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Jersey City is considering changes to the Newark Avenue pedestrian plaza to address complaints about rowdy bar-goers. (Richard J. McCormack | For The Jersey Journal)

(Jersey Journal file photo)

JERSEY CITY -- With warm weather approaching, Jersey City officials, police brass and Downtown business owners are grappling with an expected repeat of last summer's rowdy, late-night behavior on the Newark Avenue pedestrian plaza.

After hearing complaints from Newark Avenue residents over loud revelers attracted to the numerous bars along the plaza and restaurants blasting music that can be heard blocks away, Jersey City is considering a number of actions -- everything from closing the plaza entirely, implementing a curfew and asking business owners to pitch in for off-duty police officers to guard the plaza.

Pete Klapper, who lives along the plaza, described behavior there as "the wild, wild west." Last year nearly 100 calls were made to the police to complain about dozens of street fights, public drunkenness, noise, assaults and more.

Klapper said the groups of people who hang out on the plaza after bars let out in the early-morning hours will soon lead to another problem.

"We are going to start to attracting pickpockets," he said. "We are going to start attracting muggers. Because pickpockets and muggers like large groups of drunks."

Downtown Councilwoman Candice Osborne's suggestion is for the Historic Downtown Special Improvement District, which is funded by a special tax added to the roughly 300 businesses in its zone, to pick up the nearly $2,500 it would cost to hire two off-duty cops to guard the plaza on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights during warm weather months.

"The area has flourished as a result of a lot of policies the city put in place," Osborne told The Jersey Journal. "It's really quite reasonable to ask for some partnership on some of the security issues."

In the past 20 years, the city has passed laws encouraging establishments with liquor licenses to open on the eastern end of Newark Avenue and allowing bars to remain open until as late as 3 a.m. In 2014, the city shut down Newark Avenue from Grove to Erie streets to vehicular traffic on a part-time basis, then for 24 hours a day in 2015.

On-duty officers are out of the question, according to Osborne, who said police officials have told her the city's tough west and south police districts have priority when it comes to on-duty enforcement.

Osborne's plan has been met positively by some SID members who say the added security would be worth the extra $200 per business annually. Andy Siegel, a co-owner of Raval, a restaurant and bar on the plaza, said the extra fee "may be unfair, but this is the cost of doing business in Jersey City."

Others aren't thrilled, saying they pay enough in taxes to fund an on-duty police officer to watch over the plaza on weekends instead of forking over additional cash to the city.

Two Boots Pizza owner Aaron Morrill described the required taxes and fees for businesses as "death by a thousand cuts." Evelyn Padin, a lawyer who also owns the Hard Grove Cafe, said she already pays for a sidewalk cafe license, a liquor license and for private garbage collection.

"It's constant paying," Padin said.

Osborne said it's up to the SID to accept her idea or not -- "this is y'all's voluntary action," she told them at a City Hall meeting last week -- but she warned them that if they didn't act, the city would act, possibly by closing the plaza or putting a curfew in place.

The Downtown SID is expected to vote on whether to pay for the off-duty cops at its March 23 meeting.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.