Sunday, April 04, 1999
Nightclub versus the nightstick
BY PETER BRONSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Sometimes you can see trouble coming. Sometimes you can even hear it. It's saying, “Meet me on Linn Street, sometime around 2 a.m. on the next warm night when we've had a few cocktails and the bar closes before the party is over. Bring your nightstick.”
Sometimes trouble even has an address. According to police reports, one favorite hangout is in the 1700 block of Linn Street, near the Parktown Cafe.
I counted 101 police runs to the Parktown address in 1998, among 34 pages of records: DIRPAT (routine patrol), ASSLT (assault), DISORD (disorderly conduct), TSTOP (traffic stop). Some codes need no explanation: MENACE. GUN.
On some nights, a half-dozen patrol cars were sent, usually around “last call.”
City Economic Development records say, “Parktown is the largest bar in the West End neighborhood of Cincinnati. Its customers include not only the West End residents, but the entire black community in the city of Cincinnati. Although located in a low-moderate income area of the city, Parktown caters primarily to middle and upper income clientele. Unlike some neighborhood bars, Parktown maintains an upscale atmosphere.”
Officer Keith Fangman, president of the FOP police union, describes it another way: “It's a mess. I almost had my head taken off there when someone threw a bottle.”
Police have closed the street a few times to “contain” the crowd, Mr Fangman said. “So many people congregate, the streets are swollen with unruly people. Rocks and bottles are thrown at the crowd and at the cops. There are shots like the wild West. When we go there we are outnumbered. And probably outgunned.”
Neighbors are not happy, either. “Every car I've owned has been hit,” said one who preferred not to be named. “Around closing, we get a wake-up call. All the stereos just come blasting down the street.”
Shots and fights? “No doubt,” he said.
Norman Kattelman, president of the surrounding Dayton Street Neighborhood Association, said many neighbors are too intimidated to complain. “People in and out of cars are all over the area. It gets to be a little bit testy. People are urinating in all sorts of places. Decent people don't like that.”
“There was noise, the whole bit” at the old Parktown a block south on Linn, Mr. Kattelman. “It's been a continuing thing.”
The Dayton Street Association opposed a liquor license for the new Parktown, which is twice as big as the old bar. But the license was granted. The city even loaned the Parktown $159,000 to expand. It opened a year ago.
“So many of our people in the area were not happy with that,” Mr. Kattelman said. “If I had my way, it should have been shut down, period.”
City Economic Development Director Andi Udris defended the loan. “Yes, we checked them out. What does the owner of the Parktown do about something that occurs in a parking lot three doors away?”
He said the city Safety Department had no objections to the loan for expansion. “The police make it sound like the OK Corral, and that's not the case.”
The loan required “at least 3 new jobs.” It has done that — with security alone.
A Parktown manager, who declined to give his name, said that private security guards, bouncers and three off-duty police officers were hired last fall. Customers are searched for weapons, with metal detectors.
“I can't speak for when they get in their cars,” he said, “but when we close up we always make an announcement that when you leave, get in your car and go home.”
He said troubles with police and neighbors were “news to me.”
It was news to Cincinnati when Pharon Crosby resisted arrest and nearly touched off a riot in 1995 — but everyone who worked nearby saw trouble coming, when crowds of black teens began to harass pedestrians at Sixth and Vine.
Now a police shooting has rubbed tensions raw again. Blacks say the cops are on the muscle. Cops are angry at that “accuse first, ask questions later” attitude.
We can see trouble coming — but we'd rather cross the street — or close it.
The neighborhood around the Parktown is racially mixed, about 50/50. Complaints come from black and white residents. Same with the cops. But City Hall won't listen. I was told the Parktown crowds are a “cultural thing.”
There's no culture in flying rocks, bottles and bullets.
“When this summer comes, we won't have a problem,,” the nightclub manager said. I hope he's right. But trouble sits there grinning and waiting.
Peter Bronson is editorial page editor of The Enquirer. If you have questions or comments, call 768-8301, or write to 312 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202.
Peter Bronson is editorial page editor of The Enquirer. If you have questions or comments, call 768-8301, or write to 312 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202.
BRONSON ARCHIVE
