Taking a closer look at downtown statistics

Editor’s note: this item has been partially re-written–by its author–in hopes of improving it

When you think of downtown Long Beach and Pine Avenue, what images come to mind? A late-night walker being stalked–and badly beaten–by four still-unidentified assailants? A brawl outside a nightclub? For Long Beach police, how we see the street is as big a problem as actual crime.

“The perception issue is my biggest issue when it comes to crime. And if I have a community that doesn’t feel safe out there at night, I have a crime problem,” says the man in charge of keeping Pine Avenue safe, Long Beach Police Department’s South Division Commander Jay Johnson.

There’s perception, there’s reality–and then there’s statistics, which can sometimes say more or less than we’d like them to. A good example can be found in today’s Press-Telegram story on the fight early Sunday outside the Rhythm Lounge nightclub, which is upstairs at Pine Square, 245 Pine Ave.

“Officers have been called to the address approximately 86 times since January, according to Long Beach Police Department records,” writes the P-T’s Kelly Puente, repeating a number the newspaper first trumpeted online yesterday. But there’s more to those numbers than you know.

“The correct number is six [calls for police service to Rhythm Lounge]–it’s a huge difference,” says Johnson. “Six of them since the first of the year. 245 Pine [Ave.] is the entire complex, that’s everything there. And that includes if there’s a traffic accident in front of there as well.”

And what about those six times police visited the Rhythm Lounge?

“No major calls, no major crimes,” Johnson says. “Usually revolving around alcohol consumption. And that’s not an uncommon amount for any nightclub down there.”

“You get that kind of urban environment, that many people in close quarters and these kinds of things are going to happen. Pine [Avenue] has been getting a bad rap lately.”

So has Rhythm Lounge, where promoter Joe Mohanty was shocked to hear that police had been called to the club 86 times this year. (Full disclosure: Rhythm Lounge advertises in The District Weekly.)

“That’s crazy. I don’t know if that’s true or not,” Mohanty said in a telephone interview yesterday afternoon–and, of course, it wasn’t. “That makes it sound like a haven for criminals.” And it’s not, especially now.

Moving swiftly to learn from other people’s mistakes–in this case, Sunday morning’s amateur prizefighters–Mohanty and club owner Johnny Alvarez are taking the club back to its roots as a live-music venue, and moving away from the dance club all-deejay format that turned ugly last weekend.

“We’re going back to our original format, which was live music in the main room and then a lounge area where there’s a deejay,” Alvarez said in a telephone interview yesterday afternoon. “As opposed to, we were doing an [all]-dance club.”

And if that sounds inexpensive, rest assured that it isn’t.

“Johnny [Alvarez] wants safety,” Mohanty, the promoter, said. “The frustrating thing to me is that’s a big income loss and we’ve got to fill it and subsidize part of the loss. The bar did well on that night.”

No one’s sure if the dance club’s replacement will make anyone thirsty Saturday night–but its name would seem to encourage tipplers.

It’s a band. Its name is Boozer, and it’s fronted by a man named Eddie Boozer. (And yes, you should always drink responsibly, etc.)

Will that make Pine Avenue safe? Safer? Depends.

“Violent crime is going down. I think what’s hitting everybody hard everywhere, and not just on Pine Avenue, is the economy. Two in the morning, when the bars are closing and shoving everybody out, you might not want to take your kids down there then,” Johnson says. “But I’ve taken my kids down there for dinner. I’ve taken my kids down there for lunch.”

Besides, your kids don’t drink anyway, right?

Tags: California, Joe Mohanty, Johnny Alvarez, Kelly Puente, Long Beach, Pine Avenue, press telegram, rhythm lounge, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas