PR: City, Police Department, Partnership for Downtown St. Louis, and Downtown Community Improvement District Announce New Safety Measures on Washington Avenue
The following is a press release:
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 The City of St. Louis, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis, and the Downtown Community Improvement District today announced new measures to ensure everyone enjoying themselves on Washington Avenue is safe.
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After an almost two-hour meeting this morning in the Mayor’s office, Lieutenant Colonel Antionette Filla announced the following changes:
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•    Additional foot patrol officers will be added to Washington Avenue on Thursdays through Sundays from 11pm to 4am for visibility and enforcement.
•    Additional traffic officers will help control the flow of traffic on Thursdays through Sundays from 11pm to 4am.
•      The St. Louis Police Department officers will be conducting random safety checkpoints. These checkpoints will be at varied locations in the Washington Avenue entertainment district and police will be checking for drivers’ licenses, vehicle registrations, seatbelt violations, etc.
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Maggie Campbell, president of the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis, announced the following changes:
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•    Four Downtown CID Guides will be dedicated to Washington Avenue until 11pm.
•    The Downtown Partnership will add security cameras and monitor them.
•    A group of Washington Avenue stakeholders has formed an advisory group to make recommendations.
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Jeff Rainford, the Mayor’s Chief of Staff, announced the following:
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•    There is no evidence that Sugar was responsible for the shooting Sunday night. In fact, calls for service at Sugar have dropped since restrictions were put in place last summer. Police say Sugar did have security in place Sunday night.
•    Sugar has voluntarily agreed to stop their under-21 nights in the interest of the neighborhood. The Excise Commissioner will ask Sugar and 15 to restrict their customers to 21 and above late at night.
•    The City Counselor will draft legislation to create a curfew for people who are under 21 for Downtown.
•    The City Counselor will draft legislation to restrict underage people from being in liquor establishments late at night.
•    The City is considering legislation to require lighting and an attendant at parking lots and garages.
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Jeff Rainford, Chief of Staff to Mayor Slay, Lieutenant Colonel Antionette Filla of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, and Maggie Campbell, President of the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis will be available for individual interviews.
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Hopefully the sight of more police will scare the thugs off from even coming down here
Sounds good to me!
more police on washington ave. aren't there enough? checkpoints? are we living in a police state? how are the above measures considered a new strategy? this is nothing but a band-aid for the next 30 days. fortunately, we are heading into the winter with cold weather, street crime seems to slow down. all parties included have months to build a strategy on how to approach next spring when things start to rev up again. one suggestion is to stop forcing a vision on the washington ave. entertainment district and let it grow as it did in the 90's. these are warehouses which people bought inexpensively and attempted to fill them with people who are able to spend $200,000 plus, but do not want to live in a warehouse on washington ave. in the middle of an entertainment district which has been coming along since the 90's. I loved living at 15th and washington – when i got tired of the noise and the constant party washington ave. has to offer i moved others should follow. this part of downtown is really not a strong residential area – transient, restaurant / club / bar employees seem to be the norm; which may be how the area is going to pan out. other issues – gangs and other criminal elements are coming in from east st. louis (a lot of the “thugs” ) are driving around on illinois plates. the inablilty of east louis and illinois to make some positive significant changes to their side of the metro area has something to do with the violent crime on washington ave. – if you need more evidence i will be glad to bring people on a show and tell on any given weekend night after 11pm. what happened to the days of tangerine, velvet, the galaxy, low, the other world, the sanctuary – washington ave. entertainment district was becoming the premier independent entertainment district in the mid-west until other groups tarted to push their agendas and artificially tried to change the “scene” to accommodate their speculative and badly manged plan of making the area like the cwe. For the people who still live on washington ave and enjoy what it has to offer know the quiet times / down times do come along – monday morning till wednesday evenings.
I live on Washington now. Quiet time is pretty much 24X7 for me. Except for the occasional shooting at Lure, but their days are numbered, and Sugar won't be far behind, I suspect.
Mr Right Lure is already closed. It closed mid-October. As for the Wash Ave solutions, I dunno. I already feel safer on Washington Ave than a LOT of the city and I can think of a few million places police presence could REALLY be used. (South Grand, the Grove (Popular spots but I *never* see police there and I've had friends get mugged in both areas), Benton Park West, Fox Park, or freakin Dutchtown). I mean this is St. Louis, someone was BOUND to get shot on washington ave at some point, so let's regroup and move on. Not to sound rude but people are shot all the time. Why is the wash ave shooting more important/relevant than any of the others? Because it's on a popular street? Psht.
This is the type of protection we have been asking our elected officials for for years. Personally I'm glad Maggie Campbell finally accomplished what we have been asking for.