CITY MAY SHUT DOWN ALL-NIGHT CLUBS AT 3 A.M.

Downtown beat officers starting their shifts at 8 a.m. Friday through
Monday report constantly being flooded with complaints from area residents
and businesses.

Break and enters, loitering, littering, vandalism and noise complaint call
volumes rise during the dispersal of hundreds of all-night clubbers into
the daylight. Const. Jody Ponto, who works those downtown streets, says
it's no coincidence.

To quell the problem, the city's police service is backing Mayor Bill
Smith's recent suggestion to shut down the city's after-hour hot spots at 3
a.m. - like other ordinary bars and clubs.

"It allows us the time frame where we can better police the clubs," says
Ponto, noting there aren't enough police officers working between 2 a.m.
and 8 a.m., when the alcohol-free "rave" clubs - that cater to nocturnal
types aged 16 and up - typically operate.

Since the mayor brought the issue forward at last Tuesday's council
meeting, all-night club supporters have argued the city is interfering with
an already dying subculture it knows nothing about.

In 2001, the city passed a bylaw that made it harder and more expensive to
hold rave parties around the city. As a result, after-hour club advocates
say Edmonton's all-night club culture has migrated south to Calgary.

Only two such clubs remain in Edmonton, both located in the city core,
between 102 Street and 105 Street off Jasper Avenue.

Neal Kishor, local DJ and manager at music store Foosh on Whyte Ave., says
the problems associated with all-night clubs are no different from those at
regular bars and clubs, and shutting them down early will only serve to
drive the problem underground.

"Segmenting a certain genre of entertainment is not fair. If you think
drugs and kids are going to go away then you should shut down Jazz Fest or
Folk Fest... whenever you get a large body of people together there's bound
to be a problem," he says. "It was there before (these clubs)."

Const. Ponto says he defends the city's right to address the legal and,
what he sees as moral scruples associated with all-night reveling.

"I don't claim to understand the subculture at all. All I can identify with
are the complaints," he says.

Downtown Business Association (DBA) executive director Jim Taylor can
relate to complaints.

From his office located on the southeast corner of 102 Street and Jasper
Avenue, he says he can look out his window on a Friday or Monday morning
and see clubbers who've migrated, at closing time, from the all-night spot
up the street to hang out on the grassy lot adjacent to the DBA office in
the Royal Bank building.

In recent months, hotel and business associations, including the DBA, have
formed special committees to address new security issues due to rising
crime and vandalism downtown.

It was Taylor who approached the mayor earlier this month and asked him to
address the problem.

"We've become a destination place for over 1,000 young people Thursday
through Monday who descend on the downtown, party all night long, and dump
out on the city in the morning and start to wreak havoc," he says. "These
kids who come into the city are doing nothing for the downtown in a
positive sense and are doing all kinds of stuff negatively."

The bottom line, for Taylor, is not the "boom of the base" from these
all-night affairs, but the drug problems, B&Es, vandalism and spiraling
costs for security that appear to be associated.

Const. Ponto says while after-hour clubs tend to attract Edmonton's
homeless as well as rural teens who want to experience all-night clubbing
in the big city, the clubs are also a haven for drug dealing and drug use -
particularly of metamphetamines.

While some partiers go there to meet friends and dance until dawn, there
are others who go to buy the drugs and sell them, and it attracts that
crowd, says Ponto. "The drug's known to be available (at all-night clubs),
but we can't just put the problem of crystal meth on the clubs," he
cautions. "Not when we've got dial-a-dopers with cell phones driving around
the city, making deals and doing drop-offs. They're dealing crystal meth
and it's everywhere."

Today (Jan. 28), the city's executive committee will look at a report by
administration that reviews the problems arising from having all-night
clubs in Edmonton. Coun. Michael Phair, whose ward includes the downtown,
says he could support tougher restrictions on licensing of after-hour
clubs, but he first wants to hear what the report says about the ways
all-night clubs may contribute to the city's crime and drug problems, and
how they might be remedied.

Last weekend, he spent a couple of hours in Club Y, an all-night club
located off 102 Street south of Jasper Ave., and was struck by some of the
positive changes since 2001.

"The scene has changed quite drastically. It's not a noise issue as much
now, and the average age looks to me about 19 or 20," he says.

Phair also saw groups of young people ging around outside of the club, and
never going inside.

"I'm going to guess they don't have the money to go in... and they could be
causing some of the difficulties," he says. "I'm not sure (more police on
duty) is the answer. Even if you get more police they can't be everywhere."

Gary Dewhurst, promotions manager at Twilight, an 18-plus after hours club
at 105 Street and Jasper, says it's a fallacy that "meth kids" live on the
street and frequent the all-night clubs.

"They can't afford the $2.50 for water and 10 bucks to get in," says
Dewhurst, noting they instead loiter outside the club and could be the
source of some of the trouble downtown.

A former DJ who used to organize rave events - until the city made them
unprofitable in 2001 by raising permit fees and introducing mandatory
police staffing at raves - Dewhurst says the city isn't any closer today to
solving its meth problem, but has destroyed a local industry, for which -
like it or not - there is a market in Edmonton.

"All the rave companies that used to operate in town are out of business,
but meth is still around. Same with the clubs. They'll see; if they close
them down the meth will still be here," he says.

Const. Ponto would like to see the bylaw change, but will also advocate for
tightened age restrictions at the clubs.

He asks: "What are 16 year olds or younger doing out from 2 a.m. to 8 a.m.
and why do their parents let them? It doesn't make sense."