Local Bars Responding To NYPD�s Crackdown
Increase in Raids Cause Owners to Tighten Policies On Underage Drinking
By Josh Hirschland
Spectator Staff Writer
September 20, 2005
There�s a battle going down on Broadway that could change Columbia�s social scene forever.
For the past year, Columbia�s three main Broadway bars have found themselves under siege, with a marked increase in unanticipated random inspections from the New York Police Department. In the past two months alone, Nacho�s Kitchen, The Heights, and The West End have been �raided� a total of at least five times.
CHRISTINA CIARDULLO/CDS
A would-be drinker at The Heights
hands over a second form of
identification as part of an
increased effort to keep minors
out of Columbia�s neighborhood bars.
The bars became more vigilant after
several recent raids and random searches.
The crackdown began in earnest in February, when the NYPD shut down the West End after the bar served alcohol to an undercover, underaged officer without checking for identification. As part of the settlement, the bar agreed to install an ID scanner to check for fake IDs.
Many local bar owners point to the �Stend�s shutdown as a turning point, and ever since then have stepped up their ID checks.
�You have task forces that come in, generally speaking, once in a while,� said Katie Gardner, Journalism �81 and the owner of the West End. �In the last 15 years I�ve been here, you get those once in a while. But, for whatever reason, they seem to have stepped up.�
In addition to the shutdown, Gardner said that there have been three random inspections over the past year.
Ferris Samad, an owner of The Heights Bar and Grill, agreed. His bar has been randomly inspected three times since the end of June, he said.
�Considering that we�ve only been raided three times in the last seven years,� this is unusual, he said.
According to Jordi Reyes-Montblanc, chairman of Community Board 9, the increase in inspections is a result of actions by the Manhattan North Task Force, a high-level borough command that supervises 12 precincts north of 59th Street on the West Side, including the 26th precinct where Columbia and the three bars are located.
�This does not seem to be coming from the precinct,� Reyes-Montblanc said.
Reyes-Montblanc would not expand upon what specific decisions MTNF had made.
A call to the 26th precinct was referred to the Deputy Commissioner for Public Information. A representative for the DCPI said he would not reveal information concerning ongoing operations. One of the inspections occurred on August 26th, the Friday before the New Student Orientation Program began. That night, a task force with as many as 20 officers from the city departments of environmental protection, the New York Police Department, and other agencies descended on each of the three Broadway bars. They cleared them out, checking for identification on young-looking patrons, and investigated a litany of possible violations.
�It was right before school started,� said Jeremy Sykes, 25, a bartender at The Heights. �There had to be some kind of policy involved with the time. A group of 15 or 20 cops went down Broadway on the same night. ... It was a planned action, no doubt about that.�
Jeffrey Julian, CC �08, was at The West End when the police came. While splitting a pitcher of beer with two friends, �the waiter came over to us and ... he asked if like we were really 21,� Julian said. �We were like �hmm... maybe,� and he was like �if you aren�t really 21, you may want to go wait in the bathroom,� and we were like �oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck. ... There were so many fucking cops there.��
He and two friends opted to leave the bar, telling police officers who stopped them on the way out that they had just been eating dinner. �I guess they were probably just doing it to scare them before the new kids started coming,� Julian said.
Bar owners aren�t the only ones who were frightened.
�I�m afraid to go back to the bars,� said a Barnard sophomore who was also in the bar and who declined to give her name because she was worried about punishment stemming from the acknowledgement that she had used a fake ID. She said that she worries what will happen if the bars are forced to actively keep out minors.
�I feel like it�s part of the college experience that we�re missing out on,� she said.
The bars� respective owners agreed that the inspections have not hindered business. �They�re just doing their job,� said Joseph Aguilar, owner of Nacho�s. �We abide by the rules, we card everybody, and they have every right to come in ... They�re just doing their job.�
Samad speculated that The Heights had had fewer encounters with police officers than some of the neighboring bars.
�None of them were very serious. Nobody when they came here was looking for [minors]. We�re known as an upper-class bar,� he said.
Sykes, the Heights bartender, disagreed. �They were checking out everything from health hazards to checking everyone�s IDs,� he said of the inspection on the 26th, adding that the bar was penalized for not having an exit sign or a �No-Drinking-Under-21� sign in proper places.
The inspections have had a major impact on business practices, Sykes said.
�In response to this policy, we have been very uptight, observant about carding,� he said. �The last few raids have definitely changed Heights policy, and I would say unfortunately ... We like to think that we�re part of the community. And it�s better that [students drink] in a supervised situation than in an unsupervised situation, the dorm.�
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