Village, Surfside. >> What are we doing to communicate with these other municipalities to let them know, hey, listen, your residents need
to expect that there's going to be traffic on Collins Avenue? They may want to seek other routes not to get stuck in that traffic or to contribute uh to the traffic. What are we doing in terms of communicating with these other municipalities? >> That's a very good point. Um, I could
let uh Melissa speak to that, but I think it's great that we can do that um to keep people off of Collins Avenue. >> Yeah, thank you. Good morning, commissioners. Melissa here, marketing communications. We actually have already put out um a press release and actually communication to residents and actually
have texted about the boat show, but we certainly will be reaching out. That's an excellent point, Commissioner, uh to our to North Bay Village, to Ball Harbor, to Surfside to ensure that they're also communicating that information to our residents. >> And sometimes one of the you know, not
only to the administration, but but perhaps also through their police departments. A lot of their police departments also have robust means of communications. So maybe the PIOS can could be speaking with each other. Chief, >> yeah, Commissioner, great idea and um we will be absolutely doing that leveraging
uh whatever put out by listen and her team will absolutely amplify that message to our colleagues and other police departments as well. >> One of the other points that was brought up during public comments was um traffic lane closures on Pineree Drive and Lagorse. And if people are avoiding
Collins Avenue, then they'll probably be on Pine Tree and Lagor. What are these lane closures? What can be done during the boat show to reopen these lanes and and help avoid creating a bigger problem? >> Good morning, Commissioner. John Norris,
public works director. That is a very challenging situation right now. That project is to replace a sanitary sewer force main that is over 90 years old. It's a very sensitive project. Unfortunately, we are in the middle of
excavation for flow control. So, we essentially have two lines running down that section of roadway and we are having to switch the flow from one side to another while we're doing the replacement. So, there will be open
excavations in the roadway and it will be very very costly to cover those up. Okay. So I think the key thing is and I understand that the key thing then is
communicating with people communicating with people so that the people who are the uh the commuters uh who are who are trying to get around and are trying to avoid Collins Avenue um in response to of course the boat show uh if they they
know then to avoid you know Pine Tree or Lagors as well um and so they can make wiser you decisions on on traveling. So I think as part of when we're talking about Bo show traffic and lane closures I think you know we normally wouldn't be
talking about lagors and pine tree when we're communicating with people about what's happening on Collins Avenue with the boat show but given that our residents are going to be looking for alternatives. I think it might be wise to give them the heads up so that they don't get frustrated and caught in another set of traffic that perhaps they
were not anticipating. Yeah, we'll certainly do that. >> Yeah. Um it it might be wise to actually specify heading over to Alton Road and then having um the traffic details staffed appropriately to manage the chaos that's going to happen there. And I don't I'm not trying to put this on
Alton Road, but at the moment there's no construction there and we don't want a the proverbial poop show of having an open sewer line go bust um in the middle of all of this. That would be disastrous. So I'm very leerary of people trying to sneak through that and
I know nobody wants to congest Alton Road any further than it already is but in this case it is really the only remaining thoroughfare that's unimpacted by traffic and so let's plan accordingly and communicate that >> and that is and it's it's such a great point also and just kind of build a
little bit on that commissioner bod communicating real time is important and now we have the real time intelligence uh center chief uh which is such a such a great asset and we als also have our own uh traffic cameras uh that we work
with at AF DOT. Uh Jose, how are we monitoring these these cameras so that we can be providing real time information uh back to residents whether it be text messages or or emails? What are we doing? How are we using these
resources? So, uh, as part of our active traffic management, uh, services, which we do on a day-to-day basis, 365 days a year for 14 hours a day, during events such as boat show, we uh, we actually enhance those services to a higher
degree. We have uh, more hours of monitoring service. This is in real time. It's done from two locations. It's done from both the uh police realtime intelligence center as well as our real time traffic management center which is
co-located at FDOT district 6 that the cameras are part of the this this traffic management puzzle. Another part of it in terms of disseminating real-time information when there is an incident that's identified are the digital message boards that we have
strategically located throughout the city. during shows such as boat show, we actually have an increased amount of those uh electronic boards throughout the city. Just um related to boat show specifically, there are 20 um so you'll
see more of them during the boat show days uh because they're specifically tied to disseminate real-time traffic information as well as parking information. as parking garages um are are full, we direct people to other parking uh garages in the area. And
>> are we are we prov are we placing boards north of 63rd Street so that uh cut through traffic that may be trying to get south so they know to avoid uh this stretch of Collins Avenue? >> We are commissioner along the major
thorough affairs north of 63rd Street. we are for those um uh drivers that are heading south >> and the text messages that that get sent when there's a traffic impact. Uh, let's say your staff is looking at cameras at
the Realtime Crime Center and at the FDOT headquarters and they see, okay, there's a there's a big gridlock. There's a traffic accident. There's something that's creating congestion. That messaging is sent out by your department. It's sent out by the police department. Who sends out the
communications department? the communication >> there's a lot of uh back office communication that occurs as part of this traffic active traffic management uh program and communications is a key aspect police as well helps us confirm things on in the field when we don't
have eyes or ears when we don't have cameras for example police is is instrumental in that regard so is our code enforcement department our parking department there's a whole back office operation uh that occurs even before there will be communication between
transportation and the communications department to disseminate this information in real time. >> Yes. >> Okay, >> great. Um, with that are before we move over to spring break, are there any other comments, any other questions, concerns about BOA that may need to be
addressed? Colleagues, >> I'll get in to it more because I have an item on the agenda and it'll go through this committee I believe. Uh, so it's not really specific to Boat Show, but I really, really question the bang for the buck that we get for the digital message
boards. They make our city look awful. Okay, awful. And the amount of information that they provide. I think we have 6 to 8 just in the 17th Street Dade Boulevard Collins Avenue corridor
and they say boat show, expect delays. Do we really need that? Do do we really need that? Um, and they look absolutely awful. There is a digital message board on Aan Alton for no reason whatsoever. No reason. It stays there permanently.
I've brought it up for years. And there is an orange traffic cone as big as this chair that has been knocked down for months. Do you know how many thousands of city employees have driven past that?
And not one person, not one single person that make taxpayer money have ever sat there, gotten out of their car and stood that up. How is that possible? How is that possible? Do we not take any care or pride in how our city looks? We're
welcoming thousands, tens of thousands of visitors around the world and we're sitting here saying about being welcoming and doing this. We had one of the biggest events in the country with the College Football National Championship, New Year's Eve, the boat
show. And we have a three-foot orange traffic cone sitting turned over in the middle of Alton Road for months that thousands of city employees have driven by and nobody has sat there and
picked up. That is just one example, but it's common for the pride or lack thereof that so many take in the city. So when we're talking about elevating our experiences for spring break, it can't just be us up here. This has to be
an all hands-on deck effort. >> Thank you, Commissioner. And I think you're right. And you know, our image, how we present ourselves does project uh that message of being welcoming or not. Vice Mayor Selenus. Um, thank you, Chair Fernandez. Um, I'd
like to actually Melissa, um, I know you sat down and I wanted to address the text messaging situation. I know we get texts about traffic lane closures and traffic impacts and, you know, this intersection is closed due to police activity, etc. But I was
wondering if we can also do a text message maybe the day before the day the morning of boat show that says, "Boat show opens today. Click here for more information with the website or some type of access that communication. Do you already have that scheduled and programmed?
>> Um, so we don't have it programmed or scheduled. We did send we will send out a link, but remember it's one sentence. Um, and I will plug if you're not signed up for our text message. It's uh text MB alert to 87, but we can certainly do more reminders um if that's what you're
asking because normally we would do it let's say on a Friday. Um, but if you want us to send additional ones, we also worry about like the fatigue. Um, but we can certainly do that. >> And I and I do have an item coming to the February meeting where I want to explore as a communications effort for
residents doing more text messages and what that balance is to not hit the fatigue but also informing because it's always traffic based lane closures etc. which is great info but maybe we need to do a little bit more. So, we do have a contract with Everbridge um that the emergency management department manages.
Um but I will say it is specifically it's a state contract. There's no cost to the city for traffic text messages and for emergency notifications. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other comments from uh from from the commissioners in
attendance? No. Uh and just I during uh during the meeting now just a few minutes ago I got a text message received a text message from a Collins Avenue resident. When did we say that the lane closure is going to be gone? >> Today. >> Today by end of day or by
>> right >> DOT I believe had said end of day. >> Okay. Because there is still mobilization out there. Correct. There still is a lane closure out there. There's still active work happening there. So, we just need to make sure sometimes, you know, leadership will
say, "We're going to stop work. Let's just make sure that we follow up." >> Mhm. >> And that we make sure that the work stopped and that that if it didn't, that we're communicating back, hey, listen, you need to connect with your contractor, with your workers, because, you know, the mobilization is still
there. As of right now, uh text message that was sent to me 10 minutes ago, they're still there with a with a lane closed. >> Thank you all. Thank you, Maria. Thank you, Jose, for for this presentation. Uh hopefully everything will go well. And thank you to the boat show. We know you
have been part of our city's history for decades. Um I'm not excited about Indian Creek Waterway because I do have not excited because of the boat show, but because of traffic. That's what I get concerned about. Hopefully all the mitigation efforts that have been put in place, your creative thinking outside
the box hopefully helps uh alleviate uh the challenges that that we're concerned about. >> Uh just one quick thought that popped into my mind, Maria, do we do or do do the boat show folks do um an aftere event economic impact report?
>> Do Yes. >> Okay. So, and that will be disseminated. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Spencer. Hi. Uh >> oh, you turned off your mic. >> You can go here. >> No. >> Good morning, everyone. Uh Spencer Kohley, uh council for the boat show. Um
thank you all so much for um holding this forum. We appreciate it. Um I want to let you all know we're taking our commitments very seriously. Um uh we're here today. Uh Robin, uh Rosenbomb has joined me. She's with public affairs.
Rob Korea, uh, vice president of operations. Um, and so, uh, to answer your question, uh, Commissioner Bot, yes, we do a, um, post show economic impact report. Um, the last one we did for Fort Lauderdale, the economic impact
was up to 1.8 billion. Um, I don't I think we've done uh the most recent one for Miami is over a billion and we're planning to do another one now that we are moving back to Indian Creek. Um, so we're excited about that economic impact
number coming out cuz we know it's, you know, just for comparison purpose, if you look at a Super Bowl or national championship, that's, you know, 3 400 million and that comes once every, I mean, I'm on the Orange Bowl committee. I see the numbers like that comes uh you know once every 3 four years. This boat
show happens every year. Um so it's a it's a really important thing for our community. >> So when you do the report I would like to see if you're able to do this. I'd like to see the numbers broken out between Miami Beach specifically and Metro Miami because um while there is economic impact for Metro Miami, there
isn't the traffic impact to their residents. And so I want to make sure that we are benefiting because it's a it's it's an imposition on our residents. Um and we believe most of us that it's a worthwhile imposition because it generates enough revenue to
make it worth the the discomfort. But I'd like to see that quantified. Please >> understand. That is such a good point because a lot of times when these economic impacts are are done, yes, it's a billion dollar economic impact, but it's on the region, >> right? >> A lot of times. But okay, so what does
that actually mean for the residents >> who are who are sacrificing themselves with with the traffic? What is the true economic impact to the taxpayers of the city of Miami Beach? >> It's a good point. Thank >> Thank you. >> And just uh in closing, I just want to
thank um your staff. Uh you know, obviously Monica did the presentation, but Lette um Chief Jones, Major Robinson, um uh Jose, it's been everyone's been great. It's um our first year back, so you know, we're all kind
of relearning this again. Uh but we really appreciate their support and your support. So, we hope to make the city proud. >> Thank you so much, Spencer. >> Thank you. All right, with that and we're going to move forward uh to the star of the show of today's uh uh
meeting, which is spring break. Uh I think I think a lot of us are very anxious to know what are the preparations uh specific preparations that the city is doing for spring break. Uh what are the changes? What is our
marketing and and communications uh campaign? So I'm going to pass it over to assistant city manager David Martinez. >> Good morning Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. Good morning to all members of the committee and commissioners. Uh before I jump into spring break, just to
close on your uh comment related to the lane on in on Collins and DOT, I was I personally participated in a conversation with district secretary uh FDOT late yesterday who assured us that their intent is to open that lane today. They're wrapping it up, putting some
last paving on it. So, uh working through that and they assured us they'd be done by close of business today. Maybe a little later, but today for sure. >> Perfect. Thank you. With that, um, spring break 26, something that is in our focus right now, has been in our
focus for many months. Uh, city manager's offices and all of administration and all the departments that touch spring break in any way, shape or form. We have convened, we have, uh, brainstormed and talked about all the different measures. So just to recap a little bit, last June the city
commission uh passed uh a comprehensive public safety and operational strategy that was composed of 16 measures that are basically our guiding principles on how to move forward. These are very important and as I mentioned many of the many departments sitting here today will
will be implementing or be involved in any one of these. Uh in addition, last year in June and also in December, the city commission uh approved moving forward with additional activations that staff is prepared to get into the details of it, but specifically future
proof conference on the weekend of March 5th through the 8th as well as Water Palooa the weekend of the 12th through the 15th ending with the Adidas games on the 26th through the 29th, which is uh some of the things that we're taking into consideration and what we're
asking. Now, as I mentioned, there were 16 measures that we were directed to approve. At tomorrow's commission meeting, we'll be requesting that three of those measures that we be allowed some wiggle room, some deviation to accommodate some of the things we've
seen and some of the things we've heard here today. Um, I will briefly touch on the 16 very briefly just so we all recall what sort of things are on there. For the record, I'm not going to get into a lot of detail on that. There's many folks here today that can give you a lot more information than I possibly
could. Um, measure number one related to adopting and executing a heightened law enforcement staffing plan. I think the chief will be prepared to present that and discuss what it what he will be doing. Uh, we're not asking for any deviation uh in this particular measure.
Number two was enforcing uh vigorously enforcing the open container law which we intend on doing. Number three relates to the closing of the public beaches on the particular high impact weekends at 6 pm. This will be one of the measures that we will be asking for some
flexibility. We have some ideas and a lot of it has to do with the activations that are going on on the beach side and and those type of things. Um number four um has to do with the continuation of the cafe operations. What we intend but
supporting in case there's a need any flexibility. This is not what we're asking. This is already the measure that's in place is supporting if necessary suspension of the cafe operations. That's not something we intend on doing. the cafes. Well, the intent for them to continue as they
were, but having this measure allows the city manager's office administration to seize those operations if something uh were to change. >> The city manager's office has the authority, but the plan today is not to be suspending the sidewalk cafe operations so that our visitors can
enjoy sitting outside. >> That is correct. That is the full intent. We want those to be successful and want to do everything we can for that to to work for everybody. Okay. >> Uh number five uh is to again enforce the city's noise ordinance to its fullest. Number six is increasing code
enforcement, parking enforcements, and fire code staffing uh as necessary. Number seven is continuing to imple to explore the implementation of a secure perimeter that has been discussed over
the last few years, but it's one of the measures and is still out there. We're not asking for any changes to that. Uh number eight is to continue to explore implementation of any midnight curfews or other emergency measures if they were to be needed. Again that intent is not
even to look at that particular measure >> proposed that is not being contemplated >> that is not being contemplated but it is a measure that was implemented by the commission. Uh number nine is to implement as we all know a robust marketing communications campaign. I
know you're very familiar with that and >> actually I'm not because I haven't seen it. So >> understand familiar that we are going to be implementing uh what we're calling spring break 3.0 campaign and um Melissa and her team from marketing communication can can talk on that
particular subject. Uh number 10 is for transportation team to continue to work very closely with ride share uh services such as Uber andyft. send the proper messaging so that we can uh avoid maybe some things in the past and some lessons
learned. Um so we will be addressing that also. Number 11. 11 is the next one that we will be asking for a deviation. This has to do with closing of our parking facilities. We will be asking deviation to reopen them. We do not have
yet uh the magic uh dollar amount that we'll be charging. we have up to $100 obviously for the garages that not necessarily our intent. We're revisiting that. We're looking at what what could what could happen with some of the other uh deviations that we're going to get
into and how those things play with each other in terms of setting the proper rates etc. Uh number 12 is uh implementing the high impact rate. This is what I just mentioned that allows us to go up to $100 on the garages. Number 13 is the next one that we're asking for
deviation and that is something that was brought up today by several speakers. This is the restriction on on street parking on Ocean Drive Collins in Washington from 5th to 16th. What we will be asking is to allow us to uh
bring back and remove the barricades from Washington Avenue specifically and that is the request that we'll be making tomorrow at the city commission >> and we'll discuss that a little bit later. >> Correct. We'll discuss them when the time comes. 14 just to wrap it up is continue working with the county regarding the Venetian causeways and uh
the bridges and closures. So, we'll continue to do that. Uh number 15 is the potential of creating a special event zone or zones if legally justified. Uh I don't know that we're looking at that, but that's something that was there before. And lastly is exploring uh
alternatives for other modes of transportation which we have as you know our water taxis and it's been it's been operating and has been very successful so far. Um we have of course our trolleys you know freebies and other ride shares that our transportation department can address in more uh
specificity. Um with that >> so David let's go through the items that the administration is seeking at tomorrow's meeting a waiver on uh and to understand them better and perhaps the committee can provide some feedback to the administration ahead of tomorrow's
meeting. So, so what we're going to be asking is um right now the the closures of the beaches at 6 p.m. are conflicting with the extended activations that the commission has
approved as these activations and if if I could if I could ask uh Lette to come up in terms of to discuss the time frames uh of the activations but many are going well beyond the 6 p.m. park and and uh
and they're impact you know affecting also because they're activating the the border with the beach >> until what time? So what's what's a flexibility you're seeking? >> Um we're prepared to be discussing it in more detail tomorrow, but I believe we
were looking let's at something closer to 10 p.m. on on the uh closure of the of the beaches. >> Good morning uh Commissioner Fernandez, Vice Mayor and committee members. Lisa Roante, director of tourism and culture. So the time frame that we have for the events uh are ending around 10 to 11:00
and so that's why we're asking for the flexibility. >> So right now the policy is to close close public beaches from Fifth Street to 15th Street or portions thereof at 6:00 p.m. >> Correct. >> And you're saying you're you're asking for what time?
>> A little bit later than that. We have events like Future Proof that they have uh activations until 10 or 11:00. And so that would impact uh that's just an example. >> So so so perhaps what you're requesting is to give discretion to the city administration as to the appropriate
beach closure time uh based on the events that we're having. >> Yes. >> Okay. So not setting a firm 6:00 p.m. closure and extending that discretion to the city administration. >> Yes. Because we have uh activations going on the beach front and we will
have guests here at that time. How does the how do the members and commissioners feel about this? >> I'm supportive of that and I think we'll it's a separate item um with relation to the barricades, right? So, we'll get to that point later.
>> I have comments on that. >> Yeah, I'm I'm supportive of that as well. And last year we talked about um making sure that our closure times coincided with sunset so that we weren't kicking people off the beach when it was still beautiful out. So, um, you know, discretion is the better part of valor
and and so let's use common sense and if people start going haywire, um, which we don't anticipate, um, we'll act accordingly, but let's let's operate on the best assumption that the problem has been solved and people are eager to come back and have a great time. Absolutely,
>> Commissioner Magazine. >> Yeah, I I would agree. Even events aside, I think that was one of the things that be looking to add some flexibility with. uh as well as the barricades. There's in in no way my support of having that up and down Washington Avenue, uh Collins Avenue and things like that. So, I think some
flexibility here with uh the beach closures um in March, the the beach is the best part of our city. Uh so, people what I saw last year is there are a lot of people that come here to truly enjoy March in the way we want everybody to come to our city and enjoy that. So,
let's give them one of the best resources uh that's possible. you know, we do want to uh shy away from the um unorganized uh large crowds. They gather uh by some of the lifeguard stands and turns into their own like quasi uh concerts or things like that. So, I
think that's why it's good to give discretion, not flat out uh setting black and white standards. So, uh you know, we're going to put our trust in you all. >> And so, let me let me just ask this because in the I have received concerns about the limited access to the beach.
People people are concerned that with only two access points and I think that that's what's been proposed. Who can who can guide me as to which are the access points for the beach? >> Believe the police chief may be
addressing this. >> Morning, Mr. Chair, commissioners. Wayne Jones, police chief. Uh we have in past years restricted access to the beach for one and one reason only. Uh so we can enforce uh these young people bringing on all sorts of things that prohibited
to include coolers filled with alcohol to include big loudspeakers onto the beach where they tend to have parties. So that's why it's been restricted in the past. Haven't made a a determination as to which access will be restricted this year. that's still under discussion
uh with the >> has it been determined that you will be >> it has not been determined whether or not how much restrictions we're going to um apply this year versus what we've done in the past >> because concerns that I've re that that that I've received is that it creates a concentration of people at these access
points that's not safe but then it also pushes people into other areas uh they'll go they'll try to get in south of fifth I know Andreas uh every every year raises a concern. You've been very vocal about the impact that uh that the
access point has. It creates an overflow to the other areas where you don't have uh that limited access point. So, uh it's something that I think we probably would be supportive of giving you that discretion of, you know, not having to only have two access points and consider
having more to avoid that overflow into other residential areas. >> Yeah. And uh Mr. share. Perhaps we could implement something like the Goodwill Ambassadors program or even having uh reallocated city employees uh that are there serving as access so we don't have
to strain uh the police resources that be could be better allocated elsewhere um but to have some sort of program where we're still providing those uh checks and balances at all entry points. But I do think that um it is wise because what I've noticed uh with my own
two eyes is creating that clumping effect or cluster effect on the beaches where it concentrates it in these two areas and then we have these large swaths that just go kind of unutilized. So if we're able to spread that out, it just doesn't give that bunched in feeling. >> Yeah. And by the way, we we have done
that in in real time um based on feedback from our folks in the field, based on feedback of some from some of the vendors on the beach itself who asked us in real time, hey, we're having a problem certain parts of uh the beach where people are getting on and off. Can
you sort of uh roll back some of the the closures? And we did. Um and so we'll continue to do that. Um but but again, we haven't made a final determination of which ones are going to be closed this year. >> All right. Can I question >> Commissioner Dominguez and then Commissioner B?
>> I'm sure we're going to do this again, but uh deploying the goodwill ambassadors and are is the county going to help us this year? I know that in years past that, uh had changed. >> Um but there's new people. So, where are we with the Goodwill Ambassadors and
their help on the access points that we have on the beach? So we'll be using our city mine bec ambassadors as well as the counties for the ask has been made to the county. I think our relationship is a tad bit better this year than has been in in recent years. Um it seems very very likely they will be supporting our
ask particularly on the two uh key high impact um uh weekends. >> Well I couldn't have asked for a better segue than that. Thank you chief. Um my question is that normally the weekend surrounding se um St. Patrick's Day is
like the, you know, the most volatile weekend. This year, St. Patrick's Day is on a Tuesday. So, are you anticipating the weekend prior or the weekend after being the most um potentially volatile? >> Both. Uh I think weekend prior we're
looking at just over 300 colleges are out and weekend after just over 400 colleges are out. Uh the weekends uh before uh those two weekends and the weekends after I think it dropped to around 100 or so. So both the weekends what we're looking at being the really key weekends to focus on.
>> Which two weekends? I'm sorry. >> The week the weekend of the the 9th and the following weekend of the 16th. >> So are both of those weekends and let them this might be a question for you. Both of those weekends have activations with um events. Adidas is one I think.
>> Yes, absolutely. Um, Commissioner Ba, we have Water Palooa is uh starting March 12th through the 13th and then we have the Adidas athics games uh the following weekend the 20th and 21st. >> Okay. So, both those weekends are are covered with >> Yes. And when we curate these
activations, we take that into consideration of putting the biggest events on those two big weekends. Correct. >> There is one weekend though. I think it's maybe the one after the athletes weekend that that there's nothing. Is that right? >> Uh that's correct. you're seeing in weekend three.
>> That's when we had high rocks. >> No, that we have Adidas AICS. We have it's filled after that. Then we have Ultra Miami Music Week. So, we have lots of amazing something going our hotels are super busy during that time. >> That's what we love to see. Okay. Thank
you. >> Okay. Um let me let me ask you do we have any any data as to as to hotel occupancy especially those two uh weekends that that we're more concerned about the 9th and the 16th. What are the
numbers from our partners telling us? >> We don't have it at this time but we can get one comparison from years prior. >> Okay. But we don't have access to to data telling us how are we in terms of occupancy uh during the night. I mean
that we that's usually readily available. >> We can get that from the GNCB. They provide a report um every Friday that gives us that information. >> Okay. >> All right. But we should ideally have it ahead of tomorrow. Uh as we're
discussing these measures again tomorrow as a full commission. Uh it would be helpful to know how are we doing in terms of occupancy projections. So that would be helpful to have. All right, David. Yeah, of course. The next two measures are closely related. Uh 11 and
13. 11 has to do with the parking facilities and 13 has to do with parking availability on Washington Avenue that we didn't have before. um related to the um measure 11 in the parking facility. What we're asking is basically allows
the DVA give us the flexibility to operate the facilities appropriately and also to establish appropriate rates obviously under the caps that are already established. We're looking at that now and again we we we'll know more in the next week or two uh especially
after uh this item is is approved or not or or modified uh when we discuss it tomorrow. will know uh if if Washington is approved and now we know we have parking on Washington that sort of plays out into maybe the rates in the garages. So we that's why we haven't have a fixed
rate yet at this point. >> So when we're talking about u item number 13 um and the ability to allow parking on Washington Avenue um that means to in order to be able to allow
parking that means we would not have the barricades on Washington Avenue. That is correct. There would be no no barricades in Washington Avenue. >> Okay. How about Ocean Drive? Because Ocean Drive is is another part of our city where we have seen the barricades. Uh and and it just you know whatever
welcoming message we want to be projecting to the world, it sends the opposite uh message. Uh what are we proposing or what is the city administration proposing as it relates uh to uh to the barricades? Thanks.
>> And I want to say a big thank you to David for um pinch hitting for me, Eric Carpenter, city manager. Um those of you that that may not know, I had physical therapy this morning and so I'm happy to join. Sorry I missed the early parts of the meeting. Um, but the
administration's plan at this point in time is to open up parking on Washington Avenue, but we still have concerns about parking and potentially people partying from their cars on the 100 blocks, the 200 blocks, and on Collins Avenue. Um,
we're still discussing Ocean Drive, but we believe that keeping the parked vehicles off of Collins and off of the one and 200 blocks is still a critical piece of the discussion. Obviously, we will we will do whatever we're directed
to do by the commission, but these are things that we would like to have the flexibility to make the determination um game time. >> Yeah. based on commission magazine. >> Are there and this is more to facilitate discussion, right? Are there ways or
possibilities where we can have not necessarily go all hands on deck with allowing parking everywhere but still not having the barricades up. Uh for instance, if there's places where we do not want parking, whether it be certain sections of Washington Avenue, whether
it be anything as an example, can we achieve that without using the barricades? Because the barricades, I think it just one aesthetically unpleasing, but also just sets this tone and mentality where you're here expecting bad things to happen, right?
And it just has I I could see it would have visitors tents just coming in, right? And it's almost projecting uh that you're expecting this chaotic uh scene. So, can we essentially achieve where we don't have parking in areas where we would envision it being
problematic, but achieving that through means other than having those barricades up? >> That's such a great point because, you know, sometimes a blanket policy doesn't work. You know, you we know there are areas that might be more concerning on Washington Avenue. You know, address the
problems there, but keep the rest of it open. That's such a great point, Commissioner. So I I would welcome our parking director and our chief to speak on this, but my understanding based on conversations with them is that we would have to put out a significant number of
no parking towway signs and then that would be a constant game of whack-a-ole trying to keep people from parking in those spaces over the course of the two main weekends. Those are really our our our critical um junctures from our
perspective are those two main weekends just prior to and just after St. Patrick's Day. But I think we all know like for example 7th Street. I believe 7th Street in Washington is one of those areas where we know is problematic where we know that in the past we've seen
challenges and and and I don't know chief uh if I'm saying seventh and Washington because that's what comes to mind. Are there other areas of Washington Avenue that we know that in the past have been pro problematic? >> N >> uh no mostly around the 700 block in 600
block Washington um where we've had issues in the past. I don't think Washington Avenue by and large has been a major issue in the past few years. So, so perhaps since we know that that that is an area that traditionally you can look at data and traditionally we know
that it tends to have challenges. Um to the commissioner's point, to commissioner magazine's point, perhaps we can, you know, identify that as an area say, hey, listen, you know, we're going to be looking at limiting parking here rather than playing wack-a-ole, Mr. Manager. You know, you know, data is not
wackable. You know, data tells us where the problems are. you know, we can target those areas, uh, limit parking there so that we don't have the chaotic environment or people drinking out of their cars or engaging in other activities while keeping parking open on
the other areas of of Washington Avenue. >> We could come up with something more creative, but it could be fleet vehicles that are parked there. >> Yeah. >> And I'm going to just recognize Commissioner Dominguez and then and then Vice Mayor Selenus. Uh thank you.
So with the barricades, I I'm not a fan and we have these uh beautiful events that are coming. Um those people may be staying at hotels. They may be driving in. So if they get to Ocean Drive and they want to valet their car with a barricade, it makes it harder. It's and
it's not welcoming. As uh Commissioner Fernandez mentioned, it's a bad look for these beautiful events that we're having in our city. Uh, so I would be in agreement with what Commissioner Fernandez just said. Remove the barricades, Ocean, Collins, and
Washington, and focus the barricades on the problem spots. Uh, Mitch Novak spoke earlier that 9inth is a problem. Um, let's look at uh, all hands on deck there. You mentioned Seventh Street, but having them in the rest of our city when we've got people coming in that need to
park. Also, Lincoln Road mentioned earlier what a detriment it was to their businesses and how many locals ran into issues the past couple years trying to get to where they needed to. So, uh, in discussions with the city manager, I know that Sunset Harboring is off the
table, so is 41st Street, but I would seriously consider also the Lincoln Road ones. >> Question. >> I actually agree. Um, thank you, chair. I actually agree that I don't support barricades on Washington or Collins. Um
the more or the less parking we have, the more people just drive around and that creates traffic and it's like sweeping water. Then it goes to other areas, then it goes into Flamingo Park, then it goes south of Fifth. Let's just have allow people to park. Um so I would not support barricades on Washington or
Collins. Thank you, >> Commissioner Magazine. Commissioner B. >> Okay. Um, and maybe if we could hear from Will, uh, because I also don't want to just say, well, we're opening the entire floodgates and just going back to old. One of the things that I think is
one of our primary uh tools in our toolkit is really enforcing uh parking in the residential areas. Whether that's I mean assure me that we're going to have our uh parking enforcement team out in full force, especially in our
residential areas. In the years where I've seen it most chaotic, it was when there was just unfettered access uh to our Flamingo Park areas and things like that. So I think if we can keep that ensure that that's cleaned up with very strict and stringent enforcement, we
could be a little more flexible in some of the commercial corridors. Uh yes, Will McDonald, director of parking. Uh so when I'll kind of break it up into two sections when you talk about uh Ocean uh Collins and Washington. So the decision for example that's made on
Ocean is going to impact Collins because obviously if Ocean remains closed then that valet is shifted out to Collins and it now shrinks down the amount of eligible parking on Collins because now we are loading up Collins with valet ramps that were existing on Ocean. Um so
in in theory that becomes I guess a parking blockage in of itself because we put up uh we call them GPS. We put up signage that discourages individuals from parking there. is a towway zone because those are now valet ramps. Um, and then from uh the Washington Avenue
aspect, the what what the city manager and the chief were alluding to a little bit earlier about the game of whack-a-ole, obviously physical barriers. Um, parking enforcement exists in Miami Beach for a reason. Doesn't matter if we paint curbs red or yellow or put up no parking toway signs. um you
know individuals will make a decision and then at that point in time it becomes an enforcement aspect where we have to get a truck and obviously in the traffic that can take 45 minutes to an hour sometimes. So it does become a game of whack-a-ole. I understand both sides but depending on what this flexibility
is going to allow us to do is make decisions in the moment what is best for the I'll say parking and transportation ecosystem the public safety ecosystem um on what's going to work best for the community. And I think what you're generally hearing here is that overall, at least as it relates to the
barricades. I I'm sensing, you know, this inclination against the barricades because of the image that it sends. Uh but at the same time, you know, there are certain areas like as they like as was mentioned by Mitch, Ninth and Collins is an area of concern. The 700
block of of Washington Avenue that the chief mentioned is is concerning. You know, maybe those are the areas where we may want to target the barricades in a limited basis. Uh so that it's not blanket all of Washington Avenue with barricades, blanket all of Collins
Avenue with barricades, blanket all of Ocean Drive with with barricades. No, we know the we have these two small hotspots of concern. That doesn't define the entire district. The district is welcoming. Is it it it should be fun.
People should be able to walk around it, cross the street, have a good time, be able to park and access businesses in general throughout the district. And those two or three areas that you all might identify as areas of concerns, well, in those two or three, you know,
blocks, you you might have to have some some barricades, uh, I don't know if that generally reflects the sentiment of the committee. >> Yes, I agree with that 100%. >> Yeah. Do we agree with that? >> Yeah, I wanted to just build on that.
>> And I'll just reiterate too with Lincoln Road. I mean, they're going through construction right now. They have so many things that are impacting them. To have any lots or garages closed for Lincoln Road would be terrible to the businesses. >> And also, if we're if we're talking
about far fewer barricades, then, you know, we're talking about maybe three blocks worth of barricades rather than entire, you know, sections of the city perhaps. Um, you know, given the historic data, you can have the mar barricades removed Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday. Um, knowing that Monday, and Tuesday would still be part of that high impact part of St. Patrick's Day or whatever. I mean, maybe it's, you know, you open it up a little bit now only have them when when absolutely necessary. Um, because it's not such a cost center to take them out, put them
out, take them back, put them out again because it's much >> I have a question, >> Vice Vice Mayor. >> Just a quick question. When we had the Kelvin Harris Baso pluma concert over that weekend um and we had 30,000 people in our city and the next night was a little bit less. Did we have barricades?
>> I don't believe we did. >> Nowhere. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes. >> Well, just want to build on that uh because I don't think you touched on everything there that's on the commercial corridors, but please assure me that we're going to have active
parking enforcement. uh in our residential areas because while I want to be a welcoming community, help our businesses, I also want to uh not start losing um the good momentum that we've built on really protecting our
residential areas. >> Well, or Mr. Manager. >> Yeah. And and to that point, Commissioner, and thank you, chair. Um the the discussion from my perspective is is two different things. It's the parking prohibition by use of barricades
versus the neighborhood protection that we've historically done for Flamingo Park and South Point. I would suggest that we keep the neighborhood protection. >> Agreed. >> At the street >> um intersections, but just remove the barricades where they're blocking the
parking along the commercial corridors. >> Agreed. >> And go ahead. >> Yeah. Um, let me touch on on I'll specifically focus on uh zone 4, which is Collins Park, Flamingo Park, zone 2, and then South Pits, which is zone one. Um, and then we have the residential portion of zone 5, which is an
entertainment district. Uh, during the CFP, we specifically assigned overtime uh uh parking enforcement specialists to these areas that had no other responsibility than utilize our license plate recognition technology to drive through the neighborhoods. um the
results uh displayed um from the number of toes that we towed out of just these three specific areas uh the impact that we were able to have. I think when that was obviously during CFP when there was no neighborhood protection. Obviously when you have the neighborhood protection barricades in place that is
now going to further um I would say enhance the ability for residents to find parking in these areas such as Flamingo Park. And so we will still deploy parking enforcement specialists on overtime duty to these zones specifically because I'll say that uh Flamingo Park zone 2 is our most densely
populated from a um uh uh residential parking program aspect and so we have to protect every single linear foot that we can there. So when we pair the extra enforcement along with the residential parking barricade program I think I think it'll be a very good result. And
to that point, um, you know, during the college football, um, weekend, um, we saw, which I hadn't seen before, somebody literally on social media saying, "Hey, hit me up. I've got 20 resident parking passes for sale." Which, by the way, for anyone listening, is highly illegal. So, don't do that.
Um, but you know, like we need to be monitoring that as well because we need to shut that nonsense down. >> So, um, I first and foremost, that actually allowed us to do a review with our, uh, IT team. They they were phenomenal. We were able to essentially
look at that particular individual's account and realize there were no guest passes sold off that account that weekend. Thankfully, um we are in talks to see if we can limit at certain times the amount of I'll say visitor passes that can be used. We obviously don't want to hinder these are these are where
they live. Um we want to ensure that they're able to have a friend or two over. Um, but obviously anything that can be flagged as possible commercial use, we want our team to be able to maybe either create a flag that makes us aware of what's going on or maybe put some parameters in place that, you know,
whether that number is two or three in a 24-hour period um that there can't be any more purchased on a per day basis that could possibly be perceived as commercial use. Vice Mayor Selenus.
>> So, on the topic of barricades and um traffic patterns, which I'd like to know about a little bit too because I am a resident of Flamingo Park and there's been multiple instances where I can't get into my neighborhood. Um so, I want to discuss a couple different things,
namely the traffic pattern on Fifth Street. um if folks will be allowed to turn into Flamingo Park from Meridian Jefferson um Michigan Linux. Number one. Number two, uh I've had instances where
I shop at Publix on Fifth and Alton and I cannot exit that parking garage and turn right onto Sixth Street to go home. I'm forced into some weird traffic and I don't want to fight with barricade people. Um that's not my way. I just go
by the law and the rules and so then I end up, you know, doing this weird loop to get home. Um, so I'd like to know that. And then lastly, um you know, in the past there's been different regulations regarding allowing folks to show a resident ID and then passing
through the barricades, which is tough because then the person at that intersection is dragging a barricade back and forth to open and close that street when they have a steady stream of residents that need to get home. So, you know, I this is why and again my point
was that I I don't think that barricades are are necessary per se, but but I get that there is some, you know, fear that, you know, the neighborhoods will be taken over, etc. So, I just want to know
how it's going to be managed and how the barricade protectors are going to be able to open and close the barricades for residents that need to get home where they live. And then the traffic patterns and how folks are going to be able to pull in from Fifth Street and
where the opening, closing, all of that's going to work. And this and also which weekends because is it just going to be the two high impact or is it going to be all month long? Is it going to be just Thursday through Saturday, Sunday, all week long? If you could just clarify that. >> Yeah, thank you.
>> Great question, Commissioner. So, the plan right now is for the two high impact weekends, Thursday through Sunday, to insulate the Flamingo Park neighborhood as well as the South of Fish Street neighborhood. We started using this a number of years ago, uh, quite frankly, because of complaints by
residents unable to park when it got home because the parking were were taken by other folks. too many vehicles cutting through uh trying to get from Alton Road, for example, over to Washington Avenue or from Fifth Street uh north of of Fifth Street um and of course south of FY as well. So the plan
to insulate both neighborhoods was was done a number of years ago and has been effective to that regard. understanding that there are sometimes inconveniences residents like you trying to get to home from Publix. Um we have for years u asked our folks manning those intersections to look at an
identification court if it is a beach resident even if you don't live in that that uh that area south of Fifth or Flamingo Park to allow that beach resident through. Again the the whole idea was to limit uh others from sort of cutting through and or parking in the neighborhood. uh we could revisit that
uh make more access points available for residents trying to to to traverse the neighborhoods um if that's the will of uh the commission. >> So thank you chief. Um but that I guess is my question is that so we will be allowing the barricade folks to once a
resident shows an ID with an address in that area to get through. So it won't be you're turned away, you cannot enter here. >> Correct. That's something we've done in the past >> and that's going to be implemented on the two high impact more high impact week of the 9th and the 16th.
>> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Let me ask and then I'm going to go to Commissioner Dom Dominguez. Um, as it relates to Flamingo Park neighborhood, there's also a fireflow project that's going on in Flamingo
Park. Is that fireflow project uh stopping during this period of time to help facilitate? Is that continuing? What how are we informing residents on how to navigate Flamingo Park uh as it relates to the barricades and then other
detours as it relates to um improvement projects like Fireflow. So, historically, we've put out communications on how best to access Flamingo Park during this resident protection zone. um program. Uh the
fireflow project will be going on during that time period. There will be lane closures. I don't know. Do we have any full street closures? I don't think we will. And we will be working with the contractor to mitigate as many closures as we can. Fire folk project is
obviously water manes. It's a little easier than dealing with say a forest main. So we'll be working on that and we will report back on what the ultimate impact will be. Um but at one point we were having actual entire streets closed
where people were having to detour and it was causing significant inconvenience. So if in addition to the barricades and having limited access once they get into their neighborhood they're being detourred. It's something that we have to be very mindful of um for for the residents that live there.
Uh so you know I I'd like to know hopefully by tomorrow's discussion uh what's going to be the the real traffic impact as it relates to this fireflow project on the residents during this period of time. >> Yep. I will coordinate with the contractor day and have a report
tomorrow for y'all. >> Commissioner Dominguez. >> Thank you. Um so back to the chief and talking about the traffic pattern. The month of March is one of the most beautiful weather times here in our city
and the businesses have in years past looked for the month of March to help carry them through July, August, September when it's uh super slow. Um the DUI checkpoints were a problem. We have many south of Fifth Restaurants that rely on people that were coming
over the bridge um and making reservations and they couldn't get through because it was taking hours and they just canceled. they wouldn't do it. Um, can the DUI checkpoint start later? Are we still going to have them? What are the plans for that? >> Um, Commissioner, as it stands right
now, yes, there's a DUI checkpoint uh schedule for the peak weekends. Yes, there are LPR um that's right now planned. Um, in past years, we did amend our start time to push back later because of that complaint we had from number of of restauranteers complaining
that folks couldn't get to uh their dinners that they that they arranged to have. So, we have uh pushed those times back to allow folks to uh make their >> What time? What time are we? >> Um I I think last year it was pushed back to nine o'clock. Um the initial time was scheduled for 7:00. We push it
back 2 hours. We're always very flexible to do what we need to do to accommodate those folks asking. >> I think the real the the real effectiveness is is communicating, hey, listen, we're going to be doing these LPR and DUI checkpoints. Um you know, I
I wouldn't be opposed of even, you know, you know, 1000 p.m. Uh, and of course, it's up to it's up to your dis discretion, chief. Um, but but the reality is, you know, people who are coming to our city to go have dinner. Um, you know, they still might be coming
in at 9:00 there and we're still going to be capturing them in that in that traffic. Um so so to the extent uh that you all could consider and by the way I this this came up yesterday at the chamber uh meeting as as well to the
extent that that we could consider pushing back the implementation of the LPR so that we still have it so that we can still message it as well but not impact those who are going to eat in our restaurants. That way we find a proper
balance. Commissioner uh Bod and then Vice Mayor Selenas. >> So, two things um regarding the LPR and DUI checkpoints like DUI, they're both public safety issues and as
we are now in a new world with long guns, you know, something that you can trot around town with. Um I am very interested in making sure that we catch as many people who aren't supposed to have them as possible. So I I'm I would
rather heir on the side of caution for one more year and and get the learning from that than um than push it back too late. But also my guess is people who are coming in to do questionable things probably aren't doing it at 8 or 9:00.
So I will you you guys are the experts. I just wanted to put that out there. The other question I had um will I don't know if there has been push back on traffic um being impeded by um ride share drivers circling or stopping willy-nilly the way we have in high
impact weekends or weeks like the boat show or our Basil because of spread over the course of a month. Have do you have any learning on that? Have you heard anything? And if you have, what are the plans to mitigate that? So, I will kind of I'll lean on our transportation team
not to kick the bucket a little bit. Um, but I think when we start talking about um where we allow parking and where we don't allow parking, I think there's some opportunities that we could possibly um talk to our partners at Uber
and Lyft. And while we can't designate where they drop off, we can with their assistance designate where they pick up because essentially once you're a rider, you're allowed to be let out wherever you desire. Um, so I think we can have a
talk about maybe identifying places that are no parking zones, uh, but that give these individuals, uh, pick up and I'll just say pickup points because again, we can't designate a drop off. Um, and we could do that I I feel comfortable saying relatively quickly
because we've already done it within, for example, Lyft. They have some places where they can't go on Ocean Drive, which is a uh a relic of something that was done in the past. Um, so I think we can have some conversations with our partners about um creating pickup points along some of these thoroughares to get
them off the road um when they're doing their pickups. When they're drop offs, we don't have a whole >> drop offs are fine. Pickups, that would be a great conversation to have with both of them. And then is there anything we can do? And I don't know what we're allowed to do legally, but this notion of especially the black cars circling and circling and circling looking for
their next big fair. >> So yes, uh there there are mitigation efforts that other cities have have put into place. Uh the the challenge comes to for example, I'll use one of the best uh uh uh uh examples. Uh Las Vegas had
the same issue with the Las Vegas strip. Um, however, they they took a a garage that was very little used off strip, designated it as like many airports do now. This is the waiting lot for ride share. And so it it really said, "Hey, if you're going to pick up a ride share,
it will not give you the the choice to receive the call unless you are in the designated area." You know, maybe um sorry to to jump in like this, but maybe this is a way we could address the issue of having barricades at 67th 9th to
prevent parking. Maybe if that becomes the ride share designated or a ride share designated pickup spot, it accomplishes the same thing because you've got official business happening there. You've got eyes on the street there and it doesn't seem as unwelcoming
and it brings a different kind of vibe to the thing. So, I will let you guys all mull that over, but that might be a way to kill a couple of birds with one stone. >> Absolutely. >> Thing is having designated areas for >> Yeah. >> Yep.
>> All right. Great. So, we've gone through a number of stuff uh a number of of the requests. Uh so, you you wanted to speak, right? >> I did already, but thank you. >> Okay. Was there was there any other comment from from the day? So, we were going through the three requests on the
public beaches and we generally uh agreed uh giving the administration flexibility so that we don't have a hard closure of the beach at 6:00 p.m. giving the administration this discretion to close the beach later. I mean, we close
the beach at 10 p.m. So, we have events um you know, we're not forcing a beach closure at 6:00 p.m. And uh we're going to give you guys this question to determine access points. Right now there's only two access points but I think we generally agreed that perhaps you know it might be prudent to have
more than two access points. Um on the uh on the on the garages, uh we we generally um agree uh not to set a $100 parking rate and but allow the city administration to determine what would
be an appropriate uh parking rate that's not ownorous uh so that so the businesses can continue operating and keep the garages open. Is that correct? Is is that the general feedback that what you were requesting on the garages? So, we were asking for the ability to
keep them open because right now the direction is to close them 600 p.m. Thursday and reopen 6 p.m. or 6 a.m. Monday. Um, right now the legislation that's in place gives us the ability to go up to $100. We don't think that that necessarily needs to change,
>> but I think what you're the the general feedback that you're getting uh from from the committee is, you know, provide the parking, have the parking open, you have the discretion to be able to close down the garages should it be necessary should things get out of hand. So rather
than forcing a closure of of of the garages, you have the discretion uh as our city manager to determine if it rises to that point to be able to to do it and giving you the discretion on on the rate as well so that we're not imposing a $100 parking rate, but it's
at your discretion. >> Understood. Happy with that. Thank you. >> And so then and then so so so recapping sidewalk cafes uh remain open. The policy is not to close on the sidewalk cafes. Uh barricades generally we all
feel that barricades should be removed from from Ocean Collins to Washington. Uh and perhaps identify the hot spots like Ninth and Collins that Mitch mentioned or the 700 block of Washington hotspots that might need it in targeted
areas but not have all of these commercial corridors barricaded up. Um allowing you, Mr. manager to open the garages, maintaining a flexible rate so that we're not imposing a $100 um rate, perhaps consider implementing
the LPR, but a little bit later. Um and of course that is at your at your discretion. uh and uh and not forcing a beach closure at 6:00 p.m. possibly um you know doing it later uh based on the
events that we have and providing for some more access points. Are we all on the same page, commissioners? >> Yes. The only thing I wanted to clarify is the rates uh for the garages. Um are we leaving that discretionary? I I I
don't know if we want to roll it back to just $3 parking. Uh I don't even know if we want to have differences for different weekends. If we're anticipating uh the first couple weekends, the first two weekends of March being kind of higher impact or would have been more
problematic weekends if we want to give uh our city staff discretion to almost do a dynamic pricing schedule or things like that. Um, >> what's the plan right now? >> So, right now the plan is for I believe
it's all three weekends, the 7th, 8th, 9th, the 12th, 13th, 14th, and the uh 21st, 22nd, 23rd to close those garages. >> Okay. >> We don't want to. >> But we grant your request to keep them
open. What is your plan? And if we grant tomorrow your request on commission to keep them open, what would be your rate? >> My plan would be to have similar to what the commissioner said, dynamic parking rates based on what we're seeing on the ground. Um, we would probably start at I
mean, we're typically at $30 to $40. We would probably start at the higher end of $40. And depending on what we're seeing out there, we would like to have the ability to go up to 100, but we don't anticipate >> we're not imposing that, >> right? And that and that makes sense
because I I've, you know, it's also good to be competitive with the market if the market is dictating, you know, $20, $30, $40 depending on the time and the demand. It's good to be able to have that flexibility so that you know the
private lots are charging $30, you know, well, we should be competitive with that as well. >> Does that address your concern, Commissioner Max? >> Um, when I think what got us into this situation, it really wasn't people
coming down and staying in our hotels creating problems. It was really people driving her in from the quasi local area. Parking is we all pointed out, you know, kind of partying out of your cars. Um, so with parking,
I I do think that we should uh consider whether we just go full steam ahead, opening the garages, opening parking on Washington, opening on Collins, or perhaps uh we scale back the parking on
the commercial corridors a little bit if we're going to be opening our garages. Uh, I think that gives us a bit of hybrid flexibility. Um, we're not voting on anything today, Mr. Chair. That'll be something that I kind of uh chew on and contemplate overnight. I want to provide
some relief certainly. Uh, maybe that's better served by starting with um more accommodative parking rates in our garages like $40. But I think if we do that, we can better manage than just
opening up parking widespread in our commercial corridors and get back into that situation where people are partying out of their cars. Interesting. >> Um, >> so maybe even if we would start that way for the first two weekends, if they go
problem free, maybe bringing back the parking along the commercial corridors uh for the third and fourth weekend in March. Um, but that's something I'll kind of contemplate overnight, whether we just go full steam back, open up the garages, open up parking on Washington
and Collins, or if we kind of do a multi-prong approach where we say, you know what, we can actually better manage parking. Let's have it at more manageable competitive rates at 40 or $50. Uh, but we're still going to largely limit our parking on the commercial corridors. And and that's
it's it's interesting uh feedback and I think it's something that you know the administration should should think about ahead of our conversation tomorrow. Of course, you know, we're going to be discussing all of this again tomorrow when we vote on it. Um I do think it's good, you know, do away with a
barricades. Maybe you still limit the parking uh a little bit, but you make parking available in the garages and make it easier to manage. It's good feedback. All right. Thank you, Commissioner, for joining us, Commissioner Bot. >> Yeah. I just I want to be mindful and I know we're a long way from this, but um some of you who are around long enough
will remember when um my friends and neighbors had a really terrible experience in a parking garage at the end of a day um that was part of a um a beach weekend. It wasn't spring break, but where people were coming off the
beach on mass after a long day of, you know, drinking and coorting on the beaches and the parking got backed up in a parking garage and um he was there waiting for his wife to come down with the groceries at the Publix down here on Fifth and got the living crap beat out
of him um by somebody who got annoyed because he was trying to help direct traffic and um you know is living with with injuries that have never healed, you know, traumatic brain injury and they end up leaving Miami Beach. We are not there anymore. I understand that.
But I do want to and I and I'm not suggesting we don't open up the garages, but I I'm I am very leerary of going back to, you know, open no rest, no um sort of guidance on pricing
um so that we can manage the flow of people leaving the city, leaving the garages at the same time and making sure that they that the garages are staffed appropriately to help manage the egress of people because people get pissed off and they're tired. tired and they're, you know, drunk and, you know, that's
the reality of the matter. And I don't condone drunk driving. That's not where I'm going with this. But, um, you know, I think we need to be mindful that that getting people into the garages is only part of the conversation. We need to get them out of the garages safely as well.
>> Will we be having enhanced security or even police presence? And and again, we know that there are certain garages that in the past have been concerning uh that where where accidents have happened. Um, you know, knowing that there are specific locations that have been of
concern, is there going to be enhanced safety stat? >> Yes, there will be. In fact, we assigned two police officers per garage uh during spring break. >> Okay. All right. Very good. Uh, Commissioner Dominguez, >> I just um I wasn't clear with the city
manager's comment on the garages. Um, they will remain open, but you have the option of closing. That's what we'll be voting on. So, my suggestion was to give me flexibility on the resolution that was passed last June, which directs me
to close the garages. I'm not foreseeing that we need to close the garages, but I do want to have pricing flexibility of up to the $100 based on what we're seeing in real time. And if you need to close it to be able to close it if necessary, but that's not the plan. Right.
>> The plan is to keep them open, have dynamic pricing. You're looking at probably 20, 30 or $40 minimum. Um, capping it at at at 100. Uh, but have it fluctuating depending on demand. >> Yeah. >> And we've excluded Sunset Harbor, 41st
Street. And I would want to make sure and reiterate that the same thing happens for Lincoln Road. >> Mhm. >> Yes. Okay. >> And if I may bring up two items. one uh the commission was uh uh so gracious to uh pass the new technology. We are
moving forward with that technology installation and it should be completed by the time spring break arrives. That will give us the opportunity to focus on things such as the large egress. So pay on entry is an absolute um opportunity for us to require payment as they come in using tap, Apple pay, Samsung pay,
whatever people have. That means the exit um the egress is much more fluid. So therefore, everybody's already paid. They just drive right out. And so we're looking at ways to control traffic. Um help the egress. Um and then some uh
commissioner uh magazine talked about the ecosystem between garage parking and on street parking. I've already talked about it with my assistant city manager and there are some things we can do for on street parking that try to discourage it, but obviously resident rates would still stay into effect. So that way if a
resident needs to pull up in a place where we are allowing parking on the street, they're still going to pay their dollar an hour, but we are going to try to dissuade visitors with maybe some rate structure or some hour caps um to hang out on street. >> Is this your first March? >> It it is. It is. I was down here looking
for an apartment um the last time uh spring break. >> Thank you. So these are important policies that we're going to be voting on tomorrow. I the most important part of of this is not just us passing the policies but communicating it and uh
item number nine of the resolution we passed in June was directing uh the city administration to implement a robust marketing and communications campaign. It'll be great to see that campaign where I think everyone's very excited uh to know how we're communicating with the
public. um is something that we've been doing now for for many years. And as you can see, it was something that was of a lot of interest to our residents who participated in public comments. There were a lot of people who were specifically speaking to our messaging.
So, u Mr. And Melissa, >> if I can jump in. Um, and I'll start off by apologizing to each of you. Um, because I have uh made a commitment that we would unveil this as part of a larger
marketing campaign. Um, so we will be unveiling it within the next 24 hours. Um, but we are ready to launch something that I think will be a good pivot from what we've done in the past, which has
been a um discouragement campaign to more of a encouragement while still articulating that we have rules here in Miami Beach and that we expect people to honor those rules. When you say unveiling it in the next 24
hours, I haven't heard anything about it being unveiled. What event are we doing? What what unveiling are we doing? So, in the next 24 hours, we have two events. We have the state of the city address and we have a commission meeting. Um,
and we will be unveiling it at one or the other or both of those events over the next 24 hours. Um, it is part of our larger media campaign. I want to know when are we unveiling this campaign. Last year we received an LTC of when it
was being unveiled. I mean if something I haven't seen it. So if if the city is putting out a campaign, I'm sure I want to see I'm sure our residents I see heads nodding here in the audience. They they they want to see it. I don't know if my colleagues want to see it, but if we're going to be unveiling something,
you know, it'll be great to see it and we would love to show it to you privately. Um, if you would like to see it, we can make it available. Um, obviously I would love for each of you to see it before we unveil it. Um, we've
reached out to everybody in the last 24 hours and made that offer. Um, we will continue to make ourselves available to to show you. Okay. Um, so when is it being unveiled? I mean, it'll be it's it's spring break
is a few weeks away. When what day? When is it being unveiled? It >> it will be unveiled either at the state of the city this evening. >> I don't want I don't want to play whack-a-ole. I I want to know when is it going to be unveiled. Is it going to be today? Is it going to be tomorrow? When
Huh? I don't I don't I don't like the suspense. I don't like having to guess when is it like is I mean, there must be a plan to unveil this. I mean, I don't know. I mean, do you guys want to see the campaign? >> What What have we done in the past? How does it typically get unrolled?
>> So, typically um >> Sure, I can answer that. Um, nice to see everyone again. Um, so typically for the past at least, I can tell you the two years we have just posted it on our social media platforms >> with no unveiling as such. It just goes out.
>> I remember seeing it at commission though >> after. >> We should probably do the same. When is it scheduled to break from a media perspective? >> As soon as it's unveiled. >> Okay. But but so in years past
>> I mean I feel I feel like we're talking in circles. I feel >> in years past you said there's no there's been no unveiling. It just goes out. So when when did that happen? Like two weeks before spring break? A month before spring break? >> Uh no. I mean this week it's >> So why are we breaking from tradition if
that's what typically happens? Why are we doing something different this year? >> So again, I will start with an apology. Um my offer to the mayor's office to include it in the state of the city address. Um
is is still pending and I don't want to uh go back on my commitment and my word that they could use it if they so choose. >> And they have I mean it that's tonight, right? they haven't committed to whether or not they're I mean shouldn't they have they shouldn't they have their
presentation done by now? >> So I don't have confirmation on that. Um I'm trying to get confirmation on that which is why I'm not able to confirm at this moment in time. >> I I'll I'll just say that um
Mr. Manager this marketing plan belongs to the city. This is a public meeting to discuss spring break. It is not a marketing plan that belongs to one office or to one elected official or to be unveiled at one elected officials event. Uh this is
something that belongs to the city of Miami Beach. It was a directive to your administration to implement. It was a directive of the full commission. Um and here we are. We've all made time. you had five commissioners here who made time uh to sit here today to discuss
spring break. Um you know, we should have been able to see that presentation today. Uh I've been requesting this uh to it's no surprise that I was going to be requesting this today. Um and right now you have four commissioners present.
Earlier you had five commissioners present. all of which unanimously voted to direct uh this administration to prepare this marketing campaign not for one elected official but for the city of Miami Beach. It is a work product of the
city of Miami Beach and just like any other work product that we've been discussing moratoriums, LPRs, barricades, uh uh parking and any other type of of matter. Um, you know, this is one of the things especially given the
amount of residents that and businesses that participated specifically to talk about the communication and and and the messaging, you know, we should depriving this committee and and and and the commissioners of this I don't believe is
is appropriate. But that's that's a commitment you made, Mr. Manager. It's it's unfortunate. All right. Any any other comments from the committee? >> All right. So, uh the feedback that you're getting today as it relates to
all these other matters, everything as of communications and marketing. Yes, Commissioner B. >> I'm sorry. I do have one. Regardless of what happens at tonight's state of the city, um I think there will be far more people um tuning in tomorrow's to tomorrow's commission meeting. And I would like to request
that whether or not it gets shown tonight, that it definitely get shown tomorrow because so much of the success of Breaking Up with Spring Break has come from the campaign that was brilliant and viral and, you know,
lightning in a bottle. And so much of the success of um reconnecting with spring break in a healthy manner going forward will also rest on the shoulders of this campaign. And so for not to have the public airing with all of the
elected officials and all of the people who are tuning in, the residents and the business owners. I mean, we have business owners. Troy is here and Joel's here and um you know, I I can't even see every Mitch is here and Steve's here and I saw some other folks who aren't here anymore, but who are significant
stakeholders in our spring break business economy. Um, and I don't know if they'll be here tomorrow, but you know, hopefully they can tune in or at the very least see it after the fact, but there it is such an important part of this and that's me as a branding and marketing professional for my entire
career. So, it is disappointing that it's not here regardless of whether it gets shown tonight that that's great, but what's critical is that it gets shown um tomorrow at the commission meeting. And I think there should be a larger conversation to set direction
going forward. It will presumably be less of a discussion point in years going forward hopefully because we'll have done our job and you know it'll be a nice thing to have and it'll be great and it will be clever and funny and smart and do what it's supposed to do.
But this year is the pivotal year and so for this to be like this bone of contention is unfortunate. But let's ensure that we see it tomorrow and have time to discuss it and have a conversation about how we're going to treat this going forward. And I'm just going to remind the administration that the administration works for the
collective. The the administration works for the city commission, not for one individual commissioner or not for one individual elected official. And the work product requested by the by by by the commission of the administration
should be accessible to all the elected officials, not limited not limited to one elected official. With that, we're going to put that to rest. Um uh I know there were uh some members of the public who were here in person who weren't here
earlier. Uh who were requesting to to to speak. I don't know uh if if I'm going to give one minute at the end because I I was asked to to give a final opportunity to to speak at the end to members of the public who are attending in person.
Andreas. So, um, Andre Sion, 1000 South Point Drive. Thanks, guys. Thank you all for being here and and doing this. A couple of ideas. Uh, they're mentioning that only two, um, points of access were available to go into the beach. I think that we should consider hiring people
like event staff that do this at stadiums throughout to be able to have multiple points of entryway onto the beach where you have officers there as backup, but you have a lot more uh, easy flow of going into the beach. Also, there's u the boat that does the advertisement that is always on the
ocean advertising a whole bunch of different hotels and events and whatnot. U marketing should consider using that boat um to advertise messages uh to the people that are sitting on the beach. Whether it's using the trolley or talking about our new ferry that goes over to the bay. It's a great point of
access. I'm not sure if it's already in the works, but something that should be considered. and also possibly using uh a trolley uh that could be stationed for instance on Ocean and 10th. That is a trolley that goes directly from Ocean and 10th directly over to the ferry.
It's sort of like a a straight shot um that gets people out of the beach onto the ferry and try to avoid uh traffic as much as possible. And then just in general, I don't know throughout um this season how many times Ocean Drive is
going to be closed for V uh for car traffic, but I've been promoting a lot the idea of of trying to have Ocean Drive being a northbound one lane versus a southbound one lane if it is only going to be one lane. Because honestly,
Fifth Street is the main artery that gets to Ocean Drive. and for cars to be able to go straight down to Ocean Drive and hang that left instead of having to make a U-turn or going to south of Fifth and then trying to figure out what street they're going to make the right on to get to Ocean Drive and then they do it on 10th Street and then they
realize they didn't get all of Ocean Drive. So they drive down to Fifth, make a loop again and go back up further to do the same thing all over again. So u if the street lines just stay exactly the way they are on Ocean Drive and flip the traffic, it would be a lot more helpful for the flow of traffic overall.
Thank you very much. >> Thank you. any other member of the public uh wishing Oh, Mitch. There's Mitch. >> My chance to open my big mouth. Uh beach access, as uh was stated, would be great if uh at least h as it impacts myself.
I'm out on the beach every morning. I tend to run south. I don't like having uh no access between 5th and 10th and it's very disruptive to my hotel guests. I uh provide uh umbrellas and chairs and
they shouldn't be shleing this stuff. The sun is to the south of us and it would be great if uh Wayne would consider at least opening up 8th Street. Thanks. >> I'm sorry Mitch, you didn't get to see the presentation today. >> I wanted to see that. That's why I
>> Yes, Joel. Yes. >> So, uh in general, what a great discussion. And I think I think we made uh covered a lot of ground here, a lot of positive things. But just want to bring up one thing real quick. Uh the parking director mentioned the goal was to dissuade parking on the
street. And I think I think we should really think about that for a second because I think we really want to dissuade people from partying in their cars on this street. We don't necessarily need to persuade people from not parking on the street. I think it's a very big point to think about. If we
really want people to come back here, we really want these events to work, people got to park somewhere. Now, should they be able to party in their cars? No. Thank you. >> Thank you, Joe. And that is a great distinction and it's a matter of enforcement because we do want locals to be able to go to the restaurant to to
the restaurants, support the restaurants and the stores, um, but not necessarily have people tailgating or partying from their from their cars. So perhaps it's a matter of enforcement. It's good feedback u to uh to to take back any other members of the public. Uh I'm not
opening Zoom because Zoom, you know, we have people who came physically. Uh we went to Zoom earlier in the meeting. So seeing no other members of the public wishing to speak, I think we can adjourn to today's meeting with uh some great feedback as relates to sidewalk cafes
being opened. Uh some changes of policy on barricades. uh hopefully seeing changes to availability of parking and parking rates, access to the beaches and and LPRs. Uh so there's a been a great conversation uh and I look forward to uh
final action being taken at tomorrow's commission meeting. Thank you colleagues. >> Thank you.