Seattle Nightclubs: A complex scene

On Tuesday, the list of the of the baddest of the bad Seattle bars and clubs (having more than 20 "police incidents" in a 16-month period) from Mayor Greg Nickels was released -- five are in Pioneer Square, three in Belltown. And so Nickels is proposing new rules for our watering holes, affecting as many as 300 businesses. As the Seattle City Council ponders the mayor's plan, which would require that bars obtain special permits and follow rules pertaining to issues ranging from noise and litter to violence, we hope they keep a couple of things in mind.

First, not all police incidents are the same. A bar or club could lose its liquor license if it has more than three incidents in a two-year period that fall under Group 1 violations (the State Liquor Board classifies violations by severity in numbered groups). This includes fighting, underage drinking and other criminal conduct. In some (rare) cases, if a violation is severe enough, one incident is all it takes to get a liquor license canceled. But if the regular process takes too long, as Nickels has said, then perhaps we could work with the Liquor Board to shrink the two-year window in the case of serious violations, working with existing regulations rather than creating new ones. On a city level, our noise ordinances could use some tightening, keeping loud clubs and patrons in line. The second thing we hope they keep in mind is that the worst of the "bad bars" are in two neighborhoods. Surely no one believes that the bars alone are creating those problems. What else is going on to create those issues and how can they be addressed?

Pointing the finger at bar owners alone seems like an unfair and ineffective approach.