Shots in the Dark: Efforts to Lower Crime Around Atlanta Nightlife
Having moved to Atlanta in September 2021, I still consider myself a newcomer to the city. Before I moved, I was excited to start a new chapter in a bustling metropolitan area. However, every time I talked about the move with others, their typical response was to warn me about how dangerous Atlanta is.
These warnings only intensified following the shooting that occurred at the corner of 12th Street and Crescent Avenue, a busy Midtown block, January 2022. The shooting was a drive-by incident stemming from a previous altercation from inside Traffik Kitchen and Cocktails, a popular nightclub on the corner of the shooting. The incident resulted in the senseless death of a man and woman.
Jason Wu is a long-term resident of a building near Traffik Kitchen and Cocktails, the origin spot of the altercation that later escalated outside. He said that the proximity of his building to a nightlife establishment affects his quality of living.
“In many cases, the unruliness of the night club crowd out on the street not only wakes me up but also presents danger to [my building’s] security,” Wu said. He cited the shooting near Traffik as a moment when he felt particularly unsafe in his own residence.
This was not an isolated incident. The number of shooting reports and violent crimes in Atlanta is at an all-time high, and leaders in the city are searching for answers. The Atlanta Police Department reported that the number of shooting incidents in the city rose from 488 in 2019, to 711 in 2020 and 752 in 2021. Most of these incidents occur at or near nightlife establishments that repeatedly foster unsafe environments.
Mayor Andre Dickens recently announced the formation of the Office of Nighttime Economy and Safety within the mayor’s offices in early April. It will operate under the Office of Film and Entertainment at City Hall. Atlanta joins the growing list of cities with nightlife divisions, including New York, Detroit, Washington D.C., Seattle, Orlando, London and Amsterdam.
This new division is supposed to crack down on “nuisance” businesses after hours and provide training to Atlanta restaurants, hotels, clubs and bars on deescalating altercations, administering first aid and responding to emergencies. The division is also supposed to provide support in crafting security plans and ensuring that all of the correct permits are filed for each business. It is intended to be a helpful resource for businesses struggling with maintaining the peace around their establishments. Whether the new division will be successful or not is yet to be discovered.
During his first state of the union address at the Georgia World Congress Center, Dickens said, “Nightlife is a significant part of who we are as a city, but bad operators and bad patrons will be kept in line.”
Atlanta is a hustling metropolis buzzing with tech tycoons, film aficionados and a growing network of small business owners during the day. Visitors and locals alike frequent popular tourist destinations like the World of Coke or The Varsity drive-in. One may think that a city teeming with so much action may lose momentum once the sun goes down. However, that’s not the case.
At night, the city takes on a new shape. Night clubs, bars and late-night restaurants open their doors to visitors and locals alike. Streets that can seem almost vacant during daylight hours become aglow with neon lights and pulsing music. Atlanta has a diverse nightlife scene with establishments ranging from grungy dive bars to glitzy strip clubs. I have personally witnessed the lines for some of these establishments stretch around streetcorners.
Dating as far back as the prohibition era, Atlanta has always been a beacon of nightlife activity. Classic stars like Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin and Dizzy Gillespie once graced the stages of some of Atlanta’s oldest establishments. The city has a long, storied history with those who enjoy partaking in events after dark. Today, nightlife industries make up about 2.7% of Atlanta’s employment rate. Nightlife is an integral part of the fabric of the city.
Atlanta Resident Miguel Name frequents a few nightlife establishments most weekends — at least one to three times per week. He usually visits bars like Botica, Moon Dogs, Lava Lounge, Painted Duck and Puttshack.
“Only once before have I observed physical violence during a night out in Atlanta,” Name said. “Two guys started fighting and punching each other. Who knows why?”
Unfortunately, Atlanta has a long history with violent crimes around nightlife establishments. Several shootings unfold at or near many of those businesses, like The Blue Flame Lounge January 26. Dishawn Marquis Lee Herndon got into an argument with another man inside the club, and the argument moved outside. The other man involved in the argument shot and killed Herndon.
This tragic event happened shortly after the popular restaurant Loca Luna closed following the outbreak of violent crimes that also took place just outside of their doors. An altercation that, once again, began inside the building moved into the parking lot, resulting in a shooting spree that caused the death of a California man.
One of the more recent incidents occurred outside of Dive Bar April 3. Malcolm M. Collins, a 27-year-old man, was shot and killed as part of a fight that began inside the bar. After being ejected from the bar for the initial fight, the people involved in the argument continued, and, yet again, a senseless death followed.
The mayor’s new nightlife division is a result of the growing culmination of these nightlife-related crimes across the city. Part of this conversation also includes a new ordinance, also known as the “nuisance policy,” revoking the liquor licenses of establishments where repeat violent crimes make them a nuisance property.
If a property is deemed a nuisance twice in the span of 24 months, the Atlanta municipal court can shut down that business. These recent developments have received a wide range of feedback from representatives across the city.
Many business owners are concerned that these new actions are going to severely hurt the nightlife industry in Atlanta. Deputy Solicitor Erika Smith reported that the list of nuisance properties recently jumped from 25 to 70. Five properties were permanently closed: Ghost Bar, 1050 Social Club, Kiss Ultra Lounge, Club Déjà Vu, Brooklyn Kitchen and Encore Hookah Lounge.
Michael Render, a rapper and businessman also known as Killer Mike, voiced his concerns about these new policies at a City Council committee meeting in May. He said that he fears the new legislation and actions taken by the mayor’s office could have detrimental effects on what is arguably an invaluable industry in the city.
“I hope we are not cutting off our arm when all we need to clip is a pinky,” Render said.
Business owners also worry that the nightlife policies put too much responsibility on the businesses to police crime happening outside of their doors. The owner of Iron Smoke Distillery, Ray McBride, does not see this new proposed legislation garnering much success.
“All they have done is setup an office to provide oversite,” McBride said. “Like most government agencies, I see them doing little or nothing to change the issues. Buckhead has especially seen more people from outside the area coming to partake in the nightlife. They come in and get out of control based on their own actions and not those of the clubs. Things escalate and go to a level that ends up in assault or gunfire. The clubs do not teach manners and decorum. This is what people should have learned growing up.”
Name partially agrees with McBride. He said that, if implemented well, the nightlife division could tremendously help. However, he agrees that the responsibility should not fall on the establishments.
“I believe that, as a business owner, you are responsible for situations that happen within your establishment,” Name said. “If incidents happen outside the establishment, I believe the responsibility should go to the police, not business owners.”
There are a few issues here. In most cases, the outbreaks of violence near these establishments typically resulted from arguments or altercations that began inside those establishments. This new legislation aims to alleviate that by providing more de-escalation training for people working at those places.
The other problem here is that Atlanta police officers are currently unable to work off-duty jobs at or outside of any strip clubs in the city. Of course, strip clubs are not the only sources of adult entertainment available in the city, but this rule does still present a major hurdle for the struggle to alleviate violent nightlife crime. Council members plan to reassess the legislation soon. Axios Atlanta reported that Darin Schierbaum, the city’s assistant chief of police, is researching further into this issue.
Georgia Restaurant Association CEO Karen Bremer said that they do not have an official statement regarding the safety ordinance yet.
“City Council has not started the work sessions to explore the issue,” Bremer said. “We will be attending and commenting when we have more information.”
One of the issues with this new legislation is that it only cites “some restaurants,” which leaves a lot of room for interpretation. According to Bisnow.com, many nightclubs and other nightlife establishments will try to claim that their businesses are restaurants rather than bars or clubs so that they can avoid requirements placed on nightlife establishments like zoning restrictions and ability to serve alcohol on Sundays. There are still a lot of wrinkles in these new developments to be ironed out, and it is yet to be determined if any quantifiable good will result from any of it.
However, I have personally noticed positive changes in some areas where more rules and regulations are enforced. I visited the intersection outside of Traffik Kitchen and Cocktails, the sight of the deadly shooting previously cited, during peak business hours on a Friday night.
At 12:30a.m., the intersection of Crescent Avenue and 12th Street felt like a microcosm of the entire city. I observed couples walking by on romantic dates, groups of women laughing as they met up with each other and large amoebas of friend groups drunkenly stumbling towards the pulsing music with big grins on their faces. People of all ages and ethnicities waltzed by in variations of sequins, leather, denim and latex.
Perched on a bench across the street and wearing a dark hoodie, I kept away from the action while reveling in the camaraderie that is the Atlanta nightlife scene. Because this corner was the location of a recent shooting, I was hyper-aware of my surroundings. I was also prepared to at least be heckled by the hordes of drunken Atlantans passing by, but most people surprisingly minded their business. This behavior could partially be attributed to the fully lit police car parked across the street from Traffik.
As people waited in a line that wrapped around the corner, they were illuminated by the red and blue lights of the police vehicle. The officer sat half in and half out with the car door propped open. The line outside grew so long because Traffik has an extensive security system. Several security guards wearing black jackets manned the door beneath a canopy. They patted the male visitors down for guns, and they checked any bags from all of the patrons.
Music pumped out of the building every time the doors opened to admit another person inside, but the loudest noises I heard actually came from the vehicles passing by. Cars and people flocked from all directions at this intersection, and I encountered a deafening blend of rap, hip hop, revving engines and honking horns, not to mention the trail of cannabis that lingered behind a car every once in a while.
Atlanta is beautifully diverse and energetic. Watching all of these people enjoying a violence-free night without the threat of catching a bullet was heartwarming, to say the least. One could almost ignore the fact that all of these extra security measures originated from a gruesome event just months prior. Perhaps this will eventually become the status quo for the city, and those initial warnings of violence will evolve into praise of the city’s safety.
