Allan Appel Photo
Robb Bartolomeo of Gotham & Police Capt. Joann Peterson at a downtown air-clearing session.
Crown Street landlord Ronald LoRicco started out accusing the city of turning downtown into Beirut. He ended the night shaking a city official’s hand and pledging to join a committee to help clean up the club district.
The owner of the building that houses Hula Hanks, Static, and Kelly’s joined nearly 100 business owners, students and residents who gathered at the ballroom at the Omni Tuesday night to hear city, police, and economic development officials for what was described as “summit” on conditions downtown amid a furor over nighttime violence and the police response to it.
The Downtown Wooster Square Management Team originally convened the meeting to discuss the area’s quality of life. But given recent events, quotidian issues such as lighting, noise and snow removal were trumped by hot and often accusatory interchanges.
They focused primarily on the effects of the new police crackdown called Operation Nightlife, along with the alleged mishandling of arrests by the NHPD , and the future of the club district.
Officials said they needed to institute the crackdown because an attempt at collaboration with bar owners broke down.
“Who weighed the equities with regard to business owners?” LoRicco put the question to city Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts (pictured with Town Green Special Services District chief Rena Leddy).
He described an evening after work recently and stepping out into deserted streets.
“Perception is reality. This is not Beirut. You [through Operation Nightlife] didn’t help. You shut the town down for two weeks. It felt like an attack against business.”
Smuts replied that the city’s response was appropriate. “I’m gonna push back. The violations we found blew my mind.”
He described massive overcrowding in the bars and safety and health violations, to say nothing of the underage drinking issues.
Invoking disasters that have occurred in the past, from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 to the Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island in 2003, he said, “The potential for disaster would had dramatic [negative] effects on business.”
“Maybe it’s shame on you that it took so long to address the problem,” LoRicco replied. “But you don’t do it with snipers on the roof.”
Smuts conceded that LoRicco was right in that the city should have had the situation under control before the events that precipitated Operation Nightlife.
Much of the back and forth turned on whose responsibility it is to police the clubs and the downtown district. In an August meeting the mayor had asked club owners to pony up money for a special detail.
Jason Cutler, who owns Center Street Lounge, was particularly aggrieved. “Last time we met you wanted club owners to come up with $300,000 for four more officers,” he said.
Then referring to Mayor DeStefano’s remarks about the relative benefit of the clubs to the city (he said they cost a lot but don’t contribute much beyond problems), “You want us to write you a check, but you don’t want us in the city.”
Smuts conceded that “officers will not solve it.”
He said that several years ago the annual police budget for providing security during the weekend in the club district was $200,000. Six months ago it was $500,000. Now it is $900,000.
He pronounced that unsustainable. Patrol Division Captain Joann Peterson called whatever number of officers are downtown only a “Band-Aid.” She called a sustained plan for officers “part of it [the solution,]” she said. That means eventually sending officers to training sessions to learn a code of conduct and expectations.
They should know, she said, by way of example, that people actually live downtown.
LoRicco was not yet mollified. “My business generates $70,000 in taxes,” he said.
Smuts shot back that that was little compared to $900,000 in police costs.
LoRicco responded that $70,000 comes from only his businesses, not the other establishments. In any event, he then threw the real gauntlet down: “It’s up to the municipality to provide safety.”
“That’s an outrageous statement,” said Smuts.
Robb Bartolomeo, who owns Gotham, said he is willing to kick in to pay, but not if other club owners balk. Smuts said that some business owners were cooperative in that regard at this point, but not all.
Bartolomeo also spoke of the limits of his control in hiring extra-duty cops. “My arm does not extend to the parking lot,” he said.
He asked Peterson to look into the possibility that the key problem may not be under-age drinking but over-age shooters, people just driving around in cars and not stepping into the clubs. “Let’ address the problem and not go around it,” he said.
She called that a good point and she’d look into it.
Smuts said that a nightlife committee organized by the Town Special Services District is developing a set of expectations for behavior for all parties involved. That means, for example, that students should go home. after leaving bars. The code also would provide expectations for how the city and its officers conduct themselves.
“Rage” at Yale Reported
That was of particular concern to Yale senior Nicolas Niarchos (pictured), one of several students from the university at the conclave to protest alleged abuse by Elm City officers.
“There’s rage at Yale. I feel scared if I walk down Crown, I’ll be subject to SWAT teams coming at me with rifles. I feel more scared looking at a police officer than a hoodlum on the street. How can you reassure me?” he said.
Capt. Peterson and Smuts acknowledged the students’ points are important and called ongoing internal affairs investigations a high priority.
In answer to another student’s skepticism that the police can produce an objective report, Peterson and Smuts said that the Civilian Patrol Review Board, the Board of Aldermen, the mayor’s office, and the press are watching.
Peterson said the report might be forthcoming in six to eight weeks.
A Commitment
LoRicco
At the meeting’s end, Smuts and LoRicco shook hands and LoRicco asked to join the nightlife safety committee. He pronounced the meeting “productive.”
Rena Leddy said the committee’s code of conduct is already in draft form.
In the meantime, Smuts said, “We will be having stepped up enforcement going forward.”