City lawmakers called on to resolve commingling

A group of Buffalo's largest downtown landlords wants the city todo something about the "commingling" of underage people with those of legal drinking age in bars and restaurants.

Citing concerns about people under 21 congregating downtown, especially on Chippewa Street, the Buffalo Place board of directors called on city lawmakers to pass legislation that "resolves the issues" caused by commingling events.

The board wants the Common Council to target promotional events where those age 18 to 20 are admitted to bars along with older adults, even though they're underage for drinking alcohol.

Such events have been criticized as contributing to excessive underage drinking, bad behavior by patrons and even violence.

The board made a general request for some controls rather than specifying a ban on all commingling.

"Stopping commingling means I can't take my son to Salsarita's," said board President Anthony Colucci III, noting that even Thursday at the Square concerts could be affected. "So we felt we should leave it to the legislators to resolve."

Also during the meeting, Colucci reported that the third of four Thursday at the Square concerts will take place today, while the Buffalo Place Rocks the Harbor concert series starts June 24 and 25. The Downtown Country Market will also begin its regular season today.

And directors heard a presentation on the region's new "BuffaloFor Real" marketing slogan from Dottie Gallagher-Cohen, presidentand CEO of the Buffalo Niagara Convention and Visitors Bureau, now rebranded as Visit Buffalo Niagara. She described the research and process that were involved in developing the slogan to target so-called "cultural tourism."

"The cultural tourist is the cream of the crop," Gallagher-Cohen said. "These are really high-value folks."

She said the new slogan and low-cost campaign were created withthe help of 13 volunteer marketing experts from several localagencies. Since then, she said, her organization has revamped itsmarketing brochure and website, while developing a six-minute videoand more than a half-dozen Internet videos, or "webisodes," topromote the region.

"We don't need a silver bullet to solve our problem. This is a marketing issue," she said.

The board also learned that Buffalo police have posted a "chief car" at the intersection of Main and Court streets from 7 to 9 a.m. and from noon to 2 p.m. daily. The car also sweeps the area every hour.

Police reported one recent arrest for sexual abuse, three for assault, as well as a few for petit larceny and other crimes, including "public lewdness" for urinating in public. They also cautioned that some kids are using squirt guns filled with bleach, not water.

Some property owners complained that the urinating problem stems from a lack of enough Port-a-Potties downtown.

"That troubled me a great deal," Colucci said.

e-mail: jepstein@buffnews.com