“During the day, it’s pretty tame,” Gelber said, saying that visitors were enjoying the beaches and the hotels and restaurants were “doing a pretty good job with outdoor dining.” However, he continued, the entertainment district at night “becomes a whole different scene,” which he described as “like a rock concert, wall-to-wall people over blocks and blocks.”

The violence had been escalating, said Gelber, with someone shooting a weapon into the air and what he described as “a riot.” The city “feels like a tinder…like any match could set it off,” he said…

“We’re always going to be one of the best destinations in the world…but right now if you’re coming here because you’ve been pent up and you want to cut loose, and you think anything goes, please don’t come here. We have extra police everywhere. We’re going to arrest people, and we have been. We’re going to keep order.”

“If you’re coming here to go crazy, go somewhere else,” Gelber concluded. “We don’t want you.”