In a bizarre twist to the recent melee in front of the Tropicana night club in New Rochelle a man in the crowd later sought treatment at Sound Shore Medical Center for pain in his back. The pain turned out to be a gunshot wound.
On Friday, Talk of the Sound reported that between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on the morning of March 9th, police responded to reports of fighting outside the The Tropicana, located at 444 North Avenue. Eight police officers responded to an unruly crowd of 150 people, many students from Monroe College and their friends, many of them from the Bronx and Brooklyn. The crowd was often threatening and belligerent towards the officers.
The NRPD dispersed the crowd by directing them to leave the scene, heading south on North Avenue. Police closed off intersections for what turned into an impromptu parade as police in about a dozen vehicles escorted the crowd along the route back towards their dorms and apartments. At least two arrests were made.
Talk of the Sound has since learned that as the crowd moved along North Avenue, a man approached police and told them his back hurt. The man refused an offer of medical assistance from police. He continued walking with the crowd.
A short time later, police responded to information from staff at Sound Shore Medical Center that they had a patient with a bullet in their back. Police identified the man as the same person who had reported pain in his back on North Avenue.
More with video after the jump.
It is not clear how the man came to be shot in the back.
Witnesses to the melee which began inside the Tropicana say that several women ran out of the back of the club shouting “he’s got a gun” but there were no reports of shots fired at the club or during the fights which broke out in the street after club employees pushed a hostile crowd out of the club around 2:00 a.m. Friday morning.
There have been a number of violent incidents involving the Tropicana night club. Last March, three New Rochelle police officers were injured after responding to a similar large fight at the club. In that case, police made multiple arrests.
Talk of the Sound video from early Friday morning:
Developing…
cabaret license not the answer
Problem is these scummy little clubs that attract this filth that dont know how to act in public because they were raised like animals. No cover charge, $2 beers.. guess what you get walking through the door? Uneducated Filth with $20 in their pocket, nothing to lose and a gun….. $20 cover charge $7 beers guess what you get? Normal, real job, something to lose, educated, credit cards and couple hundred bucks in the pocket. Sad to say, but the club owner knows exactly what hes doing…he wants to pack the place with shit.. economies of scale.
Journal News Must Be Looking for a Pulitzer Prize
Another interesting, informative article in todays Journal News. This one deals with the fact that “serious crimes are up 21% in New Rochelle.
Of course it was followed by the usual administration spin; strome and carroll were spewing some stuff about multiple crimes, counts, simple non relevant, data denial stuff. The most inexplicable statement was comparing the current results to 2002. Why 2002? Looks like some need to go back ten years when things were different. Hell I was different; does matter it is bull.
Point is serious crimes are up 21% and get this… south of Eastchester Road we had 46,171 calls compared to 9,283 up town a bit. That is 83% versus 17%.
Journal News introduced for the first time my continual point that renewed calls are being made for “a substation in the neighborhood meaning downtown New Rochelle.
About time. Deputy Commissioner Murphy, who I see as a bright guy, mentioned the”park and walk” strategy. It won’t work well Commissioner. The new form of robbery is largely stop a vehicle, snatch and grab. And you dont have enough staff to plainsclothe some to eyeball someone with bad intentions who is timing and watching the route followed by an officer before the bad guys go into action. Anyway you need a precinct so people feel confident and more secure — not hard to move over some function like 911 operators, other desk folks. Just keep them in uniform.
One other point. Lets focus on the simple fact that there are different kinds of cabarets. You don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Proper coding and zoning can help separate the Palladiums and Tropicanas from the cafe or restaurants more modest and business boosting needs.
Down south, many years ago, smart officials would place buckets of blood in outskirts, away from residents and commercial businesses. If they got real bad, they pulled licenses. Hell, you can have it both ways if the Council wakes up and puts a little thought to it.
Maybe the zoning should look at new territory. Lots of room up north.
commisioner murphy
anthony murphy has been around for too long,since the 70’s. he has an old mentality on policing and commisioner carroll thinks this is new york city and still hasen’t paid for any of the items he won at all his silent auctions for his police foundation. what a joke of a foundation its all in place to obtain money from business owners and they basically run the department or feel they have say.thia all takes away from the real police association.the everyday police officers who do the work. there is a police commisioner in the USA that has had a 18 year tenure.unheard of.get rid of all the old mentality,capt.schaller,capt.kealy the two commisioners and bring in a young commisioner.the dept is down 30 copos and u have a community policing unit that has 15 members who do nothing but go to community meetings.you only need 1 of those to listen to community problems just like you have 1 youth officer who deals with the thousands of kids and 1 police social officer who deals with all the familky or domestic problems.wake up chuck strome clean house new ro has been stagnant for a long time when it comes to the police dept.
No more Tropicana’s
Rockne…
You hit the nail right of the head. Any pandering, knee jerk politician who advocates for this mess should get up in the middle of the night and take a firsthand look at what’s going on in these bars at night. Underage drinking, fighting and just disorderly behavior with some criminal acts weaved in is what they would find. Sad to think our elected officials are so ignorant regarding the late night life here in New Rochelle. At a certain point in time the cocktail dinner crowd goes home and the late night miscreants begin to appear. This group siphons our precious police service away from our neighborhoods and patrol of our streets. Essentially the police become bar bouncers and our elected officials should not be in the business of advocating for this. Shame of them.
Caberet Licence Not the answer
The premise that allowing these licences to remedy the financial woes In New Rochelle is rediculous.
How about the additional manpower the police will request in over time. That will put us back in the red for sure.
If there is any lesson to be learned from the tropicanna, is that we not grant this licence. I hope our Council gets it.
The History of the moritorium on caberets in new Rochelle.
Beach Club fighting.
Over occupancy.
And that last great caberet on Main Street, Fights every week. (Beatings by bouncers)
Once we give out one, there will be more.
History learned is mistakes not repeated!
History learned need not be repeated!
History learned, need not be repeated.
Spreading Ourselves Too Thin Again.
My only problem with TOTS is that it is not compartmentalized into major sub-sections: for example, sports, entertainment, school district, and government to mention a few. TOTS has done an amazing job in informing the community and I attribute the recent improvement in investigative reporting in the Journal News to TOTS example.
We need some pieces to be on a visible menu for weeks to be accessible. Chickens are important but they point to the larger issue of how this government ramps down criticism or visibility on more serious issues (like DPW yard) because it knows people will gravitate pro or con to our feathered friends.
Even the recent explosion of civil disobedience by the part of Monroe students masks the more important issues of why does Jerome have so much power that he can absorb large amounts of real estate and so contribute to the conditions that led to the wilding we experienced. What the hell does “lost control of our students” mean? What he should announce to the public is what you read about at Ohio State, Alabama, Miami…. you quickly hear of dismissals, charges, and perhaps Jerome would like to contibute some money to the NRPD to what surely had to lead to overtime.
So, we now see that we are lumping the Tropicana (always a hot spot), Monroe, Chickens, Cabaret licenses, under roughly the same roof. There is more than a little truth in doing so, but …..
There is more! Brian Sussman is right in a number of regards. We do need sensible Cabaret laws. He is correct that many arguments we see nowadays are really not responsive. For example, you cannot balance a federal budget if the states are mandated to balance a state budget. You cannot appreciably reduce federal government staff sizes since a very, very portion of the population works there. And, Grover Norquist nothwithstanding, you cannot make appreciable cuts in the national debt or federal budget without revenue gain.
So, welcome to New Rochelle. Same church different pew. We are non-revenue except for fees largely and high expense because like the federal government, we do not address the right areas. Obama cuts manpower in defense, we cut police and fire. But at least, Obama has advanced technology on his side. We have Strome and his financial team with abacus and columns.
I hope few or none of you are for famine, plague, national draft for purpose of more wars, not pursuing life saving remedies for environmental disasters, euthanasia, mandated abortion, mandated number of children per families….. look at these are historical remedies to balance economies. So, do you really want to play with ideology at this point>
Sure you can and should cut expenses drastically but be prepared to feed and clothe the poor or “dispose of them.” And, you can and must demand that your City Government put a toe in the 21st century by looking at fundamental causes and effects that lead to where we are.
Tomorrow I am going to blog again on a key area the City Charter/Code. This time I am going to introduce a few highlights from a critical document that I strongly encourage every interested reader and especially attorneys; Stephen Mayo, Martin Sanchez, Richard St Paul, others to get a copy and study it intently.
It is put out by New York State by our talented Secretary of State, Cesar Perales. It is called, “Revised City Charters in New York State.” It is part of the James A Coon Local Government Technical Series.
It is, like many state publications not settle law but strong recommendations and explicit format and options. Given the realities of “Home Rule” as well as difficulties in lumping all local governments in one structural and process arrangement.
But, I want to post tomorrow on our form of government, other forms of government in the playbook and I will summarize by using a seminal statement found on page 13 of this document. It reads:
“In recent decades, most cities selecting a new government have chosen either the counci-manager or strong mayor-council form. The commission and weak mayor-council plans find little favor as ways of dealing with contemporary municipal problems.
This reinforces what I have said for so long on TOTS and I think expresses my frustration at the lack of opposition against the current systems which clearly operates out of Charter/Code, ignores prior community rejection of “strong mayor”, and points out the failure of many city councils to take charge of their responsiblities to serve the city as a whole.
Until we make that happen, we will have Palaces downtown that cause disruption rather than proper and appropriate entertainment provisions for the community.
Until we do we will have a weakened first provider cadre, no visible presence in the downtown business district, council members who cavil into fears of the established power structure rather than serving the community.
Until we do, we will have increased crime rate, donor city plan — Jerome, Ratner, others — as well as the lack of far-sighted council persons who would see without having their noses rubbed into it, that a successful business district NEEDS to prioritize commercial growth, rezoning, safety, security, and no false labeling of ‘window of opportunity.’
I respect Noam’s intellect, even like him personally, but he has continued the herding of lemmings off the cliff. Thing is we are the lemmings down these parts.
Tomorrw I will try to convince you further by a blog “The commission and weak-mayor-council plans find little favor as ways of dealing with contemporary municipal problems” or “New Rochelle Governance Outdated and Outmoded.”
Oh, while not in the critical path, Old Timer is on the mark on his views of Cabaret Licensing. Maybe the chickens can come to roost In Ward Acres as a analogue to individual vegetable plots or tabled until we dispose of Echo and Albanese.
Stop Laying Eggs Council!
It’s Government 101.
All the Mayor and City Council need to do is read the section on the New Rochelle City Web Site under Government Overview. It states that the way our government operates and has done so since 1932. It tells you what The Mayor, City Council and City Manager do and who is responsible for what. Just follow what the rules are. I know it isn’t that easy but it is a start!
Stop debating; what came first the chicken or the egg? By the way, let the chickens lay the eggs for the Easter Egg Hunt at Davenport Park that could save us money:):):)
Cabaret Licenses – Councilwoman Rackman, Dist. 6
I sure hope incidents like this are not forgotten when the City Council considers the issue of modifying cabaret license restrictions for downtown later this month. Just days before this Tropicana incident, I read City Council quotes suggesting that young people need a place to go dancing into the late hours in downtown New Rochelle and that we need to make our laws regarding licensing less restrictive. At first, I thought the quotes were parody, but then I realized they were serious! For example, just days before the Tropicana incident, Councilwoman Shari Rackman of District 6 said she was concerned that cabaret license restrictions might make it easy to shut down night clubs and harder for them to open, explaining “If we want young people to move here we should offer dancing and nicer night clubs providing entertainment,” and ““New Rochelle is not a ‘eat out heavy’ City—you must have dancing and bars to stay in business.”
Seriously? Are our memories so short that we have forgotten about the clubs we were finally able to get rid of by enacting these tougher restrictions? Were we better of with the past proliferation of clubs we used to have on North Avenue and Main Street, from the Palace to Streets, to Club Hollywood, to the Palladium, to Carib, etc., etc., etc? Take all the money the BID spends on enhancing New Rochelle’s marketing and image and throw it down the toilet when we have incidents like this. I had the pleasure of coming home late from NY on the train on the night in question and then driving through my “hometown” at around 2 am on North Avenue and was met with police officers, sirens, large crowds walking in the middle of the street, or wherever else they chose to walk, and barricades in the middle of the road.
Perhaps Councilwoman Rackman would like to get on the Tropicana’s invitation list and come down from District 6 to the Club the next time it is hopping to see if she can find a patron or two with whom she can do the waltz. Please let’s not lose the progress we have made by incorrectly thinking we need to make New Rochelle more cabaret friendly.
New Rochelle needs less restrictive Cabaret Licenses
New Rochelle needs less restrictive Cabaret Licenses. New Rochelle used to have a much more successful economy and greater commerce prior to restrictive Cabaret Licenses (and prior to the obnoxious, unrealistic change of legal drinking age from 18 to 21). I believe live music should be permitted to 2 am.
Those persons who complain about ever-increasing property and sales tax rate, also tend to include a large number who, in contradiction, complain about the very commerce that would bring in greater revenues via increased commerce in New Rochelle via a nightlife.
I think many such persons have beliefs appropriate for a small town like Pelham, but are inappropriate for New Rochelle, the second largest city in Westchester and seventh largest city in NY State. Any city should have a successful nightlife and culture.
Likewise, any city with at least one college should increase its commerce dedicated to the students and faculty of that college. New Rochelle has three colleges, but a certain fearful element of aging New Rochelleans only show contempt for those colleges, and such persons do what they can to stymie commerce in New Rochelle, while complaining about the lack of commerce and of the high property taxes they must pay as a consequence of their own advocacy against nighttime commerce in New Rochelle. Such contradictions make such advocates their own worst enemies.
This silliness in New Rochelle reminds me of similar contradictions relating to our national economy and our federal budget. I am frequently amused at persons who simultaneously wish to balance our federal budget, while decreasing taxes. Obviously the easiest way to balance the budget, without cutting vital services, is to increase tax revenue.
I suspect the same people in New Rochelle who advocate against taxes and advocate against taxes derived from nightlife commerce, are the same local people who advocate to reduce the federal budget while cutting federal taxes. Am I correct on that?
Fortunately, most people in New Rochelle are not so conflicted, and are willing to pay taxes for services, and wish New Rochelle to increase commerce, culture and nightlife. I applaud the efforts of anyone on the City Counsel to increase New Rochelle’s nightlife, to permit small businesses to thrive, and to balance our city’s budget through increased commerce from restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and other businesses that can thrive at night in New Rochelle, enhancing culture, the arts, entertainment, with the increased tax revenues that would result.
Therefore, I encourage Shari Rackman and all City Councilpersons to legislate to expand the number of Cabaret Licenses, and to increase the size of bands permitted to perform.
Likewise, I encourage the City Council to change local zoning, to permit businesses to operate 24 hours, on North Avenue, from City Hall to Main Street, and on Main and Huguenot Streets from Echo/River Streets to Weyman Avenue.
New Rochelle Can’t Afford To Have More Tropicanas
I simply don’t think we can afford to have – let alone encourage – more Tropicanas in New Rochelle.
I read your post to present an utterly false choice. You seem to argue that either we have nightclubs open until 4 in New Rochelle, or we will have runaway taxes, no local economy, and stretched City services. I disagree. I think we can have a local economy and appropriate taxes without having to suffer from the unlawfulness, danger and unruliness that nightclubs open until 4 caused in the past and will cause again in New Rochelle.
And I even disagree that nightclubs open until 4 in New Rochelle have a positive economic effect. You argue in your post that, “New Rochelle used to have a much more successful economy and greater commerce prior to restrictive Cabaret Licenses.” I would be very interested in any factual support you have for that statement. To the contrary, we had nightclubs in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, and I think you would agree New Rochelle was in a consistent downturn downtown during that period. Do you think incidents like the one at Tropicana –and the others that would inevitably follow – will help draw business to New Rochelle? Do you think incidents like this would encourage people from the North End to want to come downtown and shop? Do you think we will need more police or less police (and therefore more costs) if we have more nightclubs like Tropicana? Also, I think it is you who may be confusing New Rochelle with Pelham by appearing to ignore the practical reality of the differences between what a club in New Rochelle draws as opposed to a club in Pelham. If Pelham had clubs open until 4 (maybe it does?), I don’t think they would have the same issues New Rochelle would have, and I would not be opposed to them if I were a resident there. For whatever reason, when New Rochelle has had clubs, they attract a lot of people not from New Rochelle and as history confirms a lot of those people cause a lot of problems, which are detrimental to New Rochelle’s economy and marketability. Unlike in Pelham, that’s the reality.
Let’s not turn back the clock on the progress we made on cleaning up the downtown by thinking we need to have the Palace and Streets open again. In my opinion, things were worse downtown when we had them, and I would venture to guess that most people who have lived in the South End would agree.
Cabaret Licenses
With all due respect:
1) As someone who lives in the North End, I have no problem with “commerce” in New Rochelle… In fact, I would love to patronize it and support the local economy. However, the only store I go to in the South End is Home Depot. I don’t go anywhere else because there is no where to park, the traffic is just terrible and, whether it’s reality or just my perception, I just don’t feel safe there. There are some restaurants I would like to try on Main Street but I would rather go to Mamaroneck or White Plains at this point.
2) I am all for nightlife in New Rochelle — but not at the expense of people being shot and crowds running through the streets. If New Rochelle can’t figure out how to have a nightlife without the violence, my vote would be for higher taxes.
3) In regards to those complaining about their ever-increasing taxes, in the eight years I am living in New Rochelle, our property taxes have increased near 60% — and that is after grieving our taxes twice. Please let me know if the town ever implements a policy where they will buy my house at what they have it assessed at and it’s theirs!
Rackman should step down now.
Rackman should step down now. She’ll be a lame duck councilperson and will create political problems for the Mayor.