Councilman wants liquor agents to help control S. Side
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Pittsburgh Councilman Bruce Kraus wants the state to step in to try to quell what he characterized as worsening alcohol-related problems in the South Side, he said today in an announcement driven in part by a weekend police chase in the neighborhood that ended in a shooting.
"It's such a party central, it creates this atmosphere for anybody and everybody" to treat the neighborhood like "it's Mardi Gras all the time," Mr. Kraus said. "I'm simply calling for [the state] to assume their responsibilities."
According to Mr. Kraus, those responsibilities should include regular patrols of East Carson Street, the spine of the neighborhood that he said contains 124 establishments where drinking is allowed, with space for 22,500 patrons -- more than Mellon Arena.
The state should give the city money, or contribute manpower, he said, without specifying how much of either was needed.
He suggested that the resulting atmosphere contributed to the early Sunday morning incident in which 33-year-old Nicholas Haniotakis police said drove from officers who were on a DUI patrol, led them on a chase through South Side and tried to run over a city officer and a state trooper before police shot and killed him.
Mr. Kraus did not fault police for their handling of the incident, but criticized a state government that licenses establishments, but does not do enough to help police neighborhoods in which they concentrate.
"A much bigger problem is brewing, and we'd better step up and handle it," he said.
The state Liquor Control Board licenses establishments, but the state police enforce liquor laws. The state is authorized to have 32 liquor control enforcement officers in a six-county area dominated by Allegheny County, but 10 of those posts are now unfilled, said Major John Lutz, who heads up the liquor control unit, in a phone interview. He can't fill them because they are subject to the state hiring freeze.
"Would I like to have more people? Yes," he said. "I believe right now we're still able to handle, by prioritizing, the complaints that come our way."
He said all of the region's liquor control enforcement officers worked the Saturday St. Patrick's Day parade and the city's entertainment districts. "We put together a well-planned detail for the St. Patrick's Day parade and worked closely with other law enforcement."
Mr. Kraus said that the South Side was the scene of revelry on Saturday, but not of mayhem, and he thanked city police, firefighters and paramedics "for their outstanding efforts."
First Published March 16, 2009 2:12 pm
