news-record.com

The nightlife scene in downtown Greensboro isn't so much about who as when.

The early crowd is a mixed crew of middle-aged couples and younger singles.

They typically pack the south end of Elm Street to eat and drink at sidewalk cafes where summer breezes keep them cool and a colorful parade of passersby keeps them occupied.

As the sun begins to set and the shadows deepen, a new, younger crew clocks in, just as the older group finishes dessert and begins to head home.

The scent of fresh perfume fills the air and visions of Spandex and stiletto heels fill the sidewalks. Long lines begin to form at club entrances.

Hours later, the crowds grow bigger and louder and a little bit drunker, even as some of us are already home in bed, fast asleep and content that we've had a big night out.

Therein lies the promise and the problem in downtown Greensboro. We have gotten what we hoped for: lots of people.

And we don't quite know what to do with them.

The good news is that, even in the middle of the week, these young people are coming in droves to the center city. The bad news is that the crowds are so huge that they threaten to overwhelm the ability of police and security to handle it all.

Downtown Greensboro Inc. President Ed Wolverton broached the issue during a recent visit to the News & Record. A local businessman, Rocco Scarfone, is battling the city over an ordinance that limits the hours of sidewalk dining and Wolverton wanted to weigh in. Some say the ordinance is too restrictive. Others say it ensures the safety of diners and pedestrians downtown, as the crowds spill out of clubs onto the streets.

The ordinance allows sidewalk dining from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, and from 11 a.m.-midnight on Fridays, Saturdays and holidays.

But the issue is much bigger than that.

A police video depicts some of the problems those crowds can pose: traffic, litter, loitering, obstacles to emergency personnel getting where they need to be in case of a crime or injury. On a Wednesday. "Sidewalk dining is not the problem," Wolverton said. "The problem is that we have 2,500 people jammed into a one-block area at 2 a.m."

And the trick is for city leaders to address those challenges without squeezing the life out of the place. Remember, this is a problem we wanted.

"You want to manage the crowd," Wolverton said, "but you don't want to stifle it."

One longer-range solution is a lesson city leaders learned on a tour of Greenville, S.C.'s, very successful center city: the value of wider sidewalks for walking and dining. Another is creating a club district in future downtown planning to create buffers between noisy-by-nature nightclubs and residences.

Other possible solutions:

Add police. Charlotte helps stretch resources by pairing new police academy graduates with veteran officers. Charlotte merchants help pay for it through money raised through special downtown tax districts.

Put police on horseback. An idea that won't die keeps galloping into the discussion. Mounted police certainly could help manage large crowds, and the concept still is being mulled by police and city leaders.

Crack down on loitering. In downtown Baltimore, police won't let you stand in one spot for more than five seconds. Or so it seems. But would we want that here?

Close downtown -- or parts of it, at certain hours. Some cities set curfews for entertainment districts, but that could prove counterproductive in Greensboro. After working so hard to build traffic downtown, why shut it down?

Restrict traffic on some streets to only pedestrians. This has been done successfully in many cities, including Greensboro. The New York Times reports success there in opening some streets only to foot traffic on weekends. Mused a New York Times editorial: "Without honking horns and speeding taxis, the streets have become serene parks, open to throngs of cyclists, inline skaters and strollers."

Don't expect a "serene park" on South Elm, even on a weeknight. But closing off traffic could ease crowding, soothe tempers and increase safety.

Make club owners more responsible for security. Require that clubs of certain sizes hire off-duty police officers. It seems only reasonable that they bear part of the responsibility.

As a center-city resident himself, Wolverton is fully aware of our dilemma. "Downtown is "invigorating," he says of the new attitude there. The center city's image as a place where good times come to shrivel up and die is history.

The question is how we choose to handle too much of this good thing. With wit and creativity or with heavy hands and overkill?