Wildlife Diversity
Inspiring
Latino Theater
Inventory
provides tool for
managing asset
National touring
production o f
Frida, un retablo
Metro, page 9
Entertainment, page 13
Volume XXXXI
'City of Roses'
Number 49
lb j f
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U LS
www.portlandobserver.com
Wedne
Wednesday • January 9, 2013
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity Y
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Crowd
Control
Overflow club scene
transforms Old Town
C ari H achmann
T he P ortland O bserver
by
Hobo s General Manager Andrew Guthrie has watched customers come and go in the Old Town/Chinatown area
for more than 2 0 years. H e’s taking a wait-and-see attitude on the logic behind closing streets on weekend nights
to abate the bumping and shoving from crowds o f people jam m ing the streets and sidewalks around area bars
and dance clubs. “H/e will see if it works, ” he said.
When Hobo’s restaurant and lounge first opened
more than 25 years ago on Northwest Third Avenue in
the Old Town/Chinatown district, it was among many
places to dine in the neighborhood.
Now, the scene has changed. In the past decade,
food-oriented businesses have given way to late night
bars and clubs that offer patrons loud, D.J. thumping
dance music into the wee hours of the morning.
On any given weekend, large crowds of party-goers
come from all comers of the metro area and fill the
downtown venues, sidewalks and streets whilst looking
I for cheap drinks and good, albeit drunken, times.
Recently, the flood of pedestrians, while profitable for
the area’s mostly liquor-serving businesses, has bumped
elbows with cars, other pedestrians, and police. Law
enforcement reported an escalating numbers of safety
and traffic violations from sidewalk fights to vehicle-on-
pedestrian accidents.
“It was a zoo down here,’’ said Andrew Guthrie,
Hobo’s general manager, who has watched customers
come and go in the area for more than twenty years.
“Especially on Couch and Third, that is just chaos on a
Friday night around midnight or one in the morning.”
B eginning w ith the New Y ear, p o lice have b e ­
gun en fo rcin g the c ity ’s d ecisio n to clo se streets
to vehicular traffic from 10 p.m . to 3 a.m . on Friday
and S aturday ev en in g s, as w ell as m ajo r h o lid ay s,
like New Y ears Eve. C lo su res w ill co n tin u e for a
th ree-m o n th trial en d in g A pril 1.
The closures span a four-block grid between Northwest
Second and Fourth avenues from West Burnside Street to
Northwest Couch and Davis Street. Northwest Third
Avenue is also closed between Everett and Burnside.
Any vehicles remained parking within that area after
10 p.m. are subject to tow, according to the police
bureau’s press release. Streets and sidewalks in the area
will be established as pedestrian-only, with exception of
defined taxi and pedicab zones. New street and parking
signs have been installed to notify to the public.
Talks on the issue began several m onths ago and
included local com m unity m em bers and business
continued 'W ' on page 2