THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 16, 1995 TAG: 9507140172
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: IDA KAY'S PORTSMOUTH
SOURCE: IDA KAY JORDAN
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
``We can turn this city over to hoodlums or we can make it safe . . .''
Mayor Gloria Webb very succinctly let city staff know she expects action.
The mayor spoke tersely Tuesday night after a parade of citizens told City Council about noise and bad behavior by patrons of Riverfront Cafe on the Downtown waterfront. Complaints came not only from residents of apartments in the Seaboard building where the nightclub is located. Owners of condominiums in nearby Crawford Square also confronted council.
``What are you going to do?'' Peter Barr, a resident, asked council. ``We've had these problems since October and we've done everything we can. It's no more what we can do. It's what you can do.''
Other described the offensive disruption of their lives as worse than they have experienced living in New York City and Washington, D.C.
``Tonight you have heard how bad it is,'' one speaker said. ``Well, it's worse than that!''
E. Stanley Murphy said he moved to Portsmouth ``against advice of people who said I didn't want to live in Portsmouth.'' He said he had intended to buy a house in Olde Towne but that he now has serious questions.
Citizens described illegal behavior in the parking garage used by residents, some of whom have called police to help them get into their parking spaces and to escort them to their doors.
Don Brown, a city retiree who worked 23 years with the police department and who lives in the Seaboard building, said he knows of ``no plan between the owners of the building, the managers of the club and the city'' to get control of unruly behavior.
``Let's get some coordination and find solutions,'' Councilman Bernard Griffin said. ``We don't need to sit here and belabor it. Let's stop this discussion, turn it over to the manager and have him get on with it.''
The mayor agreed.
``I'm discouraged and disgusted,'' she said. ``We've been through this conversation time and time again. We need to do something.''
Webb added that the city has been aware of the downtown problems for nine months and of similar complaints at Ebony Showcase on Airline Boulevard for two years.
Some people will say the city has no business getting into the fray. Others will claim discrimination because most of those committing the alleged offensive behavior happen to be black.
The fact is, the city has invested too much in Downtown and in trying to overcome a negative image to let one business ruin its efforts. It must get into the situation and it must change it.
Furthermore, the residents who are complaining happen to be both black and white. That eliminates any factor of racism.
Most people who choose to live Downtown expect normal noise. They expect to hear voices on the street and the movement of cars. Most are very tolerant of music and other noise up until 11 p.m. or so.
But they don't expect - and shouldn't have to tolerate - the babble of hundreds of partying people on the streets and in the parking building until all hours of the night.
As one young resident put it Tuesday night, ``It drives on your sanity.'' He had described being kept awake until 4 o'clock in the morning.
One young man, who said he had lived in the Soho area of New York, said he had ``dealt with the noise'' until recently, when it has gotten much worse.
The speakers at Tuesday night's meeting were very credible. They represented a wide variety of ages and of past experiences, so it was evident that this was not one small disgruntled group of people.
We must get control of this situation and that's a tall order because the city must follow legal procedures at every turn.
The best route seems to be working cooperatively with the club managers to develop a plan of control.
Certainly, the city does not need to be in an adversarial position. But it must be firm and it must act. by CNB