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Anyone who has been downtown on a Saturday night after 9pm will have noticed that there is a very large contingent of young black kids loitering around all of main st.
I thought this might have just been confined to the fourth of July weekend but from the people I talked with it seems like this is the norm for Saturday night now.
I went into several restaurants and bars and there were hardly any of this group in any place of business.
As sticky a situation as this can be the city is going to have to step up and figure this problem out. No, there was no violence and I did not really see any trouble of any kind but it is a fact of life that the people who are old enough to actually patron places of business downtown on a Saturday night will just stop going if they have to walk a gauntlet of teenage black youths who are loitering the whole of main st.
I know that there were some issues in the park last year and the park was the only place that I saw police with any kind of major presence tonight. The vast majority of these kids are under 18 and I am pretty sure there is a curfew in place and I would strongly suggest that the city start doing whatever is necessary to enforce it.
I know many bar and restaurant owners very well and all of them have noted a decrease in business numbers on Saturday night over the last year and a half. Those numbers could be related to the recession but I do not think so.
I realize this puts the city in a sticky situation because the heart of this matter is race related and there is never any easy answers on that front, but there is no doubt that large groups of black youths make middle class white people very nervous.
Like I said, it is not an easy issue to deal with but the city better not stick its head in the sand on this one or so much of the progress made in downtown can start sliding backwards.
Many businesses depend on Saturday night to make it and if paying customers give way to loitering youths then all so much of what makes downtown Greenville so enjoyable will be gone in the blink of an eye.
Anyone who has been downtown on a Saturday night after 9pm will have noticed that there is a very large contingent of young black kids loitering around all of main st.
I thought this might have just been confined to the fourth of July weekend but from the people I talked with it seems like this is the norm for Saturday night now.
I went into several restaurants and bars and there were hardly any of this group in any place of business.
As sticky a situation as this can be the city is going to have to step up and figure this problem out. No, there was no violence and I did not really see any trouble of any kind but it is a fact of life that the people who are old enough to actually patron places of business downtown on a Saturday night will just stop going if they have to walk a gauntlet of teenage black youths who are loitering the whole of main st.
I know that there were some issues in the park last year and the park was the only place that I saw police with any kind of major presence tonight. The vast majority of these kids are under 18 and I am pretty sure there is a curfew in place and I would strongly suggest that the city start doing whatever is necessary to enforce it.
I know many bar and restaurant owners very well and all of them have noted a decrease in business numbers on Saturday night over the last year and a half. Those numbers could be related to the recession but I do not think so.
I realize this puts the city in a sticky situation because the heart of this matter is race related and there is never any easy answers on that front, but there is no doubt that large groups of black youths make middle class white people very nervous.
Like I said, it is not an easy issue to deal with but the city better not stick its head in the sand on this one or so much of the progress made in downtown can start sliding backwards.
Many businesses depend on Saturday night to make it and if paying customers give way to loitering youths then all so much of what makes downtown Greenville so enjoyable will be gone in the blink of an eye.
I will comment saying that I have seen an increase in the amount of youths on weekend nights over the last four years. It seems that a lot of young people don't have anything better to do so they tell their parents they are going to someone's house and actually end up on Main street and Falls Park. There definitely needs to be more police presence for loiterers (sp?) at night especially on weekends and on event days (Fall for Greenville). Not sure if it's only black youths though.
There were some white kids that looked to be in their teens as well but it was well over 95% black.
The entrance to falls park and just north of Carolina Ale House was literally so crowded with people just standing or sitting on the rails or even on the curb that you could not get through.
Odd to see this thread now mainly due to the fact this problem has been on-going since 2008: //www.city-data.com/forum/green...alls-park.html Where have you been the past four years OP? I was downtown tonight beginning around 10pm and honestly it didn't seem that bad. Much better than in past years. While there were small groups of teen thugs hanging out on Main Street between Soby's and Falls Park (only area I saw them) which is nothing new on Saturday nights in the Summer, they were spread out and not causing problems. Didn't see any blocking of sidewalks or fights. Maybe it was worse earlier in the evening? The curfew goes into effect at 10pm. Not much law enforcement can do before then. After 10pm the police clear them out which they did tonight. Saw it with my own two eyes in front of the Greenville News building and parking lot across from the Courtyard by Marriott where three female police officers and K9 police officer in a Chevy Tahoe were making them leave. During this time, I also counted six police officers at the entrance to Falls Park. The vast majority of teen thugs were gone by 11pm. This is nothing new and has been going on for years in downtown Greenville along with Greensboro, Charlotte, Columbia, etc. It's not a Greenville problem but a nationwide problem:
Oh and the bars/restaurants tonight were jam packed. You couldn't move inside Carolina Ale House. Not sure what decrease of business you're talking about. There's a good story in the latest Greenville Journal about the booming restaurant scene downtown. Table 301 owner mentions in the article that this has been his best year since 2008.
I will comment saying that I have seen an increase in the amount of youths on weekend nights over the last four years. It seems that a lot of young people don't have anything better to do so they tell their parents they are going to someone's house and actually end up on Main street and Falls Park. There definitely needs to be more police presence for loiterers (sp?) at night especially on weekends and on event days (Fall for Greenville). Not sure if it's only black youths though.
I disagree. This is the least amount of youths i've seen downtown on Saturday nights in four years. 2008-2010 were MUCH worse: //www.city-data.com/forum/green...en-curfew.html Hundreds of teen thugs blocking Main Street in front of Falls Park and getting into fights. Don't hear about that anymore. There's less of these thugs hanging out downtown now and they seem to be getting along with each other much better than in past years. In fact, it sounds to me like it's the drunks that are causing the latest problems. Remember the stabbing downtown in front of Rey's or the USC coach peeing in front of Carolina Ale House?
Anyone who has been downtown on a Saturday night after 9pm will have noticed that there is a very large contingent of young black kids loitering around all of main st.
I thought this might have just been confined to the fourth of July weekend but from the people I talked with it seems like this is the norm for Saturday night now.
I went into several restaurants and bars and there were hardly any of this group in any place of business.
As sticky a situation as this can be the city is going to have to step up and figure this problem out. No, there was no violence and I did not really see any trouble of any kind but it is a fact of life that the people who are old enough to actually patron places of business downtown on a Saturday night will just stop going if they have to walk a gauntlet of teenage black youths who are loitering the whole of main st.
I know that there were some issues in the park last year and the park was the only place that I saw police with any kind of major presence tonight. The vast majority of these kids are under 18 and I am pretty sure there is a curfew in place and I would strongly suggest that the city start doing whatever is necessary to enforce it.
I know many bar and restaurant owners very well and all of them have noted a decrease in business numbers on Saturday night over the last year and a half. Those numbers could be related to the recession but I do not think so.
I realize this puts the city in a sticky situation because the heart of this matter is race related and there is never any easy answers on that front, but there is no doubt that large groups of black youths make middle class white people very nervous.
Like I said, it is not an easy issue to deal with but the city better not stick its head in the sand on this one or so much of the progress made in downtown can start sliding backwards.
Many businesses depend on Saturday night to make it and if paying customers give way to loitering youths then all so much of what makes downtown Greenville so enjoyable will be gone in the blink of an eye.
What do you propose? Should the city create a ordinance that says no blacks downtown? While I don't like thugs myself, it is wrong to judge all blacks for that ignorance. To do so would make the one judging just as ignorant. White and scared of black youth? Lol. I don't remember a black youth ever hanging anyone. Wow, this is a bad post.
While there were small groups of teen thugs hanging out on Main Street between Soby's and Falls Park (only area I saw them) which is nothing new on Saturday nights in the Summer, they were spread out and not causing problems.
If they weren't causing any problems, what is your basis for calling them thugs?
What if the large group of teens loitering routinely were 95% white? Would they create a warm and fuzzy feeling?
In the late 80s, I used to like to go to the Riverwalk here in Naperville for an evening walk. That's back when the town had around 50K people. But in the early 90s, teens started congregating in huge numbers at the Riverwalk on weekends ... and 95% of them were white. Teens started flocking from as far away as Wisconsin in the hundreds to cruise the Riverwalk and show off their cars on the adjoining street. Then evangelists started showing up, some of them playing rock music, to save the teens' souls.
A lot of adults and families stopped going there on weekends. It stopped being a pleasant and welcoming place ... and not because of violence or the race of the teens, but because why would an older adult or family want to go feed the ducks when they're surrounded by thousands of teens cursing and smoking and just being teens. The root cause: nothing for a large population of teens to do in Naperville, other than cruise the Riverwalk and go to the mall. Nothing to do with race or thuggery. Give your teens some alternatives, and maybe they won't be loitering downtown.
Naperville instituted a no-cruising ordinance in the 90s, which helped address the out of town cruising problem. Unfortunately, it couldn't address the root cause which is Naperville more than doubling in size in the last 20 years ... I seldom go down to the Riverwalk any more, because it's just too congested not with teens but with upscale types who came to "quaint little" Naperville ... which as a result isn't so quaint or little any more.
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I was downtown tonight beginning around 10pm and honestly it didn't seem that bad. Much better than in past years. While there were small groups of teen thugs hanging out on Main Street between Soby's and Falls Park (only area I saw them) which is nothing new on Saturday nights in the Summer, they were spread out and not causing problems. Didn't see any blocking of sidewalks or fights. Maybe it was worse earlier in the evening? 
The curfew goes into effect at 10pm. Not much law enforcement can do before then. After 10pm the police clear them out which they did tonight. Saw it with my own two eyes in front of the Greenville News building and parking lot across from the Courtyard by Marriott where three female police officers and K9 police officer in a Chevy Tahoe were making them leave. During this time, I also counted six police officers at the entrance to Falls Park. The vast majority of teen thugs were gone by 11pm. This is nothing new and has been going on for years in downtown Greenville along with Greensboro, Charlotte, Columbia, etc. It's not a Greenville problem but a nationwide problem:
