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Free Trade Area of the Americas
A quiet day 1
Business in downtown Miami was slow; demands by police officers for identification caught many unwitting customers by surprise
November 18, 2003
By John P. Hernandez
Hundreds of police officers occupied the near-empty streets Monday of downtown Miami, as area business owners faced the first day of what many expect to be a long, money-losing week.
By 10 a.m., downtown was as empty as it usually is at 10 p.m. There were only a handful of cars on Flagler Street. The police easily outnumbered the few civilians who walked about downtown as the latest round of talks began on the shape of a Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Most stores on usually bustling Flagler were open, but empty — police sirens replaced the sounds of cash registers and drowned out the calls from sidewalk salesmen who tried to pull tourists into their shops.
Fears of violent protests and snarled traffic kept workers away from the city’s center. Many companies with offices in downtown moved their operations elsewhere or allowed employees to work from home.
“Normally, at this time my store is packed with people having lunch,” said Carlos Alberto Diaz, owner of the Don Pan bakery and sandwich shop on the corner of Southeast Second Street and Southeast Second Avenue. “If we get 10 customers all day, it would be a miracle.”
Don Pan is on the corner of one of the most heavily guarded intersections in downtown, just a block away from the Hyatt Regency where some of the trade talks are taking place.
Called Checkpoint Charlie, the corner was guarded by about 15 officers — many carrying machine guns. The contingent included officers from the Miami Dade Police Department, city of Miami Police and federal agents. Some of the officers rode on horseback or pedaled bicycles.
“It scares everyone away,” Diaz said. “You think the police, the mayor or Bush will send me a check for all the business I will lose this week?”
Security was tightest near the Hyatt and the Hotel Inter-Continental Miami, where the talks are taking place. Other sensitive locations, such as federal buildings, were ringed by fences and barricades and defended by federal officers dressed in black carrying machine guns.
Tourists were also caught up in the security dragnet.
One visitor, William O’Neil, was not allowed to go to the DuPont Plaza Hotel, which is located between the Hyatt and the Inter-Continental. Police at the corner of Southeast Third Street and Third Avenue, near the Wachovia Financial Center, would not let him pass after he showed them a reservation confirmation he printed out on his home computer. “The police said anyone can fake that and that I needed to show an official document from the hotel saying I had a reservation.”
“I came to Miami on vacation with my wife and we booked the hotel through a Web site. I had no idea this was going on,” O’Neil said.
While most retailers opened their shops in an effort to salvage what business they could, many banks opted to close. Most of the bank branches near the trade talks closed for the week. Several banks opted to keep their downtown branches open, but planned to close them later in the week.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave banks special permission last week to close branches near the trade talks.
SunTrust and Bank of America, located in the SunTrust International Center on Southeast Third Avenue, closed for the week. The Wachovia branch in the Wachovia Center, which is located between the Hyatt and Inter-Continental, also closed for the week.
The windows of the Ocean Bank on Southeast Second Avenue and Southeast First Street were covered with hurricane shutters, as was the BankUnited branch down the street. Even the Ocean Bank ATM was boarded up with plywood.
The Washington Mutual branch just steps from Checkpoint Charlie planned to remain open through today, but four plain-clothes armed guards protected the entrance and asked visitors for identification before they were allowed to enter.
The guards challenged the few pedestrians who hovered near the bank’s entrance. “If you have no bank business, you have to leave now,” a guard told a pedestrian dressed in a shirt and tie.
An armed guard at the entrance of the Union Planters branch — which planned to remain open through today — only allowed bank customers with proof of having accounts to enter.
Law firms with offices in downtown also adjusted their operations. Many moved lawyers and support staff to other locations or planned to close later in the week.
Richard Kerley, chief operating officer of Shutts & Bowen, which has its largest office in the Miami Center adjacent to the Inter-Continental, said the firm moved about 100 attorneys and staff to Fort Lauderdale. Others worked from home. He declined to say how much money the firm expected to spend in coping with the FTAA talks.
Six of the 18 lawyers of Broad and Cassel’s Miami office, also at the Miami Center, worked out of the firm’s Fort Lauderdale office. “All of our available open spaces are being used by attorneys and even some closets. All of our conference rooms are set up with multiple computers so our support staff can continue to function,” said Gabriel Imperato, managing partner of the Fort Lauderdale office.
Robert Zinn, managing shareholder of the Miami office of Akerman Senterfitt, said the firm’s downtown office in the SunTrust building would be open through today. About 200 employees staffed the office on Monday, he said. But on Wednesday, employees will be advised through a recorded message on whether they need to report to work. The firm’s Miami office will be closed Thursday and Friday.
Many businesses near the Inter-Continental planned to remain open through Wednesday. Near Southeast Third Avenue and Southeast First Street, the Starbucks, Quiznos, Subway and Pizza Hut locations remained open. But many retailers protected their storefronts with hurricane shutters.
Along Flagler Street, most stores were open, although many were partially shuttered with only their doors not covered by plywood or hurricane shutters.
“I have a lot of trust with our police and law enforcement,” said Ely Morjain, owner of Ely-M Jewelry at 48 E. Flagler St. “I feel safe working this week because law enforcement is everywhere. As for business, well, I am sure it is going to be real slow this week. But on the bright side, it gives us a chance to get ready for Christmas as well as a chance to catch up on paperwork.”
John P. Hernandez can be reached at jhernandez@floridabiz.com or (305) 347-6642.
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