Mayor Nancy Vaughan got plenty of stakeholder input at the town hall meeting on the proposed nightclub ordinance on Monday, July 26 at Barber Park, but none of it was complimentary.
The old nightclub ordinance has been rebranded as a kinder, gentler City of Greensboro Safety Review Board, but the crowd at Barber Park wasn’t buying it.
Numerous speakers came to the podium, but no one spoke in favor of the proposed ordinance and several were clearly angry at the idea that the city was trying to place the blame for the tremendous increase in violent crime on the backs of private businesses that serve alcohol.
Several speakers demanded that the Greensboro Coliseum and other city venues be included in any proposed safety or security plan rather than have them specifically exempted from the proposed increased regulations.
The one speaker who tried to calm things down and put in a few good words for the city, Drew Wofford, the owner of Chemistry nightclub, said, “I think we need to go back to the drawing board and start over.” And Wofford was more conciliatory toward the proposed Greensboro Safety Review Board idea than any other speaker.
Phillip Marsh said, “On the Safety Review Board, all I see are city staff. We need representation on that board.”
He said, “There is nobody there to give a business perspective.”
The proposed board designed to help bars and restaurants with security after a violent incident would be made up of one member each from the Police Department, the Fire Department, the Department of Neighborhood Development and the Department of Building Inspections.
Jesse Kirkman, the owner of Jakes Billiards on Spring Garden Street, said they had shots fired across the street and couldn’t get a call back from the police. She said they had camera footage of the shooter but, “We can’t get a call back.”
She said, “We are the victims and now I’m guilty until proven innocent. Now I have to go downtown and prove I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Vaughan stated several times that this was a draft of an attempt by the city to help bars and restaurants with their security issues, but the crowd wasn’t buying it.
One speaker brought up the fact that there are more shootings at apartment complexes and that Walmart had more police calls than any other location in Greensboro, but the city was targeting bars and restaurants.
The town hall was scheduled to be held from 3 to 5 p.m. However, with many hands in the air of people wanting to speak, city staff ended the town hall at 4:15, or 45 minutes early. It would appear the city had all the input from stakeholders it could take.
After the town hall ended, Vaughan said, “I think it was what we expected. We got some good feedback.”
Vaughan said, “We know we have to look at other areas of the city, not just where alcohol is being served.”
Vaughan also said the city was looking at providing better lighting on Spring Garden Street and possibly some surveillance cameras.
She also emphasized that it was only a draft of a proposal that was being discussed.
Councilmembers Marikay Abuzuaiter, Sharon Hightower, Tammi Thurm and Nancy Hoffmann also attended the meeting.
This is another absolutely proof that the wrong people are serving the citizens on the Greensboro City Council!!! They don’t have any idea would they are talking about and completely discounted from reality. The Greensboro City Council has caused this situation themselves. There MUST be professional MEN on the City Council in the future.
I completely agree with that. right now the city council serves the elite of this city and not the low income people if they were to Make a better effort to reduce poverty than we could certainly reduce crime. The answer isn’t more cops it’s less poverty
Bad idea.Good feedback.
I would suggest that you can mitigate most of these problems with an expanded police force, with the tools to enforce laws on the books. Not getting a call back on video of a shooter is inexcusable – except that there aren’t enough policy to go around, or they aren’t motivated anymore.
No wonder the city doesn’t want to hear reason. The bars and joints and restaurants are right. They are in a legitimate business, and pay their taxes. They are entitled to police protection, just as everyone else.
What we need is less poverty not more police. When we do have more police they simply get bored most of the time and start harassing either homeless or black people. We need to get the ruling class of the city under control and make them pay a proper amount of taxes to fund services for those that they keep in poverty due to artificially low wages
Oh tax me, I have too much. Ignerntz is rampant.
And there sits Tammi Thurm at the ELECTION YEAR Town Hall on Public safety. Where have you been the last three years, Tammi? She is certainly no friend to the Greensboro Police Department or to the safety of our community. I consider One Term Thurm to be part of the anti-police faction on this council.
At least you are open about your white supremacist support for the police. We need less poverty not more cops. That’s just basic sociology, indisputable fact.
Sorry B I think your logic is wrong. Go back to the 50-60s and you will find when blacks had 2 parent households poverty was really low but the democrats came along to help the poor people if you don’t believe me just read what LBJ said after he was elected after that along came the 70-80s free social money no reason to try to better themselves single parent household drug use and lots of baby daddies who don’t pay to support their babies case in point Andrew Brown 10 kids by different mothers no job and no child support so don’t cry about the ruling class until you understand how we got here.
That’s a whole lot of white supremacist dog whistling all in one completely inaccurate befuddled statement. In fact your whole statement is so entirely broken that I can’t even dignify responding to it any further
B why is it White Supremacists to support the Police. Who you gonna call when the bullets fly Ghosts Busters
If you reduce poverty bullets won’t be flying. That’s the part Republicans keep on leaving out
I think you’re RACIST
You clearly don’t know what racism means. Either that or you’re just deflecting from your own anti-black policies by literally doing the modern version of “I know you are but what am I.”
This illustrates what Mandate Mayor seeks to avoid at regular meetings. I’m glad stakeholders could attend on such short notice and be seen and heard.
I do not recall reading in the news about any recent violent acts being directly tied to restaurants and bars. In fact, it seems a majority of crimes, shootings etc., are people who are too young to get into a bar and drink. Ridiculous, as usual! Why is it so hard to admit that Greensboro has a real element of criminals around and they aren’t in restaurants or bars!
Instead of extending the meeting when obviously many more wanted to add their input, City Officials ended it early. Greensboro has spent big money to promote growth and worked hard to have a vibrant Down Town. The Mayor, Board Members and City Employees are servants of the People, or suppose to be. Maybe Greensboro needs some new leadership.
Maybe?
VOTE!
Greensboro police could have been in Catawba County but actually haven’t been for several years and I didn’t call them aw
Yes, Yes, Yes!!!! Stand up to these socialist goons and raise hell at every meeting they have until they’re all voted out in the fall. Personally, I’ve never been to a nightclub, and have no desire to ever go to one, I have occasionally ordered lunch at a pub or two and don’t even drink alcohol. This is about standing up for our freedoms and individual liberties that make our country great. Stick together folks! While your at it, ask the socialists why the coliseum gets a $10MM bailout while your neighbors had to spend their savings and close their doors. If they’re truly about helping the poor and the middle class, they sure have a strange way of showing it. Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot they don’t have a choice since their votes were bought and paid for by special interest groups the day they went in office. Every vote there is bought by large non-profit entities. The Greensboro Men’s Club, the ladies of OES Chapter whatever, the fine folks of the Blue Lodge, and other such nonsense. Rest assured your efforts are mostly ignored, so if you get them to change the ordinance it will be because these folks also wanted that way.
Lights, cameras, no action.
I think it was last year when Michelle Kennedy was able to go through the police budget line by line in order to find funding to remove. Maybe we should stop trying to defund the police and find better ways to fund our police.