Activists Want “Urban” Memorial Day Festivities Kicked Off South Beach... OH NO BLACK PEOPLE JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN

Dang it! Why can’t “we” collectively go to the same out-of-town destination and not collectively show our a**es???

First, Black College Reunion got kicked off out of Daytona Beach. Then BET’s Spring Bling was cancelled after 13 years and a couple of venue changes. And now, thanks to a couple of knuckle heads who still haven’t accepted that “Belly” wasn’t based on real life, they want to kick “us” off of South Beach for Memorial Day Weekend too.

For the past 10 years, the Art Deco District on South Beach has turned into a hip-hop street party during Memorial Day weekend, with a bulked up police presence monitoring hundreds of thousands of young revelers.

Monday’s early morning shootings, which resulted in one dead, four bystanders hit by stray bullets and three police officers injured, has renewed a call to replace the hip-hop themed festival with a less rowdy event — or do away with it altogether.

“There isn’t a residential street in South Beach not affected by tons of garbage, crime to our vehicles, excessive noise 24 hours a day, and simply a lack of respect for our community, citizens and property,” activist Herb Sosa wrote in an open letter to the Miami Beach City Commission. “Make the difficult but correct decision to put an end to Urban Weekend in Miami Beach.”

On Facebook, Miami Beach Commissioner Jerry Libbin supported a Memorial Day weekend curfew, which he said was proposed by City Manager Jorge Gonzalez.

“I think we need to take back the city for the residents,” said Libbin, who is also president and CEO of the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce. “It’s just not right that people live in fear.”

After hearing about Monday’s shootings, Miami Beach resident Aaron Sugarman wrote a letter to the Miami Beach mayor and commissioners, pitching a move to replace the hip-hop themed festival with a less rowdy event featuring jazz and blues music.

At police headquarters Monday morning, Libbin also suggested the city needs to rethink the way it handles Memorial Day weekend.

He said officials should consider backing an old proposal, which has been resurrected over the last year, to create a multi-cultural concert weekend on the beach.