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3 South Beach nightclubs take Miami Beach to court over spring break midnight curfew
MIAMI BEACH — A court battle is underway after three South Beach nightclubs decided to challenge Miami Beach’s newly instated midnight curfew to crack down on spring break.
According to CBS News Miami’s news partners at The Miami Herald, Miami Beach city spokesperson Melissa Berthier confirmed Saturday that a complaint was filed by the M2, Mynt Lounge and Exchange nightclubs.
The Herald reported that a court hearing was ongoing Saturday afternoon at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building in Downtown Miami, where city manager Alina Hudak was on the witness stand and being questioned by Ben Kuehne, who’s representing the nightclubs.
According to the Herald, Hudak testified that she saw bigger crowds and a more “rowdy atmosphere” among spring breakers on Thursday night, leading her to believe a curfew would be necessary. She also said the effectiveness of the curfew was evident Friday night when crowds began to thin out as midnight drew near.
“Clearly, the crowds chose at some point in the night to go somewhere else,” Hudak said. “It just wasn’t fun.”
The Herald reported that M2, Mynt Lounge and Exchanged filed the complaint around 11:30 p.m. Friday — nearly 30 minutes before the midnight curfew — in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, according to a copy of the document. The judge overseeing the case is David C. Miller.
The curfew “unduly punishes and penalizes the plaintiffs’ lawful business operations and was done without reasonable or appropriate advance warning and in the absence of good cause,” the complaint stated. Also, several big events at the clubs had planned for this weekend will be canceled, the filing noted, adding that the venues had collectively welcomed thousands of patrons so far this month “without causing any harm to the health, safety and welfare of the citizens, residents, and visitors of Miami Beach,” the Herald reported.
The curfew began Friday night and was scheduled to be in effect each night this weekend until Monday morning, and applies to all areas south of 23rd Street and requires businesses to shut their doors after midnight.
The nightclubs’ legal challenge seeks to nullify the curfew for the rest of the weekend. According to the Herald, Hudak declared on Friday a state of emergency that lasts until Monday in order to enact the curfew, and would need approval from the Miami Beach City Commission if it were to be extended.
Romain Zago, the owner of Mynt Lounge, told the Herald on Friday that he didn’t understand why the city imposed a curfew when other measures seemed to be effective in keeping crowds small and calm the prior weekend.
“I don’t understand why this week they would not apply the same system, the same measures,” he told the newspaper. “What happened all of a sudden today that we have to have a curfew?”
According to the Herald, Mynt is open from midnight to 5 a.m., meaning that Miami Beach’s curfew would force the club to be closed the entire weekend. Zago told the Herald that the move would damage his business and his employees.
“My staff all live check by check. They cannot afford a week off,” he said.
The city, Zago added, is “removing food from our plates.”
Large crowds gathered in South Beach for spring break, especially on Ocean Drive, for spring break, the Herald reported. However, the curfew enforcement went smoothly and police almost had the entire strip cleared by 12:15 a.m.
According to the Herald, this is the fourth year in a row that Miami Beach had declared a curfew during spring break; however, unlike past years, the 2024 curfew was imposed despite a relatively quiet March so far thanks to the city’s “break up with spring break” campaign.
The third weekend of March has had a problematic past for Miami Beach, marked by stampedes, shootings and other incidents related to spring break revelers. City officials had warned residents, visitors and businesses since last year that a curfew was likely during spring break this year, the Herald noted.
Tupperware and some of its subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the once-iconic food container maker said in a statement late Tuesday.
The company has suffered from dwindling sales following a surprise surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, when legions of people stuck at home tried their hands at cooking, which increased demand for Tupperware’s colorful plastic containers with flexible airtight seals.
A post-pandemic rise in costs of raw materials and shipping, along with higher wages, also hurt Tupperware’s bottom line.
Last year, it warned of “substantial doubt” about its ability to keep operating in light of its poor financial position.
“Over the last several years, the Company’s financial position has been severely impacted by the challenging macroeconomic environment,” president and CEO Laurie Ann Goldman said in a statement announcing the bankruptcy filing.
“As a result, we explored numerous strategic options and determined this is the best path forward,” Goldman said.
The company said it would seek court approval for a sale process for the business to protect its brand and “further advance Tupperware’s transformation into a digital-first, technology-led company.”
The Orlando, Florida-based firm said it would also seek approval to continue operating during the bankruptcy proceedings and would continue to pay its employees and suppliers.
“We plan to continue serving our valued customers with the high-quality products they love and trust throughout this process,” Goldman said.
The firm’s shares were trading at $0.5099 Monday, well down from $2.55 in December last year.
Tupperware said it had implemented a strategic plan to modernize its operations and drive efficiencies to ignite growth following the appointment of a new management team last year.
“The Company has made significant progress and intends to continue this important transformation work.”
In its filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, Tupperware listed assets of between $500 million and $1 billion and liabilities of between $1 billion and $10 billion.
The filing also said it had between 50,000 and 100,000 creditors.
Tupperware lost popularity with consumers in recent years and an initiative to gain distribution through big-box chain Target failed to reverse its fortunes.
The company’s roots date to 1946, when chemist Earl Tupper “had a spark of inspiration while creating molds at a plastics factory shortly after the Great Depression,” according to Tupperware’s website.
“If he could design an airtight seal for plastic storage containers, like those on a paint can, he could help war-weary families save money on costly food waste.”
Over time, Tupper’s containers became popular that many people referred to any plastic food container as Tupperware. And people even threw “Tupperware parties” in their homes to sell the containers to friends and neighbors.
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