The city is different after the sun sets. Edgier. More eclectic. More energized. More youthful. More dangerous.
Recent violence is either out of control, as some residents and visitors suggest, or it's an exaggerated, isolated byproduct of a vibrant after-hours social scene that takes over neighborhoods north of the Inner Harbor as most people are climbing into bed.
City Councilman William H. Cole IV spends many weekend nights cruising through his district, which includes some of the city's hottest clubs, most attractive tourist areas and historic residential neighborhoods, from Federal Hill to Bolton Hill, with the Inner Harbor in between.
On a recent Saturday night into Sunday morning, Cole and the deputy director of the Parking Authority, Peter J. Collier, raced from bar to bar, fight to fight, cop call to cop call.
Any given night, teens and college kids packing bars and clubs mix with business people and visitors leaving steakhouses at the harbor, wedding parties share a lobby with an urban hip-hop club at the Belvedere and patrons seeking after-theater drinks mix with wide-eyed visitors to The Block. Couples strolling the waterfront promenade run headlong into packs of kids aimlessly roaming the streets.
"There's got to be a way for all this to coexist," said an exasperated Cole, standing in front of the Belvedere at Charles and Chase streets with a police commander, a community leader and the manager of Suite Ultralounge, which is in the basement and which the liquor board is trying to close.
On this night, there are only 60 kids at one of the underage events the club sponsors, and manager Louis Wood has promised police he would turn off the music by 11 so they can get out, find a bus and get home before the midnight curfew. Wood told Cole and police Maj. John Bailey that he's severed ties with one promoter and is phasing out the large underage dance nights, though it might be too little too late.
"He knows he's on thin ice," Bailey told the councilman. "He's very aware that he might lose everything."
Crowds downtown are not unusual, nor should they be discouraged. "What is unique now is that we have so many young people coming here with nothing to do," Cole says. "They aren't going to clubs. They aren't going to dinner, they're hanging out. And people with nothing to do get into trouble."
