Report serves up a round of nightlife safety ideas

Volume One, Issue 14, Dec. 29, 2006 - Jan. 4, 2007

Chelsea Now photo by Jefferson Siegel

Council Speaker Christine Quinn, center, at press conference announcing nightlife safety report, with from left, Councilmembers Gale Brewer and David Weprin, attorney Robert Bookman of the New York Nightlife Association, Guest House club owner Jon Bakshi, Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. and David Rabin, NYNA president.

By Albert Amateau

New York Nightlife Association members joined City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the city’s Coordinator of Criminal Justice on Dec. 27 as they made public the long-awaited report on nightlife security undertaken in response to the tragic deaths of club patrons in 2006.

“Safer Nights, Safer City,” the 26-page report on the Nightlife Summit meeting convened last September, made 15 proposals, including creation of a new city office covering the $9.7 billion nightlife industry and the establishment of a Nightlife-New York Police Department working group to improve cooperation between club owners and police.

Quinn and Robert Bookman, attorney for the New York Nightlife Association, hailed the report as an unprecedented agreement between club owners and law enforcement officials to work together on problems involving bars and clubs.

The issues, designated for further Council action beginning in January, include dealing with underage patrons’ acquiring and using false I.D. and targeting the makers and sellers of false I.D.’s.

Creating “best practices” guidelines for training bouncers on underage drinking, handling intoxicated patrons and raising the age of admission to clubs from 16 to 18 were among the recommendations.

However, a proposal for specific legislation to suspend drivers’ licenses of underage people convicted of using false I.D. to buy alcoholic beverages was not included in the report, although it was discussed at the September summit meeting. The issue was covered only generally: “Increased accountability for teenagers who use fake I.D.’s to attempt to gain admittance to bars and clubs” was the way the report read on the matter.

Paid detail — allowing owners to hire off-duty police to work as club security — was not one of the recommendations, although it was raised at the September summit and strongly supported by the nightlife association. Opposed by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, paid detail has been banned in the city since the end of Prohibition,

Giving police authority to close places where repeated felony assaults have occurred was a key recommendation, as was legislation providing for independent monitors of problem clubs.

Bookman said the nightlife association was anxious about the enforcement and monitoring recommendations but welcomed the prospect of working with police.

“As with most things, the devil is in the details,” he said after the City Hall announcement. “We want to be certain that expanding police powers under the Nuisance Abatement Law doesn’t mean an establishment is defined as a nuisance because there were 300 calls to 311 made by just a few people,” he said.

John Feinblatt, coordinator of criminal justice for the city, lauded the recommendations as an important step to opening lines of communication between the nightlife industry and law enforcement.

A few days before the City Hall report, the State Liquor Authority submitted a plan to overhaul the way the state licenses bars clubs and restaurants for alcohol sales. New classifications for restaurants, taverns and wine bars would be established.

At the same time, the S.L.A. issued its decision on special permits to allow bars to stay open beyond the 4 a.m. closing time on New Year’s Eve.

About 300 establishments in the city applied for permission to stay open until 6 a.m. on New Year’s Day. The agency denied the extra time to 43 bars in Manhattan.

Among the establishments denied the 6 a.m. closing are Webster Hall on E. 11th St. between Third and Fourth Aves.; Sin Sin, on Second Ave. at E. Fifth St.; three bars in the building at 530 W. 28th St., where Crobar, Spirit, BED and Home are located; Le Souk, at 47 Avenue B; Lion’s Den, at 214 Sullivan St.; Carthage Palace, at 46 Avenue B; and Avalon at Sixth Ave. and 20th St.