News-Press.com Reports
It was Sunday night, Sept. 6, and revelers fresh from rapper Plies’ concert at Harborside Event Center streamed into bars and clubs near downtown Fort Myers’ riverfront.
Outside Club Venu on First Street a few hours later, as open doors and shining white lights signaled closing time, a bouncer got into an argument while escorting a group of patrons outside. It escalated. When the bouncer felt a pain in his abdomen, he lifted his shirt and discovered he’d been stabbed.
It’s incidents such as this that Fort Myers Councilman Warren Wright is hoping to avoid. At Monday’s council meeting, he wants to discuss the possibility of banning events featuring hip-hop from Harborside Event Center and other downtown venues because, Wright said, the concerts attract violence and disruption.
“We know the surrounding nightclubs will cater to these events, and as the evening progresses, it becomes becomes more and more aggressive,” Wright said.
Banning hip-hop concerts doesn’t seem likely, said city attorney Grant Alley, because artistic expression is protected by state and federal constitutions.
“One person’s music is another person’s noise,” Alley said.
Last month, the city adopted a downtown development plan that aims to bring high-end restaurants and shops as well as conventions to the riverfront. The council hopes these ideas will blend with art galleries and events the city hosts.
What doesn’t fit are knife-toting clubgoers and performers screaming obscenities, council members say.
Newly elected Mayor Randy Henderson said he is offended by rap lyrics, which to him emphasize violence and vulgarity. He supports limiting this type of music and concerts.
“If there’s a legal way to do that, it’s a worthy idea,” Henderson said.
Fort Myers Police Department spokeswoman Maureen Buice said it’s difficult to distinguish if hip-hop themed events bring more violence downtown.
But Lashawnda Henderson, a local rap promoter, is concerned about the effect a ban would have on a thriving local rap industry.
“There’s so much emphasis put on rap music,” Henderson said. “It’s not rap music itself that causes it. Crime is just out of hand.”
Instead, the city should pay for increased security at clubs, or consider blocking off streets on concert nights, she said.
Downtown bar owners say they wouldn’t be forced to stage hip-hop concerts and similar events if business were better.
Raimond Aulen, owner of the Indigo Room on Main Street, said business is hurting because patrons who are younger than 21 aren’t allowed in bars. Plus, the city’s streetscape and utilities projects shut down portions of the roads for months.
“Clubs are scraping the bottom of the barrel,” Aulen said. “These are desperate times, and they call for desperate measures.”
Hip-hop concerts and themed nights are what bring Holli Hall to downtown.
Hall, a 32-year-old Fort Myers resident, attended the Plies concert and said she never felt unsafe. And she has never felt uneasy while grooving at local clubs.
“If they ban hip-hop music,” Hall said, “where will they stop?”
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