The Miami Beach Chamber has always valued its strong relationship with the City of Miami Beach and is pleased to congratulate the new City of Miami Beach Mayor, Dan Gelber, and City Commissioners Michael Gongora, Mark Samuelian and Micky Steinberg for their election victory. We look forward to working closely with the new commission on the many issues that face our community. In addition to the candidates, there were two very important ballot initiatives.
I am proud to tell you the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce worked diligently on both issues and were successful in both campaigns. The first initiative focused on increasing the floor area ratio (The FAR) in the town center in North Beach. This was an important first step in bringing about real change that has been needed in North Beach for decades, and it will now provide the impetus for the North Beach Master Plan to move forward. I am pleased to recognize the efforts of our Board of Governors, and in particular, Matis Cohen and Reinaldo Borges who were instrumental in leading the effort.
The other ballot initiative was the potential closing of alcohol sales on Ocean Drive at 2:00 a.m. at several establishments located between 5th and 15th St. This initiative was proposed to reduce crime, however, the chamber did its homework and discovered there was absolutely no correlation between closing the 5 or 6 targeted businesses at 2:00 a.m. and reducing crime. Once again, the chamber took action and opposed this initiative and worked alongside the businesses potentially affected. The chamber also worked with the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association to educate our residents, and as a result, the measure was soundly defeated. I would like to recognize the efforts of Ceci Velasco, and Josh Wallack, both members of our board for their tremendous leadership on this important issue was exciting to see so many chamber members rally together to support their fellow colleagues on these respective issues and to demonstrate once again the real power of the chamber. This was an opportunity to showcase the effectiveness of our chamber as hundreds of members discussed the issues at our various council meetings, with our Tourism and Hospitality Council, our Advocacy Council, Women’s Business Council, as well as our Real Estate Council and multiple Board of Governor and Pillar Board meetings. I encourage businesses to embrace the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce for its leadership and assistance on issues they face in which community input often makes a real difference.
I want to wish each of you a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving holiday.
Sincerely,
Wayne Pathman
Chamber Chairman
