The Coconut Grove and City of Miami bar closing issue is scheduled to be heard by the City Commission tonight, January 28, at City Hall (3500 Pan American Drive) after 5 pm.
Commissioner Marc Sarnoff says he is very concerned about the late night (early morning) drinking and driving, (and rightly so), especially in light of the recent tragic accident on Key Biscayne. Will he move to change all of the City of Miami to a 3 am closing time? Or will the Grove still suffer under the unfairness of 3 am while the rest of the city parties until 5 am, 7 am and 24 hours in some cases? Which ironically, is where the drunk driver in the tragic accident was coming from -- a downtown Miami club with a 24 hour liquor license, in Mr. Sarnoff's Commission District.
It appears that a stacked deck of cyclists have been summoned to appear before the Commission by Mr. Sarnoff to plead their case of keeping drunk drivers off the streets in the early morning hours, due to 5 am and 7 am bar closing times. (What about the happy hour drinkers or dinner time drinkers and drivers?). It's ironic that if Mr. Sarnoff had really cared about this issue with bicyclists, he would have instituted the 3 am bar closing time for the whole City in 2008, and not just a small section of Coconut Grove, and the tragic bike accident may not have happened last week, according to his thinking anyway.
So in all fairness to the bicyclists and nurses and doctors and school teachers and children on their way to school in the early morning hours, that are affected by early morning drunk drivers, according to Mr. Sarnoff and his plea to parents at a local school not too long ago, let's hope Mr. Sarnoff demands the SAME AM for bar closings citywide, maybe countywide -- 3 am.
This should be an interesting meeting.
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