{"id":435170,"date":"2026-10-22T19:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T19:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/435170\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T19:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T19:52:08","slug":"fort-lauderdale-moves-to-end-himmarshees-rowdy-party-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/435170\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Lauderdale moves to end Himmarshee\u2019s rowdy party scene"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is the party over for Himmarshee Village in downtown Fort Lauderdale?<\/p>\n

Not quite, but city commissioners are on the verge of decertifying the troubled Special Entertainment District, where bars stay open till 4 a.m. and enjoy other special privileges, including higher allowed sound levels and extended noise hours.<\/p>\n

A chorus of high-profile critics made a strong case Tuesday night for shutting down the district, saying it had turned into a dangerous gathering spot that was giving Fort Lauderdale a bad reputation and scaring people away.<\/p>\n

After hearing pleas from more than a dozen prominent community and business leaders, commissioners agreed to decertify the entertainment district and strip it of its special privileges.<\/p>\n

Tuesday night\u2019s vote was unanimous. A final commission vote is coming on Nov. 17.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve created an environment that has become known throughout the county and our neighboring counties that this is where you come to party,\u201d Commissioner John Herbst said before the vote. \u201cWe have created Bourbon Street in Fort Lauderdale. The answer to that is get rid of Bourbon Street.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what\u2019s changing: Bars in Himmarshee Village will no longer be allowed to stay open till 4 a.m.<\/p>\n

The new hours \u2014 last call at 2 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday \u2014 will kick in immediately after the final commission vote in November.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the Fort Lauderdale Police Department has stepped up enforcement, creating a high-visibility presence along the Himmarshee strip on Southwest Second Street in an effort to curb the uptick in violence and late-night street gatherings.<\/p>\n

Bars are under pressure to prohibit underage drinking and avoid over-serving.<\/p>\n

The changes are a long time coming, said Commissioner Steve Glassman, whose district includes the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\"BarsBars in Himmarshee Village line the street in downtown Fort Lauderdale in January. City commissioners say they are ready to tighten rules for the entertainment zone after a shooting in December and street fight in March. (Mike Stocker\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been more than patient over many years to give these folks the opportunity to clean up their street. And it has not happened,\u201d Glassman told the South Florida Sun Sentinel after the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was time and we\u2019re going to really move forward now in cleaning it up,\u201d Glassman added. \u201cIt\u2019s affecting our image. It\u2019s affecting investment. It\u2019s affecting redevelopment of that area. It\u2019s not a good look.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fort Lauderdale officials point to previous incidents that have put the area and the city in a bad light<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A mass shooting\u00a0in December 2025 left five people wounded.<\/p>\n

Three months later, a street brawl went viral in March 2026, putting the late-night party zone squarely in the national spotlight<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fort Lauderdale commissioners banned open containers<\/a> and outdoor alcohol sales in January 2026 but stopped short of enforcing a 2 a.m. closing time after hearing a fierce protest from the owners and their workers saying it would be bad for business.<\/p>\n

The shootings continued.<\/p>\n

In July, a parking garage shooting left a 43-year-old man wounded.<\/p>\n

Shots rang out again in September as police were trying to break up a fight. While no victim was found at the scene, a man later arrived at a nearby hospital with a gunshot wound.<\/p>\n

Developer Alan Hooper, one of several high-profile leaders who spoke up before Tuesday\u2019s commission vote, compared Himmarshee to a red light district.<\/p>\n

Hooper reminded the commission he is chair of the Performing Arts Center Authority, the volunteer board that governs the Broward Center for the Performing Arts that sits just west of the bars on Himmarshee Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have crime, shootings, massive brawls, underage drinking, drugs,\u201d Hooper told the commission. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t see why we want to preserve this. It\u2019s a shame that this area has come to this. This is a jewel of a neighborhood with so much potential<\/a>. The time for talk and for promises is over. After the recent shooting, it\u2019s time to close down this entertainment district.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HimmarsheeHimmarshee Village draws a big crowd during Spring Break in downtown Fort Lauderdale\u2019s entertainment district on Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Scott Luxor\/Contributor)<\/p>\n

Richard Mercedes, owner of the restaurant Emily\u2019s Garden, also appealed to the commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made the investment and we\u2019re there,\u201d he said. \u201cBut a lot of people we know will not come to our restaurant past 9 p.m. They just don\u2019t want to come downtown. They\u2019re afraid. Please help us. Please decertify.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glassman, speaking from the dais, told the crowd residents have sent him videos of the raucous scene on Second Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I see videos of the fights, of folks defecating on the sidewalk, of people urinating on the streets, this behavior cannot continue,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not what our city is about. I think our economic development should not suffer because of what is happening on one street. We have given this our best shot. And it is obvious that this district is not living up to its intention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glassman said he walked around the district after a recent news conference where the city announced an increased police presence on Himmarshee Street to crack down<\/a> on crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw all of the brick pavers covered in gum,\u201d Glassman said. \u201cI saw nothing but broken glass and cigarette butts and trash. The whole street feels dirty. It feels greasy. And I can see why people don\u2019t want to spend time there. The shootings, the violence, the underage drinking, the public disorder in general is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fort Lauderdale established the Himmarshee Village entertainment district in 1999 to help create a more vibrant nightlife district, but it\u2019s now time for the experiment to end, Mayor Dean Trantalis told the Sun Sentinel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt created a licentious culture where people think anything goes,\u201d he said. \u201cWe should not have an area that people are afraid to come to. We\u2019re in a culture now of influencers. Everyone is videotaping, livestreaming what\u2019s going on. Everyone wants to be a celebrity and this is a stage. Well, we\u2019re putting a stop to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheFort Lauderdale’s Himmarshee Village was abuzz during Spring Break, seen in this file photo. (South Florida Sun Sentinel, file photo)<\/p>\n

Fort Lauderdale requires bars to be separated by 300 feet, but relaxes that rule for special entertainment districts.<\/p>\n

Without that entertainment district status, bars in Himmarshee could be forced to close. To stay open, they would be required to seek a waiver within six months of the commission vote in November \u2014 unless they are grandfathered in.<\/p>\n

Ellyn Bogdanoff, an attorney who represents six bars in Himmarshee, told commissioners the bars are not to blame for what\u2019s happening out on the street.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am here to applaud the city manager and the police chief for doing what the bar owners have been begging them to do for years,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are going to increase enforcement. They are really going to get a handle on the underage drinking. They are going to increase the power washing of the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bogdanoff urged the city to give the police crackdown more time to work before decertifying the entertainment district.<\/p>\n

Herbst argued the increased police presence downtown was leaving other parts of the city with fewer officers on patrol.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, the chief is flooding Second Street with officers,\u201d Herbst said. \u201cAnd you want to know what that means? My district is left unprotected so that Second Street can be safe. My area is being left vulnerable for the benefit of a handful of bars on Second Street. I can\u2019t have District 1 suffering to benefit the bar owners downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ian Lowe, an owner of Original Fat Cats, was among a handful of bar owners who asked the commission to let the bars stay open till 4 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you take away two hours on the weekdays and one hour on the weekends, Original Fat Cats will lose 50%\u00a0of its business with the reduced hours,\u201d he said. \u201cI implore you not to do this. Taking away the extra hours is not going to solve the problem. It\u2019s only going to cripple the good actors that are trying to keep the (entertainment) district great.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Farino, general manager at Munchie\u2019s, defended his bar and others on the street.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the scapegoat,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone\u2019s trying to blame us. The underage drinking is taking place outside of the bars. Where is the gun violence happening? Are these people with the guns and the knives getting into any of our bars? No. They\u2019re hanging out on the street. They\u2019re loitering. They\u2019re drinking their own booze.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Bill Brown, president of the Council of Fort Lauderdale Civic Associations, told the commission it\u2019s time for things to change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is deja vu,\u201d Brown said. \u201cLet\u2019s go back a year and a half ago<\/a>. One of the attorneys that spoke tonight said, \u2018Give us some time, we\u2019ll fix this.\u2019 But guess what. They haven\u2019t. We can\u2019t keep kicking that beer can or that bottle of whiskey down the road. It\u2019s time to do something. Again, please do the right thing for the right reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is the party over for Himmarshee Village in downtown Fort Lauderdale? Not quite, but city commissioners are on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,28,249,251,250,114,266,109],"class_list":["post-435170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-florida","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}