Editorial: Miami Beach Mayoral Candidate Offers Plan for Controversial Urban Beach Weekend
By Steve Berke
Candidate for Mayor
Steve Berke says “Bring In The Cavalry.
Memorial Day is known as a day of remembrance for those brave Service Members who have sacrificed their mind, body, and spirit while defending the interests of the United States and of all those Americans who enjoy the freedom that these heroes have provided.
It’s a shame that such an honorable day of observation has been so tarnished by the actions of a group of outsiders who seem to have no regard for the welfare of the Miami Beach residents who have been forced to subsidize the costs of these events and clean-up the mess once they leave. Miami Beach residents routinely lock themselves in their homes or travel to other cities to escape the carnage that is always associated with Urban Beach Week.
Let’s bring Miami Beach Memorial Day festivities back to their roots by promoting Veterans Events throughout the city and with the support of the Miami Beach Convention Center, restaurants, nightclubs and hotels. Within a few years, the thugs that are the most egregious public offenders during Urban Beach Week will find themselves outnumbered by Veteran families and combat-tempered military soldiers who will not tolerate any disrespectful behavior during this week of honoring our nation’s war heroes. It’s time to bring in the Calvary.
The week of activities and events should be associated with Veterans, such as Fleet Week in New York City, which occurs every year during the week of Memorial Day.
The Miami Beach economy and housing market surged after World War II when Service Members who were trained and housed on Miami Beach during their enlistment, came back to live as full-time residents and members of our community. We should encourage more Veterans to visit and relocate to Miami Beach, as it would be an honor to have them and would keep with the history of our great city.
The groups of unruly “Urban Week” visitors have systematically taken-over and occupied our city year-after-year in an effort to brand and promote their Urban Party at the expense of our city’s resources and safety. The local residents demand a solution.
Vets for Freedom founder and Medal of Honor Nominee David Bellavia supports the idea of a Miami Beach based Veterans-Themed Memorial Week.
“Miami Beach would be a top destination of choice for Service Members and their families. The week surrounding Memorial Day has, since it’s inception, been a time for military families and their friends to memorialize our fallen military men and women and to celebrate our Nations history. If you roll out the welcome mat, we’ll round up the troops.”
Let’s send out the welcome-mat for the Veterans and remind them that they are welcome here in paradise. These service members could revitalize the entire City if a new wave of Veterans were again drawn to our shores.
A small fraction of the $1,000,000 that the City of Miami Beach spends each year to provide security for Urban Beach Week could be spent to promote Veterans Beach Week throughout the country and in association with local and national Veterans groups and their members.
Matti Bower has stated that there are “not many options” and there is “little we can do.” Is this the attitude that Miami Beach residents want in their Mayor? Matti Bower has shown (with that dismissive response) that she will ignore our collaborative outrage and do nothing to change the status-quo. Every year, for the past four years, our residents have demanded that something be done about Urban Beach Weekend, and every year Matti Bower has done nothing but ignore us.
The opinions expressed in this column are his own and not those of the publication or its Editors and owners.
Thank you Mr. Berke for finding a solution when the entire Miami Beach commission and Mayor said there was NOTHING they could do. We need new leadership in our City. Let’s throw the current idiots out of office.
Finally, a well written plan to address this mess! I’m starting to take this candidate very seriously–I’ll be keeping an eye on him!
Urban Beach Week has become completely out of control thanks to the lack of leadership of our City’s Mayor (Bower) and Commissioners. It is obvious that the current city ‘officials’ must be replaced in this year’s election. Steve Berke has put forth an intelligent plan to end this destructive yearly disruption to our community which none of our city officials have – and they have had more than 4 years to do something. They have done NOTHING. Our current Mayor has even been quoted saying, “There are not many options.”
Well Mayor Bower & Commissioners, we do have options so instead of ‘burying your head(s) in the sand,’ avoiding the issue because you’re afraid of losing votes, or hoping it all just goes away, you’ve done nothing and have allowed it to continue and progressively get worse.
Miami Beach needs new leadership who can take proactive action(s) to replace Urban Beach Week with event(s) that unites our community instead of dividing it. The current leadership is like having no leadership at all.
Steve Berke is a progressive thinker. He has put forth a positive plan to replace the current costly and disastrous Urban Beach Week with a plan that will honor those who have earned it, and deserve it – our Military Veterans – both past and present.
NO to Urban Beach Week – Yes to VETERANS BEACH WEEK!
Wow. That is a GREAT plan! I guess I’[ll be voting for Steve Berke. He’s the only person in the City who has come up with an intelligent plan – and his plan is a winner!
I’m a Veteran and I’m very excited about the prospect of hosting a Veterans Beach Week during Memorial Day.