BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Bar owners and an entertainment district manager say their establishments and customers are not responsible for the violence that erupted last weekend in Buffalo’s Chippewa Entertainment District. Instead, they point to people loitering in parking lots and alleys with no intention of entering any businesses.
Tim Walton, event manager at Venu and Bottoms Up, said the troublemakers never set foot inside.
“They’re not even coming into the businesses. They have no intention of coming into the businesses,” Walton said.
Conor Hawkins, owner of Banshee Irish Pub, echoed that assessment.
“The people that are coming into the bars and clubs downtown Chippewa Entertainment District are not the ones causing the problems. It’s the bad apples that are just coming down to loiter because they’ve got nothing else to do,” Hawkins said.
WATCH: Chippewa Entertainment District bar owners blame loiterers, not patrons, for weekend violence
Chippewa Entertainment District bar owners blame loiterers, not patrons, for weekend violence
Common Councilmember Mitch Nowakowski, who represents the Chippewa District, described a pattern he said repeats itself each weekend.
“It happens where it turns around 10 o’clock at night that you get an infusion, an influx of hundreds of young adults, and is what the word that we need to start using, young adults, people that are 17, 18, 19, 20 years old, that are coming in and they’re loitering, they’re creating fistfights, they are drinking in nearby parking lots,” Nowakowski said.
Walton said the problem is concentrated away from the street and out of sight.
“These people aren’t coming down to go to the bars. They’re literally coming down, hanging out in the parking lots, hanging out in the off alleys where, you know, they’re not, it’s not on the street,” Walton said.
Hawkins pushed back on the idea that age alone is the issue, drawing a distinction between young adults who patronize bars and those causing trouble.
“The young kids that are 19 and 20 are coming down and going to some of the bars that allow that and paying their cover…they’re not the ones causing the problems,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins also opposed any proposal to close streets in the area as a solution.
“I’m totally against shutting down of any streets on Chippewa or Franklin. I think that you take away the problem for some bars and create a bigger problem for others,” Hawkins said.
I have reached out to the Ryan administration about what they plan to do about safety on Chippewa as the next weekend approaches.
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