After much debate, commissioners in Miami Beach have agreed that they will reopen beaches to the public on June 1st.

The decision was made on Friday during a meeting where city leaders expressed that they wanted nothing more than to reopen the city but that there is also a need to exercise an abundance of caution due to the ongoing pandemic:

“We have to exercise some measure of caution because there is a natural tension between crowds and physical distancing,” Mayor Gelber said. “How do you manage that in a pandemic? The answer is carefully.”

The mayor went on to explain why the decided to open the beaches a week after Memorial Day:

“We know that Memorial Day is a traditional time for everybody to go to the beach and if we saw hundreds of thousands of people on our beaches, it would be a disaster.”

While there is a delay on when beaches will reopen, retail stores, hair salons and barbershops were allowed to reopen under the phase one reopening plan for Florida.