An East End nightclub has closed down temporarily due to a recent rash of violence in that area.
The owner of Magic City, Robert Monteneri, voluntarily agreed to shut the club's doors for 30 days at the mayor's request. Monteneri will participate in a city-led program designed to allow the club to reopen under strict rules. Those rules could include tighter security, regulated hours of operation as well as barring problematic patrons.
"We can look at clubs that are in Rochester that seem not to have challenges when it comes to the type of occurrences and behaviors that we are trying to discourage,” the city's Neighborhood and Business Development Commissioner Del Smith, who is leading the charge on pulling together recommendations, rules and consequences. “We can also look at venues and clubs in other cities that might as well deploy too also mitigate these causes."
A man was recently stabbed inside the Magic City and two men were shot after leaving the nightclub.
Over the next few days, Smith says he'll be consulting with other east end business owners and the city's police and law departments to review night club policies and safety procedures.
"Everything from security, to hours of operation, to communication with the city on upcoming events that are going on to identifying a way to potentially even identify particular patrons that have cause particular challenges and problems at other venues," Smith says.
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren says in a statement “Most of the problems have been caused by a small number of club patrons. We also want to be able to support businesses, but we cannot and will not tolerate violence. When incidents happen we must step in.”