Late-night troubles have a chilling effect on downtown

Every day there are too many empty storefronts and “for lease” signs.

Every Friday or Saturday night, the revelers have too many beers and not enough years.

Downtown Colorado Springs is struggling with an exodus of shops and has become a nighttime mecca for the young and the restless. Police have repeatedly responded to various levels of mayhem in the 100 block of North Tejon Street — in the vicinity of the aptly named Rum Bay.

In January, 22 officers responded to a mini-riot there, as the club’s bouncers were being assaulted. The week before, one of the customers jumped over a railing, landing on a woman who had to be taken to the hospital.

Late Friday and into the wee hours Saturday, there was little trouble, but the relative peace came at a high cost. All night, two or three police vehicles were parked in the alley next to Rum Bay while bouncers patrolled indoors.

At closing time early Saturday, a phalanx of nine uniformed officers hovered beyond the fringes of a crowd of perhaps 100 that extended into the middle of Tejon Street. As the crowd thinned, the officers formed a line, literally taking back the street that is supposed to belong to us all.

Some downtown business owners worry that the late-night commotion is having a chilling effect, keeping tamer folks away and discouraging new retailers from moving in.

“Did the character of the downtown change at late night during the last five years? Yes,” said Beth Kosley, executive director of the Downtown Partnership. “It’s the sheer number of people these clubs can accommodate. The nightclub format really hadn’t been here before.”

Rum Bay owner Sam Guadagnoli noted he’s been in business for 10 years. He questioned that he’s to blame for the loss of retail.

“I don’t know how I’m hurting them,” he said.

Guadagnoli said Rum Bay and the Tejon scene have been vilified in the media.

Sure, it’s true there are several reasons for downtown’s retail malaise. Might it also be true that nearby loft apartments are empty because the would-be occupants don’t want Mardi Gras every weekend?

“Maybe some people in the lofts down here, it’s loud for them,” Guadagnoli said. “You’d think they would have known that when they bought.”

If potential loft residents take their expendable incomes elsewhere, doesn’t that affect retailers?

Some of the recent trouble has occurred on nights when the temperature dipped into the single digits. What will it be like in summer?

“That’s what worries us,” said officer D.A. Hudson.

By 2:20 a.m. Saturday, only a few partiers were left on the street and the police had matters well in hand.

But such a deployment in one spot makes it harder to cover the entire city. As Hudson and his eight fellow officers were occupied on Tejon a 9-1-1 call came in from south Colorado Springs, where there had been a double homicide.

Contact Barry Noreen at 636-0363 or noreen@gazette.com. He appears every other Friday on KOAA’s Comcast Channel 9 at 4 p.m.