Satisfactory “nightlife” means different things to different people. Whereas there is no debate when physical harm to person or property occurs, there is quite a variation in measuring one person’s comfortable atmosphere with that of another’s.
In affluent Buckhead — where today’s population of 76,000 started with mostly reserved seniors who then welcomed a well-funded, high-tech generation — a struggle is taking place for each to understand the other.
Many elements come into play: noise, trash, safety, reliability. These issues surface after dark around nightclubs, and in and around the new phenomenon of food truck gatherings. Buckhead’s sister neighborhoods — Virginia-Highland, East Atlanta, Midtown and others — see the same tug-of-war unfolding. It’s also happening in other urban hospitality areas across the country.
The conflicting attitudes between veterans and neophytes are difficult to resolve, but when a balance is achieved, coexistence can become a reality. We have to start with the premise that the laws, as they are now written, must be obeyed or be changed.
We must also all understand that “the other side” has rights of existence. Nightclubs, retailers, mobile merchants, faith institutions, educational halls and residents need to consider the rights of others when selecting occupancy sites, proposed zoning and predicted growth patterns.
“Quality of life” is difficult to identify, but it’s known when damaged. It turns out the same parameters are appreciated differently by different age groups, and that’s where the tightrope walk begins. For every mature resident who treasures peace and tranquility, there’s an urban enthusiast who relishes the noise of the night — the uniform of city life. Thus, the challenge for the civic and political servant is to find the common denominator, to build trust of one to the other.
In Buckhead about a dozen years ago, we experienced an intolerable state of affairs in the East Village where there were as many as 100 nightclubs in an eight-block area. There was damage to residential yards, late-night noise, fights and even loss of life before it was brought under control.
It took an all-out campaign of law enforcement to restore peace and order. The government sent police, the fire marshal, building inspectors, the health department and other regulatory agencies. Clubs operating outside the law – allowing underage drinking, prostitution, illegal drug sales — could not stay in business and left.
During the ensuing years, bars proliferated in our West Village, diagonally across Peachtree and West Paces Ferry, where there are now about two dozen alcohol licenses in a five-block area. I have given numerous speeches in which I’ve bragged that Buckhead was still “Atlanta’s Nightclub” and that this area was operating without complaints from any quarter. I insisted it could work, and it did.
However, for whatever reason, the situation has changed, and it behooves us all to correct it before it gets out of hand. It’s a perfect example of a few bad actors ruining the play for all.
Good government knows to be proactive rather than reactive, and now is the time to do just that. This area — bounded by Roswell Road, West Paces Ferry and East Andrews Drive — is faced by residents in the Lofts on Roswell, the Paces Apartments and the St. Regis Condominiums, and they are complaining about noise, disorderly conduct, speeding traffic and other misbehavior.
Before some young person gets hurt or killed it is time to take a deep breath and figure out a way to coexist. If clubs choose not to police themselves and the government steps in, it cannot be selective: It must equally enforce all regulations on all operators.
We believe a good approach would be for the clubs to organize and come up with a plan that will allow reasonable coexistence.
The food truck programs will face parallel problems and also should draw up cooperative plans for coexistence with the brick-and-mortar establishments and the surrounding neighborhoods. Balance and coexistence in both instances should be the passwords of the day.
Sam Massell is Buckhead Coalition president and former mayor of Atlanta.
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