Gallery Place residents fed up with rowdy weekend crowds
By Taryn Luntz
Examiner Staff Writer 10/7/08
“On Friday and Saturday nights in particular we’ve seen a pretty drastic increase in crowds in the couple of months, particularly of juveniles,” Metro Transit Police Deputy Chief Jeff Delinski said of the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro station entrance at 7th and H streets.
“We attribute it to the movie theaters and the nightlife in the area,” Delinski said. “There are under-21 clubs opening up.”
The Downtown Neighborhood Association, which represents residents in Penn Quarter and Chinatown, called an emergency meeting with city leaders last week to discuss the growing problem along 7th Street.
“The concern is that if we don’t get a handle on it, that people may be afraid to come downtown,” group spokesman Miles Groves said. “You get enough people in a small enough space, it can turn in to something very, very dangerous. We need to get it diffused.”
D.C. police flooded the area with patrol officers over the weekend to try to curb the crowds, an initiative that business owners and residents said helped restore some order.
But residents said the area needs a more permanent solution, such as legislation to lower the city-wide teen curfew from midnight to 10 or 11 p.m. in the downtown area.
Mayor Adrian Fenty and D.C. Council members are scheduled to meet with the Downtown Neighborhood Association to discuss the issue next week.
The area is one of the city’s biggest recent success stories, with dozens of restaurants, bars and shops springing up on streets that were once depressed.
Employees at the Fuddruckers restaurant at the corner of 7th and H streets have resorted to locking the restaurant’s doors during business hours to keep out the crush of kids who have no intention of buying food.
“On Saturday nights we’ll get 20 to 40 to 60 kids running around in here,” said assistant manager Beatrice Hernandez. “We’re talking about mayhem — absolute pandemonium. In the short run, it has been affecting business.”
Delinski said that transit police had not recorded a significant crime spike in the area. But Metro is now assigning between four and six officers to man the entrance on weekend nights to help control the crowds. D.C. police did not return a call for comment about crime activity in the immediate area.
30 Comments
Reader Comments:
POSTED Oct 7, 2008
Concerned Mother: "Something should be done about teen crowds city-wide. This is starting to become a problem not just in the downtown area or on the weekends. You are finding this problem during the weekdays as well. Where are the parents of these teens’ maybe we should begin to hold the parents accountable for their children and just maybe we may begin to see some changes? I was troubled to read that their are clubs opening up for under 21. What are we thinking about some of these teens are barley passing school if they even show up at all and the District Government is allowing owners of businesses to open up clubs for the under 21 crowd. Is the District Government that hard up for revenue that we are approving licenses for this type of business....I guess we need CHANGE not only on Capitol Hill, The White House but it seems as though we need CHANGE right here in our own backyard."POSTED Oct 7, 2008
Fred: "What does roudy mean?"POSTED Oct 7, 2008
Metro Rider: "This seems to be a growing concern with teen crowds. I understand what the residents of downtown are feeling. I ride the metro to work and back home and if you think it's just a problem downtown it's not. These teens are allowed to ride the metro rail/bus they hang out at the metro stations in crowds and no one says a thing about. They are rude and have no respect for others on the metro. The DC Government should invest money into private school buses instead of public transportation for DC students. I which I could find an alternative route to work but the gas prices on top of the prices for these parking garages downtown make it very unpleasant to drive to work everyday to avoid the teen crowds."POSTED Oct 7, 2008
Anon: "Let's talk about the real issue here: these kids are black. That's what's got everyone so riled up."POSTED Oct 7, 2008
A Mother of a MD teenager: "The kids are going to Gallery Place because of the curfew at The Blvd. The next popular spot is in Virginia. Now I knew nothing about the clubs, but I do allow my child to attend the movies, but she does have a curfew on when to be back at the subway for me to pick her up. I would like to hear more about these clubs for those under 21, so when she asks, I can be ready to say NO."POSTED Oct 7, 2008
A Mother of a MD teenager: "The kids are going to Gallery Place because of the curfew at The Blvd. The next popular spot is in Virginia. Now I knew nothing about the clubs, but I do allow my child to attend the movies, but she does have a curfew on when to be back at the subway for me to pick her up. I would like to hear more about these clubs for those under 21, so when she asks, I can be ready to say NO."POSTED Oct 7, 2008
: "Our Youth does not have no activity in the Metro Area.Soon it will be killing and stealing. They thing violance is what is happening somthing need to change.Nib this in the bud."POSTED Oct 7, 2008
: "This is a bit alarmist. It's one evening a week for only a short time. The city is already working on it and looking at solutions. There needs to be some perspective here. The sky is not falling."POSTED Oct 7, 2008
Voice of Reason: "I got out of a movie at Gallery Place at 9 pm this past Saturday night. Relatively early, right? The crowd was so thick that it was terribly tough to get back to the metro. The problem is not that these teens are black; the problem is that they are incredibly rude. I felt uncomfortable enough that I had a conversation the following day which included a plan to try out Georgetown's theater for future movie needs. The alarming thing to me in reading this article today is knowing that these security measures were already in place this past Saturday evening and I still felt unsafe in that crowd."POSTED Oct 7, 2008
Resident in area: "This is a very real problem (I live down the street) and something should be done b/c it will continue to negatively impact the area. The business owners are fed up with these kids and their presence is a deterrent for people (like me) who are real patrons and for tourists who want to enjoy DC and this area. I think we should enforce a 10PM curfew every night for anyone under the age 18. Most major cities have these curfews and they work - but they need to be enforced."POSTED Oct 7, 2008
Chinatown Resident: "Uh, Anon, you left out some of the issue. I am black and I don't have a problem saying that, YES, what we are talking about here is a bunch of black kids who don't know how to act or conduct themselves in public. Now, why is that?!?"POSTED Oct 7, 2008
Tom: "I find all this a bit strange. Kids have a right to use public space, just the same as you or I. I understand that they can be irritating, but everyone here is talking around what they're actually doing, other than to occasionally say that they're "rowdy". Let's discuss what they're doing specifically and figure out how to make the situation acceptable for everyone -- that they simply take up space is not a sufficient justification for a curfew."POSTED Oct 7, 2008
JB: "I went to the Gallery Place movies the other day and more than a few people were constantly checking their phones. The morons don't seem to realize how bright their phones are in a dark theater. That or they don't care. Losers like that should just stay home."POSTED Oct 7, 2008
Anonymous Coward: "It's a lot of high school kids who like - urban outfitters - city sports - chipotle/mcdonald's - the movies/haagen daaz - take the bus in that area For the most part, they don't patronize any of the other nearby businesses. The fact that they're black make them a lot more conspicuous to people with their fingers hovering over the 911 short cut on their i-phones. And more importantly, these 13-17 year olds are totally unafraid of whatever authority Penn Q residents would want to assert. Would you fear someone who drives a Zip Car Prius and reads NYT at Caribou? Me either."POSTED Oct 7, 2008
Chinatown Patron: "The problem is a group of teenagers, regardless of ethnicity, who are lacking any sort of manners, class and social graces. It's one thing to be laughing and having a good time on a public street. It's another thing to do what they're doing, which is being loud, screaming, running around, making it difficult for patrons to pass in and out of businesses, being confrontational and in a few instances almost violent with area patrons. That behavior should not be tolerated. If it's simply a matter of teens being teens, then why aren't there more complaints from Bethesda Row? Georgetown? Eisenhower Ave? Or any of the other movie theaters? Raise the movie prices to double if necessary. Bring in law enforcement and start handing out tickets for disorderly conduct and loitering! Raise that curfew to 9 PM if necessary. Perhaps it'll force them to spend some time at home or with their parents and maybe they'll learn how to act properly in public."POSTED Oct 7, 2008
LASDC: "I live in Chinatown and it's not so much that the kids are hanging out there, I don't mind that, it's that you can't walk on the sidewalks. I've been pushed several times and nearly knocked over walking on 7th btw G&H on weekends. It's so crowded that it can take 5 minutes just to go that one block. One walking lane, that's all I need."POSTED Oct 7, 2008
M: "The problem is not just at Gallery Place, it is in the entire Metro system. Get on the Red Line east of GP at 3PM on a weekday afternoon and you will see what I mean. Loads of kids, shouting and swearing, being obnoxious and threatening. Also running around (which is dangerous when near rail tracks), throwing things, just being utter wastes of life. I'm not entirely certain what the solution is. Cops should definitely step up prosecution for loitering around GP/Chinatown, though. Police tend to scare off thugs, so foot patrols would be nice as well."POSTED Oct 7, 2008
Lateef: "2 Weekends ago there was a big big police presence...and roads were locked down ... cruisers and fire trucks were all over the place. Does anyone know what happened?"POSTED Oct 8, 2008
Local16: "This has been a problem for quite sometime now. For the past 5 years from the metro on up to 7th street. Parking is never available and when attempting to make a right hand turn it's almost given that you will have to wait at least 10min before the swarm of people lollygag their way to the other side. I agree with "concerned mother," it defeats the point of fixing this problem by opening under 21 clubs, which by the way always seem to shut down around china town. ..the city should make them 21 and over clubs. For all the loitering, slap them with a curfew like they did at the blvd in va."POSTED Oct 8, 2008
pukka: "Fudruckers is locking the doors? Surely they're not keeping the customers out; so they're locking them in? Sounds like a fire-code violation."POSTED Oct 8, 2008
yes: "lateef: a teen stabbed another teen at the chipotle"POSTED Oct 8, 2008
ev80@yahoo.com: "Most teenagers are annoying, specially those who don't have a committed parent/guardian to guide them. This happens in NYC too, times square are particularly, only difference is that people there 1. are from the city and don't care what the little pests do and 2. There is enough police to shoo them away if they become violent. You must expect big crowds of teenagers where there is a very easily accessible movie theater and cheap food... its just normal. If you want a quieter experience go to Georgetown which is 15 minutes away from the metro and hence keeps the poor/uneducated/teenage crowds away."POSTED Oct 8, 2008
MOB: "M, I completely agree with you about the Red Line east of GP during mid afternoon. The train is completely taken over by the most obnoxious, loud, insulting of children. It amazes me at their complete lack of manners, their insanely foul mouthes and disrespect for other riders of the metro. They are running up and down the trains, speaking more vile language than I have heard in some time. Why would any decent person want to ride the train under those conditions? It's bad for the city and needs to be addressed. Boils down to lack of discipline, from parents, from metro, and from the schools. If the schools are going to utilize the metro to transport their children they need to have some involvement in their discipline."POSTED Oct 8, 2008
English is dope, yo: ">>Our Youth does not have no activity in the Metro Area.Soon it will be killing and stealing. They thing violance is what is happening somthing need to change. I'm not even sure the above is English. If they don't is have not got nothing to do, maybe you can get one of them to accompany you to a remedial writing center. Then they might be able to get a reasonable job instead of "hanging out" all day and all night with nothing to do."POSTED Oct 8, 2008
Work at Gallery Place: "Let's be honest. These are the same kids that threaten and menace random white folks for fun. I've seen it a hundred times."POSTED Oct 8, 2008
Back to Georgetown: "What a surprise, people in DC making an issue about race when it has nothing to do with race. These kids are rude, in the way, and bad for business. That's the issue. Nobody cares what color they are. I live a lot closer to the Gallery Place theaters than Georgetown, but I've given up on GP. It's too much hassle to wade through the throngs of loitering kids as they scream and bump into people (no apologies, of course)."POSTED Oct 8, 2008
Carl R.: "It is a shame; I would say it's a poor person's culture in which the kids haven't learned to be so polite in adult society. But I would say the kids are not doing it to be evil, they just don't realize that public streets aren't the same as the courtyard at the local high school. I grew up in Brooklyn, and you could see the same dichotomy in the various neighborhoods there. It's even in the East Side Kids movies of the 1940s, the teens not having learned what the larger society expects in public. Perhaps the city could close 7th St. from E to H to cars on Friday and Saturday evenings. It's not like it's a wide boulevard; it's got one lane each way and the cars can go up 6th and down 9th on weekend evenings. Then there would be more room for pedestrians and less crowding."POSTED Oct 8, 2008
Mike Licht: "Think of the public funds and police manpower drained by this persistent nuisance the next time you hear someone brag about the so-called economic miracle of the Verizon Center."POSTED Oct 16, 2008
Seriously Annoyed: "I was hungry one night at like 11 PM and I walked from Penn Quarter to Chinatown to grab some grub, on my way back some assclowns barked in my ear to try to startle me. It didn't affect me one bit, but they were doing this to lots of random people just for their own amusement. I was thinking about kicking all their asses but then I would have got thrown in jail. Also, that juvenile delinquent barked really loudly into my bad ear which is already very sensitive to loud noises. I just walk on the other side of the street now since my future is not worth putting them in their place."POSTED Oct 16, 2008
Seriously Annoyed: "I was hungry one night at like 11 PM and I walked from Penn Quarter to Chinatown to grab some grub, on my way back some assclowns barked in my ear to try to startle me. It didn't affect me one bit, but they were doing this to lots of random people just for their own amusement. I was thinking about kicking all their asses but then I would have got thrown in jail. Also, that juvenile delinquent barked really loudly into my bad ear which is already very sensitive to loud noises. I just walk on the other side of the street now since my future is not worth putting them in their place."