The days of roaming from bar to bar with an alcoholic beverage in hand will soon be ending in Fort Lauderdale.
After two separate shootings at night spots on the beach and downtown, Fort Lauderdale plans to ban outdoor alcohol sales and open-container consumption at all five of its special entertainment districts, including Beach Place and Himmarshee Village.
Commissioners approved the plan Tuesday night and are expected to take a final vote next month before the arrival of Spring Break.
An earlier plan that would have ended alcohol sales at 2 a.m. fizzled after bar owners argued it would potentially put them out of business.
Bars in Fort Lauderdale’s special entertainment district can sell alcohol until 4 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays under current rules.
Fort Lauderdale has five entertainment districts, but two are now in the spotlight. Five people partying in Himmarshee Village were shot and wounded on Dec. 28. Three days later, a 17-year-old boy was killed in a New Year’s Eve shooting at Beach Place.
On Tuesday night, a crowd of bar owners and their employees packed the City Hall meeting to plead their case, some donning shirts with the phrase: “End Violence Not the Businesses!”
City leaders are not going to let Fort Lauderdale turn into a war zone, Mayor Dean Trantalis told the crowd.
“It’s not like the O.K. Corral here,” he said. “We do not want Himmarshee to be seen as Dodge City where you go out in the street and you have a shootout. We’re not going to be like other cities that … become war zones. That’s not going to happen in Fort Lauderdale.”
An increase in violent gun incidents could lead to curtailed hours and other safety measures in Fort Lauderdale’s party spots, commissioners warned.
Beach Place, shown on Tuesday night, was the scene of a fatal shooting in Fort Lauderdale on New Year’s Eve. A separate shooting downtown on Dec. 28 left five people wounded. Commissioners are now considering new safety measures for the city’s entertainment districts. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Steve Berke was one of several bar owners who urged the commission to rethink its plan to move back closing time.
Berke told commissioners he has a stake in the survival of the Himmarshee entertainment district as the owner of the building that once housed the popular Tarpon Bend bar and restaurant that closed in 2018.
“The street you remember from 10 years ago, it’s gone,” Berke told the commission. “The market has spoken. Tarpon Bend’s not coming back. During the day, Himmarshee is a ghost town.”
The building is now home to Munchie’s Pizza Club and Nowhere Lounge, both run by Berke.
If the commission moved to stop alcohol sales at 2 a.m., some bars would be forced out of business, Berke warned.
“We generate 15% of our revenue between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m.” he said. “Between the lost hour during the year and the lost hours during (Spring Break in) March, we’re looking at a 30% to 40% total drop in annual revenue. And the businesses on the street can’t survive that. That one hour will be a death sentence to more than half the businesses on the street.”
Bar owners and their employees flock to a Fort Lauderdale commission meeting Tuesday night to protest a plan that would require bars to close before 4 a.m. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Instead, Berke urged the commission to eliminate the practice of allowing customers to roam the street with cocktails in hand.
“We need to stop the people who can bring a cheap bottle of booze from home, tailgate in city garages, and then pour it into a plastic cup and walk up and down the street causing mischief,” he said.
The bars on Himmarshee Street are now willing to band together to pay for extra police details, Berke told the commission.
“Give us 180 days to prove to you that these measures can work,” he said.
Himmarshee Village, shown Tuesday night, was the scene of a mass shooting on Dec. 28 that left five people wounded. Fort Lauderdale wants new rules in place before the arrival of Spring Break to boost safety in the city’s entertainment districts. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Vice Mayor John Herbst argued the businesses need to do a better job of cracking down on underage drinking.
“I think the open container has got to go,” he said. “That’s been an absolute disaster for the whole area. I’m not persuaded that reducing the hours is going to be the catastrophic financial collapse of the entire district that everybody is suggesting it is. And I’m also not convinced that simply getting rid of the open containers is going to somehow lead to magically cleaning up the area and changing the perception that this is party central for all of Broward County.”
Still, Herbst said he was willing to give it a try to see whether it works.
“Let’s give it six months,” he said. “We could always revisit this. If this isn’t working in six months, then I say we explore cutting back the hours. But I’m willing to give it a shot. I don’t believe it’s going to work, but I’m willing to try it.”
City officials will be keeping an eye on how things go in the coming months, the mayor told the crowd.
“This is not the end of the conversation,” he said. “This is the beginning of an effort to bring the standard of Himmarshee up so that people feel safe and this kind of activity doesn’t again take place.”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan