Mayor Sean Ryan recently announced that there will be more of a no-nonsense attitude when it comes to what flies on Chippewa Street. What was once a super fun party strip has become a thoroughfare marred with an increasing number of repeated disturbances. Most of these disturbances have not come from the bars and clubs themselves, but from people who are simply hanging around outside of the establishments as well as in the parking lots.
Mayor Ryan has stated that enough is enough, and it’s time to do something to better secure Buffalo’s Chippewa Entertainment District. Following several weeks of enhanced enforcement and evaluation by the Buffalo Police Department, the Department of Permit & Inspection Services, the Department of Public Works, the Law Department, and the Office of Strategic Planning, the group met with business owners and other stakeholders to discuss possible solutions.
The short term solution was to address infractions by issuing hundreds of traffic summonses, writing dozens of parking tickets, and making several arrests, including Mental Hygiene Law referrals. Increasing the police presence over the last three weeks has helped to maintain public safety in the district, but it is not a sustainable long-term solution. According to the City, even before the recent increase in staffing, maintaining the police presence in Chippewa cost approximately $20,000 every weekend. To simply increase the police presence is not financially sustainable in the lon grun…