10 police calls in one month could led to revocation of liquor license
They've tried for decades to rehabilitate, re-imagine and remake Fat City, only to see the Metairie nightlife district stubbornly cling to its rough and rowdy ways. So Jefferson Parish officials now are trying a more persistent, relentless approach.
An ambitious plan could impose new zoning standards that gradually could eliminate strip clubs like this one on Edenborn Avenue.An ambitious plan is in the works to impose new zoning standards gradually eliminating strip clubs and converting Fat City into a pleasant town center appealing to families, shoppers and diners. It likely won't be implemented until late this year, but in the meantime, Parish Councilwoman Cynthia Lee-Sheng, whose district includes the neighborhood, is using the parish's alcohol permit rules to target Fat City bars.
In March, the Parish Council revived a committee that hadn't met since the 1980s to review the alcohol permit of the Forum Club, a bar at 3208 N. Arnoult Road where sheriff's deputies made a series of arrests for underage drinking. The council then denied the bar's permit in April, at Lee-Sheng's urging.
That came five months after the Parish Council quietly adopted a Lee-Sheng ordinance to let officials deny a bar's alcohol permit based on the number of times police are called to the location, regardless of the reason for the call or whether anyone is arrested. Ten calls for service in a 30-day period at the same address can trigger a revocation.
"I don't think a lot of people who live in the area know what goes on there at night," Lee-Sheng said. "If you put one of these bars in another neighborhood, there would be an outrage."
She gathered statistics from the Sheriff's Office showing that ground zero for trouble in Fat City is the 3200 block of Edenborn Avenue, with 452 calls for service from January 2008 through Sept. 15, 2009. In all the rest of Fat City, there were 675 calls for service.
In the months since the new ordinance came online, the parish has yet to shut down anyone on the basis of the number of police calls for service. But already the idea that a business might be targeted for police calls alone, even without arrests, is stirring up angst among bar owners.
Wary of calling the police
Among them is Barbara "Boom Boom" Richardson, who owns Boom Boom's Bar in the end of a strip mall at Edenborn and 18th Street. At 73, she's a longtime owner of various drinking establishments in different neighborhoods and sometimes jokes that drinking is her profession, something she has practiced extensively. She sometimes shows up at the bar in a rhinestone-studded pink sweatsuit.
Her current location, with its dark windows, big television set in one corner and smattering of sports-themed decorations, is mostly a hangout for regulars, not an obvious magnet for fights and other disorder. But she worries the new law could eventually land at her door.
"You can't help what people do in your parking lot," she said. "I don't see how that should be held against the bar."
She said the law might discourage bar owners from calling the police for problems on their own premises, in case that will be held against them. Because most of her customers are regulars, she prefers handling any disturbances independently anyway, so she can keep her regulars out of legal trouble.
"It does make you hesitate to call the police, but I hesitate anyway because I don't want a regular customer going to jail," she said.
Jefferson Parish Deputy Anthony Buttone drives to a call in in Fat City. One block away at 18th and North Arnoult Road, Johnnie Schram, owner of Crazy Johnnie's restaurant and bar, shared Richardson's sentiments.
"It depends on what the call is for, too," Schram said. "Say someone gets their purse snatched. Does that count against you?"
Lee-Sheng said the ordinance, while inspired by Fat City, gives council members across the parish another tool to address problems with bars in their districts. It does not automatically trigger a permit revocation if a bar passes the 10-call mark. She predicted that council members will take into account the types of calls, the sources of the calls and whether they resulted in arrests.
"We would be very careful when it goes before a committee and make sure people aren't making calls just to get them in trouble," Lee-Sheng said.
Trouble on the move
On a recent Friday night patrol around Fat City, Deputy Anthony Buttone said the trouble spots tend to move as different bars gain and wane in popularity and groups of customers switch venues.
"It all depends on what bar is hot this year," he said.
Lately some of the formerly raucous places have grown quieter, he said, and some of the busiest places hire off-duty deputies to provide security, which helps keep the scene under control. He said it's difficult to measure whether the parish ordinance tying police calls to alcohol permits has influenced behavior at bars. He said it might be encouraging bars to hire more security details and handle problems themselves.
Rolling through the intersection of 18th and Edenborn at about 1 a.m., Buttone noticed a commotion outside The Bar, a heavy metal music club at 3224 Edenborn. A bar manager had been trying to eject a problem-causing customer who refused the leave. The man stood obstinately in the parking lot, saying little.
"We asked you to leave," the manager told him. "All you have to do is leave."
Joined by two other deputies, Buttone checked the man's police record and, finding nothing alarming, eventually told him he must move on: "You've got to go somewhere, but you can't stay here. You can go to any other bar."
The man finally stepped away, heading across the street.
Had he stayed, Buttone might have arrested him on a misdemeanor charge of remaining after being forbidden on a private property.
New zoning blueprint
Cynthia Lee-ShengLee-Sheng said stepped-up enforcement by the Sheriff's Office and the alcohol permit adjustments are part of a concerted effort to keep pushing for improvements in Fat City. Another part of the plan was the recent repaving and reworking of the drainage on 18th Street.
In the fall, parish planners hope to unveil the biggest piece of the campaign: a lengthy set of new zoning rules for Fat City.
The new code will propose land designations and aesthetic standards specifically for Fat City, where 18th Street would serve as a commercial core with more residential neighborhoods emanating out from it.
The new codes will call for phasing out the district's remaining strip clubs. They will impose the new standards as businesses change hands and reopen under different formats.
The effort could also require new public investment, particularly construction of a parking garage to an area with narrow streets and limited off-street parking.
By favoring such incremental change over bold, sweeping plans like many that have been proposed and shelved before, officials hope eventually to maximize Fat City's location in one of the New Orleans area's largest commercial hubs, turning it into a regional attraction known more for its delights than its dysfunction.
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Mark Waller can be reached at mwaller@timespicayune.com or 504.883.7056.