Cars on 5th event stuck in neutral in Naples

Event ordered by City Council to slim down

Cars on 5th, the annual Naples heavyweight exhibition of high-end automobiles, is bringing in more people than downtown can handle safely, and Naples City Council turned down its 2027 application June 17.

If that sounds draconian for an event that has become an institution in the city after 23  years, a second chance came right behind the decision. A follow-up resolution gave City Manager Gary Young and city staff parameters with which to negotiate a format by which the car show could still operate on Fifth Avenue South, but limit attendance, which reached an estimated 35,000 in February.

This is not a new problem for the show. Naples Community Services Director Chad Merritt pointed out that a report saying the show was having crowd size and illegal parking problems came to City Council as far back as 2019.  

“As we staff, we feel this event is too large for the area,” he said.

“We don’t have an issue with the event organization itself,” said Lt. Michael O’Reilly of the Naples Police Department, who called Cars on 5th a well-run event. “It simply boils down to the crowd issues and the parking issues, and they’re both intertwined.”

Cars on 5th, he pointed out, even offers free shuttles that run continuously between the show and ample free parking at Collier County Government Center. But some people choose to park downtown, blocking residents and parking in marked “no parking” zones.

Spoiled by slip-ins

Tom O’Riordan, representative of Cars on 5th/Naples Automotive Experience, agreed attendance has bulked up, and not in a way that benefits the charities it serves. Even with barricades at the entrance and a strap fence along the sidewalks, security is porous enough that a good percentage of the crowd have not purchased tickets, he said.

“We have no interest in expanding the show. We don't want it any bigger,” O’Riordan told Council.

One of the major problems, he said, is that people duck through the two-line fence that separates the public sidewalk from the avenue or sneak in at an intersection.

“They just walk into the show,” he said. 

As income generators, the aligned events brought in more money: the Naples Automotive Experience Jetport reception, its auction and the VIP tent.

“But Cars on 5th is the anchor,” he acknowledged. "Everything else wraps around it.”

No to closure

O’Riordan’s solution would be to charge anyone who wants to walk down Fifth Avenue South during the show hours — even outside of Cars on 5th — a $10 wristband fee, such as is done for World Cup events in Miami. That idea received a quick burial by City Council and Business Improvement District Executive Director Meg Stepanian, who told Council the BID would oppose such a move. As it is, Cars on 5th is a mixed blessing for downtown businesses, bringing in a good deal of foot traffic but blocking businesses that work by appointment because customers have trouble reaching them.

Discussion ran for close to two hours, yet City Council, staff representatives and O’Riordan could not come to a definitive decision. Council members Bill Kramer and Scott Schultz felt the event should find another home.

“For seven years, we’ve been told by our first responders, fire and police, ‘This is unsafe. Please don’t do this again.’ For seven years. They just said it again on the record,” Kramer said.

Schultz suggested some other sites that could be found.

But when organizers' researched what makes it so popular, all roads led to Fifth Avenue South, O’Riordan said. Cars on 5th is one of the top five auto shows in the country, and its organizers think its location is a major factor, he said:

“This is actually very family — it’s very husband-wife oriented. This is why the restaurants do well. This is why the women like to shop. It’s the venue. It’s Fifth Avenue itself that makes it special.”

The event is even popular at home.

“I hear from a lot of residents that they love the show. It’s one of the highlights of the season for them. And we work for the residents,” Vice Mayor Ted Blankenship told the group. “I think we should at least explore what the possible options are.”

“You do serve in a public capacity. You are here to work for the residents,” said Joan Fiore, addressing Council during the public comment segment. “And I can tell you this — a lot of the residents want this.

“This man raises two or three million dollars a year to build homes — Habitat for Humanity or I don’t care what charity it is — and builds homes for the people that work here,” she said. “Why don’t we put some kind of weight on that?”

"I am open to allowing them to not vote on it today in its current format, allowing them to work with staff and potentially come up with solutions,” said Councilman Berne Barton, who said he is one of the residents who enjoys the show and goes almost every year.

“But I will also say out loud and for the record: When we come back to address this and make a final decision in August, if I’m getting the same comments from staff that I got here today, it’s going to be a no for me.”

In the end, Kramer made the motion to accept the application as submitted, which would be denied, so the second motion, made by Council member John Krol, could be made. It authorizes Young to search for a format that would allow the show to continue within safety and crowd-size parameters discussed by the council and staff. Mayor Teresa Heitmann requested to sit in on those meetings.

Schultz voted against that motion. Council will look for a new application from Cars on 5th that incorporates the city’s limitations, if they can be feasibly implemented, at an upcoming meeting, likely in September.

A longer version of this story will appear in The Naples Press on June 26.