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Update: Club Rain  has had its permanent  liquor license denied by the N.C. ABC Commission, reports Ryan Seals.

The fatal shooting near Club Rain isn’t the only morning-after headache facing downtown boosters.

The 31-year-old man from Kinston was found dead early last Monday morning near the hip-hop night spot.   The unsolved shooting represented a troubling escalation in violence at that spot.

There had been a stabbing.

Then a nonfatal shooting.

Now a death.

As Ryan Seals has reported, police have been called to the club 94 times since June 2008, when it was known as Club Remix. But 64 of those calls came after it changed ownership and became Club Rain.

Nine involved the firing of guns.

This latest shooting occurred near the club but not in it.

But it raises concerns for neighbors.

And it worries Downtown Greensboro Inc. President Ed Wolverton.

“We’ve spent years trying to change the perception of downtown as an unsafe place,” Wolverton said Thursday.

And, by and large, they have succeeded. Surveys say local citizens’ perception of downtown more clearly matches the statistical reality: It is one the safest parts of town.

But how to keep it that way as activity increases?

The problem adds to other dilemmas presented by the growth in night life: club security; how to discourage loitering; how to ensure that people who live downtown find it lively, not overly noisy and rowdy.

In some cases, the problems stem from lack of knowing, not misconduct.

For instance, patrons of the Lotus Lounge, also on Lewis Street , have flirted with tragedy by parking on a railroad spur near the club. They apparently believe the train tracks are not active.

They are.

And the illegal parking there literally is a train wreck waiting to happen.

Wolverton says police actually have had to stop approaching trains to allow tow trucks time to remove cars.

Could the city or railroad at least post prominent warning and no-parking signs?

Among concerns that Wolverton has broached is the tendency of some people (a number of them minors) to loiter downtown, creating crowd-control issues and hindering traffic flow.

One longer-term solution might be a club or entertainment district that concentrates most nightlife and dining in a certain area.

It could become an attraction in itself and make might it easier for understaffed police to patrol the area.

But such zoning within the downtown district could be a tough sell with merchants.

The City Council soon will discuss recommendations to keep downtown hoppin’ while keeping it safe.

It won’t be easy.  But it will be an urgent and worthwhile conversation.

The longer the city waits, the harder this problem — and opportunity — will be to manage.