My involvement in this is not at an official level, more that of an interested person.
The underlying reasons for my concern are several:
1. Impact on those innocent people bashed for no apparent reason.
2. That the majority of non-violent people will be disadvantaged unfairly if the only solution is to shut everything down.
3. The economic impact.
3.1 Tas has an historic problem economically with people leaving around their late teens.
3.2 Tourism. Turning Hobart into a city that's completely dead at night will only revive the pre-2000's stereotype that "it could be worse, we could be in Hobart" and "nothing ever happens in Tas, it's soooo boring".
As for my own views on the cause:
First thing I think has been done wrong is to cram practically everything into the one spot.
Also there's the point that Gatecrasher was in the same street as the main city police station. Wrest Point has plenty of its own security being a casino. And Surreal was on a very busy road between the CBD and the casino. So lots of police / security around all of them without any special effort being needed.
Problem number two IMO is that following the highly controversial demise of Club Surreal following a fairly major battle with surrounding residents, other club owners feel a sense of doom.
Problem number three IMO is lack of capacity. We've replaced the bigger clubs with capacity 1200 - 1500 with smaller venues half that size or less. End result is not everyone can get in.
Also the quality. We've replaced award winning venues with clubs that were never actually completed to original specification. Quality out, cheap and nasty in.
A 3am lockout, whilst well intentioned, combined with smoke free laws has compounded the capacity problem. The great rush to get back in by 3am and of course no going out for food, to smoke etc afterwards unless you're going home.
But if you are going home then it's either join the taxi queue or walk. Public transport basically doesn't exist at that time of night
And number four. The other big one that I'm really not sure of the impact. It was this one that lead me to leave the question "open" here and just see if it came up. Illegal drugs. 10 years ago it was pretty uncommon to come across anyone here on drugs, especially anything harder than home grown dope.
What impact the drugs have on violence is something I really don't know. But I do know that it is the most blatantly obvious thing that "changed" in recent times. It's gone from unusual to mainstream amongst the clubbing age group.
My real question though is whether or not there is a viable solution?
1am closing is being proposed by some but I'm not convinced.
Also it means an awful lot of people kicked out onto the streets all at once with nowhere to go and no viable means of getting home in reasonable time. The problems have always peaked around kick out time as it is, and that's with many having left earlier.
So I really don't know. I'm starting to think that just standing back, watching the whole waterfront clubs thing implode and that then ending up with some new, more geographically dispersed clubs opening might be the best solution after all since it at least disperses the people. ???
Hi Smurf,
It is really interesting, that you have started this thread right now, as
here in Perth, we have a similar problem in Northbridge, except that it is
is probably on a bigger scale.
Up front, my own involvement is BOTH at ground zero and also in picking
up the pieces of the broken lives, that gravitate to Northbridge and its
immediate environs.
As far as the innocent and tourists are concerned ... most people going for
dinner or drinks, at the more respectable restaurants or bars have usually
left Northbridge by midnight ... after that, the nightclubs come to life and
the whole scene changes, dramatically.
People coming into Northbridge after 11 pm include:
1. Angry people looking for a fight.
2. Drug dealers and their customers
3. Binge drinkers find the night clubs willing suppliers of alcohol, in huge
quantities.
4. Large numbers of "lost" young men and women, with no real direction,
making themselves available as prostitutes, in order to pay for drugs.
Now, every major city has similar crowded areas ..... this makes the
surveillance by camera, much easier ..... Perth CBD has more than
250 cameras monitoring hotspots, today. Policing is also much less
fragmented, if the hotspots are contained in a tight area, like Northbridge,
by council licensing requirements.
With regard to alcohol, there's 80 major liquor outlets, within one square
kilometre, including Northbridge.
Now, after 2-3 hours drinking, the fights start to erupt around 2-3am
and the police and various other agencies also swing into action.
These include:
Police
Local council rangers.
Nyoongar patrol to handle indegenous people
Hospital Chaplains and pastoral care practitioners.
Drug Arm and other drug agencies, with street patrols.
Needle exchanges.
Council-sponsored patrol to issue "safe-packs" to street-walkers.
First-aiders
Street youth workers
Ambulance drivers
Taxi drivers
Soup kitchen and coffeshop volunteers.
Gundini also mentioned the importance of Christian Youth Groups
and he may also be able to confirm the valuable contribution,
that the Street Chaplains make in Brisbane.
In fact, here in Perth, we are working on a new Street Chaplains team to
cover hotspots, like Northbridge and Scarborough, more thoroughly.
Street chaplains work closely with the police, dealing with people in
crisis, while releasing police resources for other tasks.
Street chaplains are usually trained in First Aid and are most often found
working on practical solutions, covering:
- Crisis care
- one-to-one counselling
- walking, talking and listening with the lonely
- ministering to the street walkers
- assisting young people from other, foreign cultures
-----
Regarding economics of these hotspots, many of the nightclubs have
close links to organised crime and they must be located close to other
nightclubs, to effectively compete for the alcohol and drug dollars.
Some security guards and nightclub bouncers are employed simply to sell
large quantities of drugs to nightclub patrons !~!
-----
As a drug and alcohol counsellor, the aftermath of an extended encounter
in the Northbridge nightclub scene is graphic reminder of how the power
of parents has been eroded, in favour of child protection.
That leads to lack of respect and an "untouchables" attitude by the
X and Y generations, towards anybody in authority ... police, especially !~!
..... and we haven't even mentioned anything about the impact of
specific illicit drugs, on Northbridge.
More later.
happy days.
paul