Big push to change bar closing time

Both Mayoral Candidates, Commissioner Joe Sanchez and Commissioner Tomás Regalado, came out this morning to speak with the Coconut Grove Merchants Group.

One major issue was talked about extensively was the 5 am bar closing time. Both candidates are adamantly in favor of bringing it back, from 3 am, and both regret that it ever changed in the first place. They expressed this at the meeting before a full room of people and they told me this separately before and after (I had coffee with both candidates, one before the meeting and one after the meeting, just by chance, and they are both very sincere about this).

They understand that the Grove is dying because of the closing time change from 3 am to 5 am, and while many laugh at the thought of 120 minutes making a difference, it does, for so many reasons, mostly perception. Commissioner Sanchez said, "The Grove is suffering," and he readily admits to making a mistake on the previous vote. He wants public input, but he did get an earful at the Merchants Meeting.

Regalado felt the same way. They both know that the rest of Miami has a late closing time, including 7 am in some areas, which Regalado was quick to remind me after the meeting. At the meeting many bar owners and merchants spoke up in favor of the change. Most of the room was for it, two people in the room were against it.

Felice Dubin, Village Council member, owner of the Bookstore and one of the co-chairs of the Merchants Group said we all needed to get the bar closing time changed as soon as possible, even if we have to all beg the City Commission and District Commissioner Marc Sarnoff who was behind the time change. She insisted that he would admit to the mistake, and could be talked into changing the time, which made the whole room laugh in a mocking fashion.

Talking about Sarnoff, Felice said, "He's ruining Coconut Grove. Maybe he can be humble." With that, everyone rolled their eyes and the meeting ended.

We ran a poll for a few days. The results had been consistent -- about 95% are for the 5 am closings and 5% are against it.