MIAMI, FL – SEPTEMBER 10: Bar patrons dance to a live band playing Cuban music at a bar in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood on September 10, 2016. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)Dancers at the Ball and Chain bar in Little Havana, Miami.
Miami city officials have banned late-night outdoor music from establishments adjacent to residential areas - or at least some of them.
The vote last week by the Miami City Commission was for a measure directing that music must stop between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. in certain areas. Other places, such as the Wynwood arts district and Coconut Grove neighborhood, were exempted.
Commissioner Joe Carollo said the effort is to restrict noise in neighborhoods by places he described as trying to “sell the club life” in Miami. Much of the focus appears to be on the heavily Hispanic Little Havana section.
Many businesses in the area that have outside areas with music, such as the venerable Ball & Chain, said the new ordinance will hurt their bottom lines.
The Miami Herald reports that the meeting and vote led 366 people to record comments for the commissioners. But most of them were not listened to.
