In one of their first acts, Miami Beach's newly constituted mayor and commissioners ordered the removal of a dock that dozens of people living on boats in Biscayne Bay have relied for years as a lifeline to the mainland.
The unanimous vote to cut off their easy access to food and water is part of newly elected commissioner David Suarez's effort to force the so-called "live-aboards" out of the waters off Miami Beach.
"They can’t live on a boat forever," Suarez said during discussion of his proposal at the Dec. 13 commission meeting. "They have to come to the land to get food, water and necessary supplies."
By removing the city-owned dock along the canal along Dade Boulevard across from a Publix, "we're cutting off basically their lifeline and then they’re going to have to be forced to do illegal trips to our sea wall," Suarez said.
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That can lead to fines and the costs of towing and seizure of the dinghies - the boat owners use to reach the island, where some work and where they obtain food and water.
Suarez said his goal is to make their situation "so cumbersome … they'll move to another city."
Suarez and the new mayor Steven Meiner said residents have complained about the people who live on boats docking their dinghies and coming onto the island.
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Carlos Leon, who's lived with his wife and Apollo - their social-media-popular German Shepherd - called the city's action cruel and un-American.
"Saying we have to cut peoples’ lifeline - we are not in a Third World country. We're in the United States," said Leon.
But the city owns the dock, which was built about 10 years ago as part of a road construction project, and police and public works crew appeared Tuesday night to remove the deck, erect a "no trespassing" sign and block access to the road with a barrier where boaters would walk ashore.
"The city is following the direction given at the Dec. 13 commission meeting," city spokeswoman Melissa Berthier wrote in a statement Wednesday. "The dock is permanently closed and will be removed after the city obtains the required permits."
Suarez, who said he was out of town, declined to comment this week about his actions or to identify any of the residents he said complained about the live-aboards coming on shore.
Leon, who married his wife Jana on board their 41-foot sailboat anchored in the bay, said he was drawn to the live-aboard community during the isolation and storm of COVID, finding the bay a refuge.
"I told my wife Jana, they look so happy and we’re so miserable right now stuck on the house," Leon recalled.
They and dozens of others live on boats there, some of whom protested Suarez and the city Wednesday morning at the now-closed dock site.
"We're going to fight," Leon said, adding, "We’re talking to lawyers right now. We’re going to go to all the commissioners."
