A view of the 300-block of N. 2nd Street, where some of the trouble took place early Sunday morning.
On Saturday night at about 8 p.m., I drove up 2nd Street in downtown Harrisburg, and I saw many happy people eating and drinking al fresco on the unusually warm, early-autumn evening.
The night began so peacefully, with such good cheer, but, unfortunately, it didn’t end that way.
According to the Harrisburg police, a virtual free-for-all ensued at about 2:40 a.m. as the bars and late-night eateries disgorged their remaining patrons, some likely more than a little tipsy.
Of course, a rowdy post-2 a.m. crowd is nothing new for the Harrisburg police, who are old hands at trying to control the young and drunk. But Saturday night was remarkable even by downtown Harrisburg standards.
A statement by police describes a chaotic scene in which multiple fights broke out around 2nd and Locust, outside of Arooga’s and Niko’s.
“Due to the overwhelming amount of people committing violence, officers had to use pepper spray foggers to subdue the crowd,” said the police.
Harrisburg called other jurisdictions for assistance, including the state police. As they were trying to calm down the “unruly crowd,” more fights broke out around 2nd and Pine streets, followed by several gunshots. In the end, two people, evidently bystanders, were discovered shot in the leg. As of this writing, the shooter had not been identified nor detained.
There’s no doubt that most people who went out on a warm Saturday night in Harrisburg had a grand time. Thousands came and departed after a nice dinner and maybe a couple of drinks at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., all the way up to 2 a.m. It was a wonderful night to sit outside and socialize—until closing time, that is, when clubs turned their lights back on and shooed out the late-night partiers, flooding the sidewalks and streets with more than 1,000 people.
This is not a new problem for Harrisburg or for center cities in general. An almost-20-year-old study called “Policing Entertainment Districts” from California State University describes the chaotic scene common to downtowns as Los Angeles tried to find solutions to its problems in the late 1990s. But it equally could apply to Harrisburg today:
“Nightclubs and bars create further problems where they are concentrated in geographic areas. At closing time, intoxicated patrons exit onto the sidewalk and create a crowd-control problem that can severely strain a department’s entire night shift. In many cities, fights, altercations and the potential for collective behavior and rioting are very predictable at closing time, particularly where several nightclubs catering to incompatible crowds are located in close proximity.”
“Closing-hour nightclub crowds are often in no particular hurry to go home and may linger on the sidewalk for a considerable period, extending the demand on police resources and the potential for large disturbances. Crowd dispersal is further slowed by valet parking, taxis, an absence of public transportation, sidewalk seating and late-night restaurants.”
Sound familiar? So then what can be done?
Over the years, Harrisburg has tried to boost its police presence downtown, but that has diverted scarce resources from other parts of the city, where late-night violence also is often an issue. In addition, restaurant and bar owner Ron Kamionka has funded several security personnel, though they stay mainly around his places. The Harrisburg Downtown Improvement District also pays for two off-duty police officers, but they only serve during dinnertime, from 6 to 10 p.m.
Clearly, these measures have not been sufficient. Nor is it acceptable any longer just to send a few more cops downtown and hope for the best.
Mostly, the city needs to find the money for extra security, to make sure there are enough police (10? a dozen?) manning the sidewalk in a two- or three-block area downtown for an hour or so a couple of nights a week.
Mayor Eric Papenfuse said that he plans to meet with downtown business owners this week to begin to find a solution. The tab, perhaps in the form of an extra fee, should probably fall on the owners themselves (maybe passed through the Harrisburg Downtown Improvement District) as they are both direct contributors to the current problems and the clearest beneficiaries of a downtown perceived to be a safer place to visit.
Longer term, Pennsylvania might consider repealing its 2 a.m. cut-off time for on-premises drinking, which seems to create as many problems as it attempts to solve, and let localities decide for themselves what works best for their own towns and cities.
Absent that, Harrisburg has to play the hand it’s dealt. The city is fortunate to have a thriving entertainment district. But, with success come responsibility and costs. If the city desires such a concentrated area of restaurants and bars, it needs to deal effectively with the consequences.
Over the decades, cities have tried various strategies to handle late-night crowds in entertainment districts—from adjusting closing times to beefing up security. A recent story in CityLab discusses how some cities have hired a “night mayor,” a person centrally responsible for managing, coordinating and promoting life after dark in urban entertainment zones.
As they chart a way forward, Harrisburg officials, business owners and other stakeholders should consider this and all other good ideas. A happy balance needs to be found between good cheer and good security, between a prosperous, lively downtown and a safe place to visit and, increasingly, to live.
