This week's meeting for the Theater District/North End focused on the results of security "sweeps" conducted by Sound Transit and Tacoma Police in cooperation with BIA Security and other area stakeholders. Clearly, this part of downtown is undergoing a major transition and is experiencing "growing pains" as more people move into the neighborhood and more empty buildings turn into restaurants and nightclubs.
For the short term, stakeholder vigilance and coordinated patrol presence will be needed to address public disorder. These activities are being augmented by surveillance cameras--and more are coming. Deploying the appropriate level and mix of security assets depends upon the successful working out of several resource issues that will culminate in the BIA's contract with the City of Tacoma for continuation past 2008, as well as on the willingness of stakeholders to do their parts. The transition is likely to be messier than anyone would like...
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has proposed stronger ordinances to give city government more power to shut down nightclubs that repeatedly get reported for violence, excessive noise and other public nuisances. Some property owners think that Tacoma should follow this course, as well. Discussion at Wednesday's meeting touched on the development of an "entertainment district" as advocated by groups such as the Responsible Hospitality Institute.
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With different uses coming into downtown,Tacoma needs to bring their city ordinance up to speed and enact reasonable regulations of nightclubs as Seattle is doing as well as other cities:
ReplyDelete(From the Seattle Times)
The mayor's proposal would require bars and nightclubs to carry out "all reasonable measures" to prevent violence and to report criminal conduct at their businesses and within 50 feet outside where patrons gather. It also would define a noise violation as sound coming from a club that is audible continuously for 60 seconds from 75 feet away, either from outside or from an adjacent building. Licensees violating those standards repeatedly could be shut down for a week to 30 days.