Violent and disruptive incidents centered near the city's downtown bars have decreased in the past year after police increased patrols in the area. Sun/ Bob Whitaker
By Robert Mills, rmills@lowellsun.com
Violent and disruptive incidents centered near the city's downtown bars have decreased in the past year after police increased patrols in the area. Sun/ Bob Whitaker
LOWELL -- The first meeting was contentious -- downtown residents and bar owners gathered with police in the City Council chambers and discussed Police Superintendent Kenneth Lavallee's proposal to begin closing bars at 1 a.m. instead of 2 a.m.
There was too much trouble downtown. People urinating in doorways, getting in fights. A man had been seriously injured as drunken men stomped on his head.
Lavallee made the proposal because a similar move worked in Lawrence.
"We could barely stand each other," Lavallee recalled Tuesday night, as he wrapped up yet another meeting with downtown bar owners and residents.
It was the most recent of nearly a half-dozen such discussions since that first meeting on April 25, 2007.
All the meetings since have been held in the Mayor's Reception Room, and though the crowds have been smaller with the early-closure proposal off the table, the discussions have led to success.
"Before we started this, everything was out of control," recalled Lowell Downtown Neighborhood Association President Kathleen Marcin.
On Tuesday, Lavallee presented statistics on "downtown disorder," that focused specifically on the problems that have been under discussion for a year.
From January to May of 2007 there were 43 incidents downtown between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. In the same time frame this year, just 35 -- a 19 percent decline.
Perhaps more importantly, the number of those incidents involving alcohol has been halved, and assaults went from the most common type of incident to a footnote on the printout Lavallee provides at each meeting.
Marcin noted that residents of the Ayer Lofts often bear the brunt of the disorder due to the building's location on Middle Street.
"But even they say that compared to last April its so much better than it was," she said.
The Police Department has used grant money to put extra officers on foot and bike patrol downtown on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, Lavallee said. State Police have assisted.
But Marcin and others at the meeting on Tuesday night say a remarkable level of communication created by the meetings has gone a long way.
"It's amazing what can happen when people talk to each other," Marcin said.
A good example of what has happened can be seen in just two men, Blue Shamrock owner Nick Petrakos and resident Frank Thoms, who has had issues with Petrakos' bar.
"Frank and Nick couldn't even look at each other or I thought they would come to blows," Marcin said of the two men a year ago. "Now Frank can just walk up to him on the street. ... They can have a conversation now."
Petrakos said he isn't sure there was ever a threat of him and Thoms coming to blows, but he does agree with Marcin's assessment of how things have changed.
"We've gotten an understanding of each other. I'm sympathetic to them, but they're also sympathetic to me," Petrakos said. "It's a very interesting dynamic that started down there."
Petrakos said the meetings have become so important to him he drove more than 90 minutes, while on vacation, to get to Tuesday's meeting.
He said that despite fears that changes would hurt downtown business, the results of these meetings have created a better business environment.
Residents also have learned that they will get a response if they call police, and Marcin said that leads residents to call more often.
A few months ago, residents complained of problems in a parking lot along Middle Street. A Police Department map of locations where incidents occurred backed up the complaints with a cluster of dots in that area.
"We asked the officers to pay extra attention to that area," Lavallee said at Tuesday's meeting.
The dots on the new crime map were gone from that area, and residents said the problems were, too.
"Well, Chief, it looks like we don't have a lot of complaints, which is good," said downtown resident Ted Lavash. "You guys are doing a good job."
But Lavallee says that there is still plenty to be done.
Drunken patrons leaving bars still vomit in some building entryways, Thoms said. He said flowers still get ripped from planters.
"I don't want to say that we've met our goal," Lavallee said. "There's a lot more work that needs to be done, and there will be more incidents in the future."
Problems at one downtown bar, Under Impact at 160 Merrimack St., were discussed on Tuesday after Marcin brought it up.
Invited to the meeting, according to police, Under Impact's owner didn't show.
However, Emilee Quiñones, Under Impact's manager, said he received no such invitation. "Otherwise, I would go," Quiñones said.
When Marcin suggested Lavallee get people together, Lavallee wasn't sure it was his place to do that. But after getting an enthusiastic OK from City Manager Bernie Lynch, he set up a meeting, and he ended up learning a little something himself.
"I certainly did learn police can be very effective at playing that role, and at having some authority to impress upon everyone involved that sanctions will occur if cooperation is not achieved," he said.
This article appeared in the Lowell Sun on Sunday, June 30, 2008