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We have been successful at closing down #MingleRoom - a problematic spot on #RideauStreet thanks to property owner for collaboration. pic.twitter.com/BJLeWzwI1v — Mathieu Fleury (@MathieuFleury) July 31, 2017

All three drew complaints from their neighbours. All three were linked to deadly shootings outside their walls, though it wasn’t always obvious just how. All three closed under pressure from their landlords, who were themselves under pressure from the city.

The city is an enforcement octopus. In the bylaw department, health inspectors and fire-prevention inspectors are the biggies. The police and building-code inspectors play a role, too. The heaviest threats come from provincial liquor-licence enforcers, whom the city doesn’t command but with whom it communicates regularly. With so many regulations to choose from, a councillor can paint a target on a business if he or she wants to.

“We don’t do it. Ninety-nine per cent of businesses comply with the regulations we have,” said Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury. “We don’t get requests for enforcement or complaints.”

Photo by Pat McGrath / Ottawa Citizen

But the Mingle Room was known for noise, for allegations that patrons would spill out and roar their cars up and down Rideau Street in the wee hours, and for violating the city’s anti-hookah bylaw, he said. When 25-year-old football star Ashton Dickson was shot outside in June, after an argument that started inside, the city picked up its enforcement efforts.

The pressure point Fleury found for the Mingle Room was zoning: The place was a nightclub in a building where the zoning also doesn’t allow one. Its sign called the place a “bar and lounge,” it opened only at 6 or 7 p.m. and stayed open till last call, the only things on its menu online are drinks (and bottle service!), and staff IDed people at the door. It was licensed as a restaurant but to all appearances it was a club.