Miami Beach officials want to make changes following the recent fatal shooting of a father having dinner with the family on South Beach, other crimes – CBS Miami

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – CBS 4 News asks Miami Beach officials and corporations if they believe the Ocean Drive closure has sparked more crime in South Beach.

“It just doesn’t make sense to want to be Bourbon St. by the sea,” says Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber.

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Harsh words from Mayor Gelber amid grave calls for change following another South Beach shootout that killed an innocent husband and father.

The mayor says the area has gotten worse and worse over the past decade.

“It attracts too many people to fight, buy drugs, or do shootings – and that’s just unacceptable,” says Gelber.

On Thursday, following Tuesday’s tourist tragedy, the mayor announced immediate action to fight crime, including increasing police visibility.

However, Mayor Gelber tells CBS 4 News that there is a problem.

“Although we have increased our police force and will be hiring dozens more, we are actually down because of the dozen people with COVID,” says Gelber.

CBS 4 News has learned that another issue the city is trying to address is the closure of Ocean Drive to vehicular traffic.

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All of Ocean has been fully pedestrianized since last year, originally as a way for many businesses to spread out.

“Even among our own city workers, there were real differences of opinion about whether it should always be pedestrians or sometimes pedestrians,” says Gelber.

As for companies like the iconic Clevelander, they want the pedestrian-only facility gone.

“We’ve been complaining to the city about opening at least one lane for us since December, and they’ve turned our application down,” says Alexander Tachmes, Shutts & Bowen LLP.

Tachmes is the hotel and bar’s longtime attorney who says the problems are twofold – the shutdown creates and creates problems for companies facing Ocean.

“Closing the street makes it easier for gangs of people to walk down the street in groups and devastate what is happening,” says Tachmes.

The mayor tells CBS 4 News that he will be relying on the police to decide what is best for safety.

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A decision will be made in the near future.

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