A couple observations on the topic.



My condolences to those who have been the victims of violence. I know Jon and he's a nice guy, one of the least confrontational people I know and I have a hard time imagining that he did or would do anything to provoke the attack that left him badly hurt.



Violence happens in cities, and it does not restrict itself to downtown or a neighborhood downtown. We are a big city and with size comes challenges like this. I work downtown at 6th and Brazos 5 nights a week and spend a lot of time on 6th Street. It doesn't scare me (OK the FASHION scares me a bit, but still...).



As I have said here many times, I really loathe the expression "dirty sixth." In my opinion it's an unfair and overly broad characterization of an area with a wide variety of patrons and businesses (one of which I am extremely partial to). However you characterize "dirt" it's simply not fair to presume it exists on one cluster of bars and restaurants and stores and miraculously does not 3 blocks away.



Much of Austin's nightime entertainment, from the East side all the way to Lamar, centers around bars and pubs which serve alcohol. Large numbers of people drinking, some to excess, is rarely a recipe for peaceful settlement of disturbances. Throw in, absurdly, the largest homeless shelter in the city stuffed to capacity with the overflow on the streets around it, smack dab in the middle of the largest concentration of liquor licenses in the state, and things get worse. That said, the increased police presence on the portion of 6th between I-35 and West St along with cameras, cavalry and undercover cops makes the area more than reasonably safe.



Incidents do occur. They don't happen only on 6th, or only downtown as a scan of the papers or the police blotter will reveal. The large number of people on the street in one area makes the likelihood of issues a bit larger, but common sense is a good guide.



We make sure no one walks to their car alone, especially at night. We encourage off duty staff not advertise the fact that they work in a bar as they are walking to their car/cab/bus as Jason noted above. We all try to pay attention to our surroundings. These are the same sorts of things I would do in any big city at night.



I regret what happened to someone I know personally. I also losing an employee to unprovoked violence. But I'm realistic. The likelihood and probability of such attacks is very low. Doesn't make them any less horrible when they do happen, but we really are not in some sort of epidemic of random violence.