Palace Drag Queens will have something to celebrate this Sunday. File photo by Michael Menchero

Knock Down Drag Out Fight
Sunday Drag Shows Back In After The Tides Loses a Battle Over Noise

By Lee Molloy

The usually serious and sartorially challenged Miami Beach City Hall was given an infusion of glamour at the Planning Board meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 23. Three striking drag queens and roughly two dozen of their friends and supporters showed up to declare their solidarity with The Palace, and the embattled drag show stage at 1200 Ocean Drive.

As reported in The Lead on Feb. 5, The regular Sunday brunch shows at The Palace had been put into jeopardy by a campaign of complaints made by their neighbor, The Tides South Beach Hotel.

According to city records, all of the seven noise complaints made by The Tides since last December were declared invalid by code enforcement. A further complaint, that the show of Sunday, Jan. 31 was performed at a time not permitted by conditional use, remains open. It was that conditional use permit that the board discussed.

Acting Planning Director for the City of Miami Beach, Richard Lorber, explained that the management of The Palace wished to extend their hours of operation so that the show could go on while patrons sipped their Bloody Mary’s over Sunday brunch. “Apparently there is a big market for this type of thing,” Lorber said, before telling the board that the administration recommended the change be approved.

Thomas Barker, owner and editor of local gay publication, Wire Magazine, spoke out in support, as did Board of Adjustment Member Sherry Roberts. Also, the statuesque performer Tiffany Fantasia, required to use her legal name, Henry Williams, while giving testimony, told those in attendance that “it is very important to keep these shows alive.”

Attorney John Shubin made the case for The Tides, saying that their complaints were noise driven and asked to put into the record a report stating that volume levels at The Palace are around 75 to 80 decibels. To put that into perspective, a conversation between individuals will be roughly 60 decibels, traffic on a city street like Ocean Drive would typically average 70, and a passing motorcycle would reach more than 100 decibels.

The board was unimpressed by Shubin’s arguments.

“I’m very disappointed by your presentation today,” Board Member Henry Stolar said, adding that Shubin had “handed out nothing but marketing materials."

Board Chair Jonathan Fryd agreed.

“I haven’t heard anything that demonstrates that this would be a worse condition by amending these hours,” he said.

To a round of enthusiastic applause, the board voted to allow The Palace to have drag shows on Sundays between 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., and then again from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. However, it was only a partial, and perhaps temporary victory.

The decision of the board still does not allow for the performances to spill out onto the sidewalk or into the street as they are prone to do. Furthermore, the amendment will be reviewed in 60 days, therefore The Palace will have to be careful not to trigger more complaints from its neighbor or the tide of support may turn.

“Nobody is going to win in a battle between you and your neighbor,” Planning Board Chair Jonathan Fryd said to those on either side of the issue. “You are both going to lose.”

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