Arguably, it’s way past time for somebody to strike back at the Empire. Club Empire, that is. That nest of notoriety on Seventh Avenue in the heart of Ybor City. The one where liquor, hip-hop and late hours too often result in a volatile, even violent, even deadly mix.
Ybor City, Tampa’s Latin Quarter that has been in comeback mode since urban renewal, deserves better than clamorous, image-eroding mayhem in its midst. So does society at large. So do patrons, even though it’s their call to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Only solution: Shut it up and shut it down.
To do otherwise is to, in effect, condone the unconscionable. Since the beginning of the year there have been more than 100 calls for some kind of police response. That’s roughly three a week. And since Club Empire is only open four days a week, that means nearly nightly on average.
But the outrage is not over incidents, however frequent and time-consuming for police. It’s over crimes.
Earlier this month a patron was murdered and another one shot inside. Less than two years prior, an argument ended in a shooting out front. Three years before that, a man was stabbed to death in the adjacent parking lot. In 2002, a bouncer was fatally shot outside the club.
Here’s a safe guess. If this hip-hop hell hole stays in business, others will be shot or stabbed. Somebody will die. Again. Book it. And witnesses, more bound by a no-snitch ethos than a sense of community safety, won’t be of much help. Again. And all the positive things about Ybor–from fine dining and an influx of tech and social media entrepreneurs to iconic hand-rolled cigars, cafe con leche and grand dame social clubs–will be further undermined by headlines such as the recent: “Young dad killed in Ybor nightclub.” That also kills tourism.
No surprise that David Sunday, the owner of Sunday’s Fine Dining across from Club Empire, closes earlier than he prefers to accommodate diners wanting to avoid close encounters with the Empire element. And, yes, it is affecting his business, if the sparse crowd of diners last Friday night is any indication. “I think they should shut them down,” he has unsurprisingly stated.
One thug with a gun can impact Ybor more than a whole ambassadorial family of Gonzmarts. It’s not right, and it can’t be allowed to continue. Here’s hoping that city officials and City Council will spare no letter-of-the-law approach–from public nuisance to zoning and liquor-license requirements–to finding the legal rationale for closing Club Empire. The common sense rationale has already been established. No more warnings for a crime magnet.
This is no time for half measures or countenancing promises to beef up security. Reportedly, Club Empire officials have agreed to install an “airport-grade” metal detector. That is hardly comforting.
Put it this way. If you need a metal detector to scrutinize patrons, you need to seriously consider getting out of the sort of business that otherwise attracts the heat-packing crowd in the first place.
If you need to, in effect, frisk your clientele, you shouldn’t be in business. Let alone in the middle of Ybor City.