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GREENSBORO — It’s Saturday night — prime people-watching time on Elm Street.

Cars with custom rims stream by, speakers thumpin’. Ladies in high heels and short dresses giggle down the sidewalk. Police officers on bicycles zip between pedestrians and cars.

If Rocco Scarfone has his way, the Elm Street sidewalk outside Much martini bar will be a hot spot for people-watching later into the night. The club and restaurant owner asked the city to reconsider rules that force sidewalk cafes to close by 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and midnight on Friday and Saturday.

Now downtown stakeholders and city leaders are debating a compromise that would allow the patios to stay open until 1 a.m. The City Council will take up the issue tonight.

The sidewalk cafe discussion stirred up a greater debate about how leaders can make Greensboro’s burgeoning downtown a safer place.

“The sidewalk dining issue is a fly on the back of an elephant,” Councilman Robbie Perkins said. “We need to be aware, as our downtown becomes more successful, that the crowds are going to get larger. We ought to take a hard look at where we should go.”

The focus on downtown started earlier this summer after the sidewalk tussle was aired at a City Council meeting.

Some council members feared Scarfone was being unfairly targeted by police. Police have cited and, on one occasion, arrested his manager for allegedly operating the sidewalk cafe after the prescribed hours.

But city leaders say the sidewalk issue is just one sticking point in a list of potential public safety threats to the busy downtown streets.

“The most prevalent threat to public safety in center city is the combination of overcrowding and over-intoxication,” police Cpl. K.B. Johnson wrote in a memo to the City Council.

Last Saturday night, folks hung out on curbs and dark storefronts from McGee to Market streets.
Patrons lined the sidewalk at the N Club, waiting to be let inside. Churchill’s patio was standing room only.

When the bars turned up their lights at 2 a.m., people flooded the streets.

That popularity comes at a price.

“When you mix in people drinking pretty heavily and the cruisers going by and no space out on the sidewalk, the situation is set up for one thing to go bad,” said Ed Wolverton , president of Downtown Greensboro Inc. “Before you know it, you’ve got a fight with 10 people involved.”

So far this year in the center-city area, police have made 396 arrests for disorderly conduct and 167 arrests for public drunkenness, according to police statistics.

That’s more arrests compared to the same period four years ago, when there were 252 disorderly and 48 drunkenness arrests.

City leaders already have done some things to tighten up behavioral controls downtown, including restricting how many motorcycles can be parked in one spot and limiting the locations of food venders.

And council members have suggested other options for keeping the center city safe, including adding more police officers or more strictly enforcing loitering rules.

Perkins would like to see video cameras added.

Councilman Zack Matheny , who is advocating for the sidewalk cafe changes, has explored closing Elm Street for limited hours.

He suggested limiting the street to pedestrians only on weekend nights.

“If we’ve got a problem down there, it’s not 100 people eating dinner,” Matheny said. “Let’s focus on our issues.”

Staff writer Sonja Elmquist contributed to this story.

Contact Amanda Lehmert at 373-7075 or amanda.lehmert@news-record.com