Posted Sep 4, 2014, 6:54 PM
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BANNED
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Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Lower Mount Royal, Calgary
Posts: 5,147
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Hmm is this even an issue anymore? Seems like 17th av nightlife consists mostly of mid-high end restaurants and lounges.
Quote:
Calgary city councillor wants crackdown on bad 17 Ave. bars
We’re at the end of another summer.
Evan Woolley doesn’t want to shut down the avenue. Far from it.
Yes, down the line he would love to find a way to see a better mix of shops and bars but he’s no party pooper.
Woolley says he loves to have a good time. He doesn’t yearn for suburbia’s sounds of silence.
But, as the councillor for 17 Ave. S.W., he does believe it’s time to go after the bad bars, the few idiot watering holes who overserve the drinks, overcrowd the joint, can’t control their customers and really don’t give a damn about what is or is not against the law.
Everyone can point to them.
SEE ALSO: Police probe video of beating outside Jamesons Pub
PLATT: Did bouncers go too far?
On a Saturday night this summer, your columnist followed around two beat cops “containing the chaos” caused by some of the patrons of these bad bars.
But the bad bar pains in the butt survive and thrive, laughing all the way to the bank. And, if you challenge them, they smirk and tell you to take a hike.
With cash ready to be spent, more folks moving to Calgary and chatter about yet more bars on 17 Ave., someone has to step up and keep a lid on things so a good time can be had by all.
“We have to be more vigilant. We already know the good bars and the bad bars,” says the rookie councillor.
“People want to live in vibrant districts. They want to live in cool neighbourhoods. Bars and restaurants are a part of that.
“We need to support good operators and work with them and come down hard on bad operators. We have to be cracking down on bad operators and let the good operators make good money and operate good businesses.
“If you’re overserving and overcrowding and your customers are coming out fighting and barfing in front of your business you should be looking to change that.”
Woolley says the cops on the beat are “awesome” and he’d like to see “more of those bike cops. They can move around the neighbourhood fast and hard.”
Voices representing the locals and even some in the bar biz sing from a similar songsheet.
Time and time again we’ve heard the tune, to little effect.
Keep the vibrancy. Make 17 Ave. a real signature street in this city. No one is against places to eat and drink and loosen the nervous system.
Don’t let it descend into a stinkhole.
The bad bars have business licences from the city. How about they only keep their licence if they follow the existing rules, regulations and laws?
What a revolutionary concept.
How about if you can’t manage your security staff you shouldn’t be in the booze trade?
How about the city doing whatever it takes to have cabs on the street to ferry folks home when the witching hour arrives?
How about the bylaw people actually rattling a few more cages?
City hall has plans. They know all about plans. They will show you their plans.
Just give them a chance to roll out a PowerPoint presentation full of noble sentiments and they’re in heaven.
But often we know where the journey ends.
A half-ass job where the deep thinkers say all the right words instead of doing what we all know should be done.
Their usual defence? Look at these many pages. We’re on the case.
Then, when things get out of control, they react.
Calgary police Chief Rick Hanson says he’s aware beefs about bad bars are going up, as well as complaints about the bad actors the bad bars cough up on the street.
“We’re very conscious of the escalation of complaints. The social disorder issues are a big concern. We don’t take it lightly, We do remember Electric Avenue when it just got carried away,” says Hanson.
For those who just unhitched the U-Haul here, Electric Avenue was on a section of 11 Ave. S.W., a bar strip turning stupid and rough and then dying in the ’90s.
“If the community feels their voices aren’t being heard we’ve got to listen now because we don’t want it to get to the point where Electric Avenue did.
“It’s not like it’s the first time we’ve seen this but it seems we have to relive it.”
He says any clash of nightspots and residents is a “recipe for confrontation.”
Hanson says everyone involved has to sit down, including the police, and work out a real strategy.
“Five years from now we don’t want to look at a mess that’s impossible to manage,” says the city’s top cop.
But will the authorities step up? Nobody holds their breath.
rick.bell@sunmedia.ca
On Twitter: @sunrickbell
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http://www.calgarysun.com/2014/09/04...ad-17-ave-bars
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