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"If you live in an area where you can hear the music coming from the clubs,
the noise ordinance doesn't apply.
It's only if you live in an area where
you can't hear the music that the ordinance applies"
Who's paying for the party in downtown Scottsdale? Tonight and tomorrow night Scottsdale will, as the city's police chief puts it, “throw a large party” for 8,000 to 10,000 people who will flock to the downtown bar district. Chief Alan Rodbell, in a recent q&a with the newspaper, wouldn't say how many police officers will be there, only that it's “not an overwhelming number.” Having spent a recent Saturday night/Sunday morning in the Scottsdale Entertainment District, I can confirm that it's not an overwhelming number of cops. Not even close. Still, there are some and they have made some arrests. “But you can't get them all,” Rodbell told the newspaper. “You can't be all places with the numbers we have there.” During the first six months of the year, Rodbell's officers arrested or cited close to 900 people in the entertainment district, which runs south of Camelback, between Scottsdale and Miller roads. That includes: 282 for DUI, 117 for public urination or defecation, 113 for public intoxication and 77 for either public alcohol consumption or drinking in a vehicle. Also, 177 for assault, 99 for disorderly conduct and 22 for littering. One wonders how many citations might have been handed out for public defecation and intoxication and the like if the city had an adequate police presence. Rodbell points out that there have been no serious crimes and that's a good thing. But it strikes me that possibly our standards are a bit low if that's good enough. On the noise front, Rodbell says in an e-mail to top city leaders, that not a single citation has been issued for violating Scottsdale's noise ordinance. I'd be stunned if there had been any. The City Council approved the noise ordinance last fall in response to complaints about the bars. But it only applies if the noise exceeds a certain level outside of downtown. Put another way, if you live in an area where you can hear the music coming from the clubs, the noise ordinance doesn't apply. It's only if you live in an area where you can't hear the music that the ordinance applies. And so, neighbors continue to be assaulted by the thump thump of Pitbull and LMFAO, right up until 2 a.m. A party in the house – whether you like it or not. What I can't figure out is why the city likes it. Why our leaders have basically turned their backs on the downtown neighborhoods and businesses that object to what's going on, because they must live with what's going on. Councilwoman Lisa Borowsky, in a recent op-ed piece, derisively called them the “roll-the-sidewalks-up-at-5 crowd.” That, I can understand. Her brother, Todd, owns one of the bars. But why is the rest of the city looking the other way? It's great to be the trendy nightspot, but why approve bar after bar in a confined area when the bars there now are having trouble living next to a neighborhood? Why allow their patrons to line the residential streets rather than requiring the bars to provide parking? Why pass an ordinance that regulates noise only where there is none? Why not yank the use permits of places like the Mint, that aren't at all what they were represented to be? It's certainly not because the entertainment district is a cash cow – not for the city, at least. The two dozen bars packed into the area are generating $300,000 to $400,000 a year in tax revenue for Scottsdale, according to Treasurer David Smith. Not exactly the goose that laid the golden egg. According to Smith, it likely costs the city more than that to police and regulate the area. How much more, he can't yet say. “We believe there's an imbalance and we're trying to explore how do we correct that imbalance,” Smith told me. That shouldn't be too hard. A tax on using public bushes as bathrooms ought to do it. |