Here we go again.
No sooner had there been that celebratory sigh of relief at the closing of the notorious Club Empire, then there’s another shooting–at another Ybor City-area club. This time it’s the Club Manilla on East Seventh Avenue, on the fringe of Ybor. Five persons were shot, and the shooter is at large.
A couple of points.
First, let’s make zero tolerance for behavior inconsistent with civil society the Ybor mantra.
Granted, zero tolerance is often a double-edged sword. It can lead to unintended consequences. Circumstances need context. But when it comes to the reputation and economic viability of Ybor City, Tampa’s historical soul and a tourist magnet, and late-hours hip-hop clubs, something’s got to go. Obviously, it is the clubs.
Ybor, which is increasingly reaching out to fine diners and the tech-and-social-media set, cannot co-exist with the blight stuff. It just can’t. Headlines chronicling violence are lethal for business.
The bottom line is this: The city must use every weapon, if you will, in its legal arsenal to rid Ybor of proven public nuisances. Check the record of incidents and police calls, not just decibel levels and notorious crimes. The Knife & Gun clubs provide ample statistics. Enforce the letter–not just the spirit–of the law.
But if the usual suspects cry unfair, selective enforcement, and even couch the complaint in cultural or racial terms, so be it. And let the records speak graphically for themselves. And, candidly, if it’s determined that an inordinate number of violent incidents and police-response calls are also the byproduct of Irish pubs, for example, then they should be targeted too. But let’s not pretend that we don’t already have a template for violence.
Second, while it’s understandable that the local chamber of commerce would try to put the best possible spin on that which also taints the Ybor brand, let’s still try to keep it real. Tom Keating, the conscientious president of the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce, noted understandably to the Tribune that “This (Club Manilla shooting) is not endemic of Ybor City.” Of course, the Club Empires and Manillas are not representative of Ybor, but they are aberrations with the worst kind of downside: physical menace and financial malice.
But then Keating seemed to enter a rationalization time warp.
“It’s a much bigger story than Ybor,” he said. “It’s really one symptom of a bigger situation. It’s people with little to do and who are disenfranchised. It reminds me of the ’60s and the left and right were fighting it out and everyone else was left in the mix.”
What? There are lame euphemisms, psycho babble and sociological shibboleths–and then there is the all-purpose “disenfranchised.” Those who happen to have a weapon when a fight breaks out at 2:45 a.m. are thugs–not the franchise-challenged. Referencing it otherwise does not connote a sense of legitimate blame, outrage and urgency. And action–as in a concerted effort to rid Ybor of the sort of establishments that need metal detectors and wands because heat-packing patrons are part of their market.
And by the way, guess where a lot of Club Empire patrons have likely relocated? Club Manilla. Moreover, still no arrests in the well-witnessed Club Empire murder. The no-snitch ethos also comes with Club Mayhem.