Club tumult concerns mayor

• By KORAN ADDO
• Westside bureau
• Published: May 18, 2009

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 PORT ALLEN — Sunday nights at some establishments have become a nuisance and the City Council has to find a solution before the situation escalates and becomes violent, Mayor Derek Lewis said.

With most Baton Rouge-area clubs closed on Sundays, Lewis said Port Allen sees larger crowds than usual in the 800 and 900 blocks of North Alexander Avenue where three popular nightclubs, Bill’s Place, Club Avalanche and Déjà Vu, are within a few hundred feet of each other.

As many as 300 people remain outside — many with drinks in hand — after the clubs close, Lewis said. Club goers also blast loud music from their vehicles and leave behind piles of litter along La. 1, he said.

Also, so far this year, Police Chief Fred Smith said his department has investigated a homicide, armed robbery and drive-by shooting believed to be associated with rowdy Sunday night crowds.

With only three officers on duty at a time, Smith said his officers cannot respond to other calls in force because one or more officers must “baby-sit” the clubs.

Smith said he’s hesitant to even ask his officers to write tickets for illegal parking because his officers are outnumbered by the crowds who can become hostile toward his officers.

“People are complaining and people are scared,” Smith said, referring to numerous calls his office has received about the Sunday night situation.

Ellis Brock Jr. lives around the corner from the nightclubs. After a shooting earlier this year, Brock said he takes a roundabout way to get home on Sunday nights, driving several blocks out of his way to avoid driving past the nightclubs in the problem area.

“After that killing (outside a club on Super Bowl Sunday), they didn’t miss a beat,” Brock said. “It was the same thing the next week. Port Allen is not a safe place on Sunday nights.”

With concerns like Brock’s in mind, Smith asked the City Council last week to impose strict ordinances to make club owners responsible for the activity that happens in and around their clubs.

Smith also suggested that clubs should close at 7:30 p.m. on Sundays instead of the current 10 p.m. closing time.

That suggestion was met with opposition from several business owners and members of the City Council at the council’s May 13 meeting.

Darlene Navarre owns Delirious Daiquiris on North Alexander Avenue several blocks away from the so-called problem area.