The District is organizing a “youth engagement” program Friday night for the teens who gather in Chinatown every weekend, but some business owners fear the event will draw more youths to the area and unleash destructive forces similar to the mobs that have been rioting in London.
“We’ve been assured that the police department will deal with it,” said Proof owner Mark Kuller, who has decided to close the restaurant’s patio Friday night — one-third of his summer seating — rather than submit his customers to the sound and crowds he expects to come. “But it’s a mistake to have a youth engagement even in this area. The police have tried to disperse the crowds in London, too. If you don’t think that can happen in the U.S., you’re wrong.”
Chinatown and Gallery Place have often been the scenes of youth violence with groups of teens getting in fist fights and often being fingered for muggings.
Kuller, like other Chinatown business owners, said he only learned of the event Monday evening. By then the restaurant had booked more than 100 reservations for Friday night. As his staff calls to confirm the tables, they’re informing clients that G Street will be shut down from Seventh to Ninth streets — Proof sits in the middle that closure — and warning them of the expected crowds, Kuller said. The event runs from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. and will also close Eighth Street between G and H streets.
Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Paul Quander met with about 30 Chinatown business owners on Tuesday. He told The Washington Examiner on Wednesday that he waited to inform the owners of the event, which will include poetry and music, because he wanted to keep it low-key.
“We’re trying to engage the youth who gather in the area, not draw others in from other places,” Quander said. The city has held similar events across the city as part of an effort to stem summer violence. Friday night’s gathering is meant specifically to prepare youths for going back to school and will address truancy issues, Quander said.
“If we do it well, we’ll have tremendous impact on how kids respond when they go to Gallery Place and Chinatown,” he said.
Kuller, and Downtown Business Improvement District communications director Karyn Le Blanc both, said they support the idea of providing programing for youth.
But, “there could have been better outreach initially,” Le Blanc said. “It’s the first kind of event like this in the area and we’re curious to see what the outcome will be.”
