Daytona’s Bars To Close At 2 A.M. Starting June 1

Daytona Beach, FL – Someone cue up “Closing Time” by the Semisonics, Daytona’s bars are going to be closing an hour earlier starting in June. That’s following a very narrow 4-3 vote during Wednesday’s (March 2) Daytona Beach City Commission meeting. The vote moves forward a change to an ordinance that will remove Daytona’s longstanding 3 a.m. bar closing rule, forcing bars to close by 2 a.m.; bringing Daytona Beach in-line with the majority of Volusia County regarding closing times. At the meeting, city leaders heard from residents and business owners. One resident near the Seabreeze Boulevard area—Daytona Beach’s main nightlife hub—spoke during public comments and said he supports the change. Steven Barnes says he’s lived on the beachside for 22 years, and in that time he’s seen what he calls the “slow slow decline of Seabreeze.” “I’ve seen group fights at 3 in the morning running up and down Wild Olive, I’ve seen countless car wrecks in front of my house, and my fence has been run into five times,” said Barnes. Barnes, a United States Marine Corps veteran, was also a bar owner at one time. Barnes said he was given the chance to stay open an hour later, which turned into something he ended up regretting. “I saw first hand that people make a lot more bad decisions late at night,” said Barnes. “That last hour I saw like a 90 percent increase in bad decisions.” But not everyone is in support of the change. Zone 4 Commissioner Stacey Cantu fears that the change in hours could hurt businesses. “I support businesses, I do not like restricting businesses,” said Cantu. Also against the ordinance is Zone 1 Commissioner Ruth Trager. Trager claims the crime statistics about the Seabreeze area are wrong and don’t accurately represent the true population of Daytona Beach, which swells from time to time as tourists shuffle in and out. “This does not give a true number of the crimes per our normal population, it’s a joke,” said Trager. “If we’re going to be a leading tourist town in the nation, which we are, and growing, we need to be more accommodating for our merchants, for our tourists, and do what is right instead of complaining.” “I remember being young, you’re not going to go home and sleep at 2 a.m. You’re going to look for a place to party on, and unfortunately that might be in the street,” added Trager. Daytona Beach’s Police Chief Jakari Young also spoke at the meeting and announced plans for the police department to build a new substation near Seabreeze. Young also talked about his time with the DBPD and how the Seabreeze area has always had problems with late-night crime. But the crime that occurs on Seabreeze is nothing new, according to Young. He says it’s always been a problem, it’s just people’s perception of what’s actually going on has been changed because of how often fights are posted on social media. “These fights have been occurring for the 20 years that I’ve worked here, but we haven’t always seen it because we haven’t always been dealing with social media,” said Young. “Something changed with social media to where now when a fight breaks out, everyone who is not involved in the fight rushes to grab their phones so they can be the first to record that fight and post it.” There will be exceptions to bar closing times, such as holidays like New Years. Commissioners Trager, Cantu, and Dannette Henry voted against the ordinance.