Miami Beach shifts spring-break playbook

Miami Beach launched a “Break a Sweat” / “Wake Up to a New March” campaign that books fitness festivals such as the Life Time 305 Half Marathon, Wodapalooza, ATHX Games and HYROX to reframe March around daytime fitness events [city page]miamibeachfl.gov. The city formally labeled March as a “high‑impact” month with two peak weekends — March 12–15 and March 19–22 — when extra enforcement and crowd plans will be concentrated [NBC Miami]nbcmiami.com. License‑plate readers will be deployed on the MacArthur and Julia Tuttle causeways starting at 10 p.m. on peak nights, and the city has scheduled DUI checkpoints and beach‑entrance screenings Thursday through Sunday during March [SecretMiami; CBS Miami]secretmiami.com. City officials set flat garage parking at roughly $40 for nonresidents (with a $100 cap at the city manager’s discretion), approved a $548 towing fee for violators and rolled out a traffic plan that begins each evening at 6 p.m. on busy [days WLRN]wlrn.org. Mayor Steven Meiner and City Manager Eric Carpenter framed the shift as easing rules to help local businesses while maintaining “law and order,” and Police Chief Wayne Jones reiterated that “the Spring Break of the past is gone” as the city pivots to paid events and heightened checkpoints [NBC Miami; WLRN]nbcmiami.com.