ROOM CHANGE: according to Gary from MVBA.org, the room has been changed to 213 - hope to see you all there!

CRAZINESS. we need more cops walking the beat. these kind of incidents are untolerable.

This is scary, Peter.

Thank you for finally posting something about this horrible situation. One of my friends was one of the individuals attacked Saturday - let's hope that the hearing today will help prevent this from happening to anyone else.

Mid-February I was heading to Brewer's Art at the same time the "All-Ages" Party was ending at this other place. About 300 teenagers were milling about in the 3 blocks surrounding the club. There was a helicopter circling, search lights and police officers. Despite this, the club-goers were harrassing anyone who happened to be out on the street. Mt Vernon has changed since this place has been in the Belvedere. It's no longer a safe, friendly area on a weekend night. I hope the place is closed down.

I live right near the Belvedere and witnessed the crowd of "club-goers" that evening. I have never been more scared in my own neighborhood. I must have just missed the second incident since I left my house across from the church right after 11pm. Very scary! This should be front page news and any business that brings this sort of violence to any neighborhood should be promptly shut down... PERMANENTLY. There is no excuse for this sort of behavior and it really makes me reconsider my decision to move downtown. I hate being scared in my own neighborhood.

Any info on the hearing? I was unable to attend due to work

These incidents are horrifying but not the least bit surprising, unfortunately, in this city.

Is anyone else sick & tired of hearing how Baltimore City cops are doing a better job? Having lived in other cities on the East Coast, where police are actually competent, I find it truly shocking the level of lawlessness that cops permit to exist in Baltimore.

One minor example, which pales in comparison to the stories above, but is telling nonetheless:

I was walking outside of Camden Yards Saturday evening before the O's/Yankees game when I strolled past a group of junkies sitting on the corner of Camden & Paca Streets, on the Hilton Hotel side of the block. It being game time, there were literally thousands of people across the street at the pubs, waiting to get into the stadium etc. and plenty of Cops lining Camden Street. The junkie party consisted of 5 strung out, rough looking males, 1 or 2 females and a pit bull. The pit bull resembled my own dog and I smiled at it while passing the group about 10 feet or so away. After I walked another 10 feet, someone, I don't know who, among the junkies threw an empty glass liquor bottle directly at me. It thankfully, barely missed and shattered at my right heel on the sidewalk, with some of the shards bouncing up and making minor cuts on my calf and landing in my shoe, which subsequently cut my foot.

I turned around, walked back to the junkies and asked what their problem was and who threw the bottle. The entire group tried to play dumb and said that someone had thrown the bottle off the roof of the hotel. Fighting five junkies and a pit bull by myself isn't my idea of a fun evening, so I walked across the street to get a cop.

The cop I approached, who was directly across the street, told me there was nothing she could do. The reason? Because the incident was on one side of the street and her post was on the other. When I asked her to radio for someone else she told me she'd get in trouble if she did, and said I needed to call 911 myself and wait for them to dispatch someone. She then made a point of telling me how when the person arrived, if they decided to take the junkie into custody, they would then take us both to 500 North Calvert Street where I would sit all night filling out forms to press charges against the junkie.

I replied that it should be easier to arrest someone who had endangered someone's life. I had done nothing and said nothing to this group of junkies, yet someone felt the need to throw a large glass bottle in my direction, apparently for the fun of it. This senseless violence is appeased and therefore condoned by the police and allowed to take place in front of Camden Yards no less, on display for thousands to see. Is there any wonder why people rightly think they can get away with whatever, anywhere else in the city?

Any updates from the hearing? Please let those of us who couldn't make it know about what happened.

The hearing was largely legal wrangling between the attorney for the club and the attorney for the liquor board about what jurisdiction the liquor board had over the bottle club. It sounds like they are trying to find a legal loophole to enable them to avoid liquor board regulations and renewals. The judge did not come to a conclusion and indicated that she would issue her decision in writing.

I am a little incredulous that their attorney thinks that they are somehow not accountable for the behavior of their patrons. If people leaving my establishment (Brewer's Art) behaved like this, you can bet we would be in high risk of losing our license. At one point he actually said "I don't see why a bottle club should even need a trader's license" which was pretty preposterous to me - you need a trader's license to be in business in the state of Maryland as far as I know.

I hope the judge makes the right decision. This club is a detriment, and hazard, to Mt. Vernon.

Funny how there is no mention of actual police on the scene of either of the accounts here. I live right down the street from where both of these attacks took place and can tell you that there is little to no police presence. It's very scary.

While I'm fairly certain that taking action against this club might put a dent in some of the violence and crime thats been happening, I'm interested to see how big that dent really is.

There is a lack of any truly active community/neighborhood organizations to speak up for the residents of this neighborhood. And if they do exist, they don't do a very good job of making themselves known. It saddens me that it had to come to this for this for any real action to be taken.

I'm not sure I can express pride in living in a neighborhood where I feel scared to walk from my car to my home if I have to work late. I love this area but I don't know how much longer I can keep it up.

Sean,

The Mt. Vernon Belvedere Association is the community organiztion which represents this area. We are the organization which hired the attorney to represent the community.

We also have a very active Citizen's on Patrol program in conjunction with the Midtown Community Benefits District. Together we've coordinated segway patrols frequently on the weekend to help eliminate some of these issues.

Take a look at our website at www.mvba.org, become a member and sign up for electronic alerts to happenings in Mt. Vernon.

We welcome your participation in our Citizens on Patrol program!

WWW.MVBA.ORG

Jason Curtis
President
MVBA

I think that clubs and bars can be a wonderful part of city life, but this club is nothing but trouble for Mount Vernon. I live in the neighborhood and I am horrified by the violence this establishment has attracted. It is so sad that as the city spends money to beatify the Charles St. with new brick sidewalks and streetlights this club is allowed to bring the neighborhood down. Something needs to be done about this now or Baltimore is going to going to lose another taxpayer to the suburbs.

the act of violence was party of a gang initiation thats known as taking back saturdays. its been going on for weeks and the city knows about it, but has chosen to keep it under wraps to avoid bad publicity. I think its time that everyone knows about it!

I'm surprised no one is going after Takeova Entertainment. Those are the guys running the weekly "Teen Takeova" party every Saturday night. It's the large groups of teens leaving that party specifically that go looking for strangers to beat up.

It's simple:
No guns or drugs -- Mr. B and his boys don't wanna deal with it. You can make headlines and take credit for getting guns and drugs/dealers off the street. Arrest some middle-class teens, and you don't get enough attention.

My husband and I are residents of Mt. Vernon and members of the MVBA. It's actually a very active community organization and I encourage more people to join. I was sickened to hear about these two incidents. I am so sorry these individuals had to go through this. I extremely sad and embarrassed that it happened in my own neighborhood. This is a disgrace to the Belvedere (which used to be a Baltimore icon) and those who condone this behavior. There are plenty of people that love this neighborhood and Baltimore city who will work tirelessly to keep it as safe as possible. The MVBA has worked very hard to get rid of this club for a while and hopefully it's on it's way to being shut down completely. Of course, this will not eliminate all aspects of crime in Mt. Vernon, but this club is clearly the major cause of these particular crimes. I will continue to remain active in my community and refuse to let these ignorant individuals take away my love of living in the city.

"the act of violence was party of a gang initiation thats known as taking back saturdays". What are you basing this statement on? At a glance it looks like someone heard about the Takeova Saturdays teen night event and played the telephone game with it until it ended up being a gang initiation.

here's a flickr photoset from the weekly teen party at the ultralounge.. this one is from 5/2/09

http://www.flickr.com/photos/guardian_angel18/sets/72157617975726149/

An idea. Get about 200 friends that are not Ultralounge regulars, bring a bottle of whine, get there early and call the fire dept when it gets really full (Hint - over capacity). Repeat. You may even grow to like the music!

Tom Stuehler, proud owner of The Belvedere, home of The Ultralounge, needs to stop counting his money long enough to evict his tennant.

Well, hopefully that's the last time "Crosshair Fotography" has any reason to take party photos in the basement of the Belvedere.

I live on corner of St. Paul & Chase. The crowd I can see from my window going by on these nights is INSANE. Last two nights these events have gone on I've had the pleasure of watching undercover cops do their thing on Chase St. First time I was interrupted during the first few moments of SNL to see a cop with his gun drawn on a car full of teens.

This is pretty terrifying - I've been out a couple of times on these nights & 3 sheets to the wind - feel very fortunate that I haven't had an encounter...

Sean,

I'm glad to hear that you have pride for living in Mt. Vernon, but I'm sorry that you are so uninformed about what MVBA and it's active members/neighbors do on behalf of this neighborhood for the rest of our neighbors and visitors.

Let me share just a few things that have been accomplished....

** The children's park on Calvert Street is the result of tireless work by members of MVBA and your fellow neighbors who raised over $400,000 to make it happen.

** The height limits for new development in Mt. Vernon was secured by the efforts of MVBA and it's members despite the developers fighting us at every step. Now you and everyone else will be able to continue enjoying the very environment that makes Mt. Vernon so unique.

** The building at 900 N. Charles was saved by neighbors who contributed their own money to creat an LLC to secure it from a developer who would have torn it down had he been able to acquire it and the old Gampys building that is now Marie Louise Bistro. Securing that building paved the way for the old Gampys to be saved and renovated.

** MVBA has been able to negotiate and secure a Memorandum of Understanding with the city for additional services and infrastructure spending for Mt. Vernon in return for support of the new homeless shelter being built on the edge of our neighborhood.

** MVBA also raised over $14,000 for the planting of new trees in the neighborhood as well as $26,000 for the upcoming installation of signage identifying our historic neighborhood.

** Recently the MVBA liquor committee negotiated with 3 other clubs/establishments that were having a negative impact on the quality of life in our neighborhood and found a way to mutually resolve the issues.

** MVBA and Friends of Mt. Vernon Place have recently joined efforts to establish a conservancy to raise $10 million to protect and restore the parks and monument in the heart of our neighborhood.

There are numerous other things being worked on by the association for everyone's benefit not withstanding this club.

Most of us have chosen to live in Baltimore and Mt. Vernon in particular because we fell in love with its beauty and uniqueness. We would welcome your participation and support in working to keep this a great neighborhood. There are numerous committees that work on many initiatives for our neighborhood. Becoming a member is the best way to be a part of the solution.

Tom Stuehler does NOT own The Belvedere nor does he own Suites UltraLounge/Club Krush! The Belvedere does hire plain clothes police to try and help with this club. The police responded to both incidents last Saturday. I spoke to the police at Chase and Charles streets about 11:30 and could not locate the victim, not knowing she was in Brewers Art.

Y in the heck are these children hanging out in a bar anyway...when I was young you were not allowed in a bar, by law and definitely not allowed by my parents.. What has happened to society...and you wonder y kids are going out and beating up innocent people. NO HOME TRAINING!!!!

Video of "CJ Takeova" the guy who runs the weekly teen party at the Ultralounge. He does a Q&A session on "Takeova TV" in this clip. The irony of some of his answers are so painful. An example: Question: Why did your party get shut down on January 18th? Anwer: The party got shut down on the 18th because of police. Police don't want to see nobody young and black doing anything positive for the community."

Also this one takes on a different meaning to me in light of the beatings.

Question: Mr takeova, What is it that makes your party so different than everyone else's parties and why do parents allow their children to come to your party via to someone else's party" Answer: "Well my party is different because its takeova ...(talks about dj kali for a bit) ... I mean we hit you in the head left and right and we just knock you out the ballpark, we just totally different."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4FRST2jpsA

Cops in Baltimore are useless. I don't know if it's the leadership or the officers or the budget or all of the above, but they never show up when called, and when they are already on the scene, they do nothing.

In my opinion, we should fire the entire City Police and use the funds to arm and train every resident of Baltimore that has not been convicted of a felony, encouraging citizen's arrests. That would even the odds with the thugs.

As it is now, criminals with nothing to lose (murderers, rapists, etc.) can carry weapons with impunity, because they're already headed for prison if they get arrested, and everyone else risks losing everything they have if they carry or use a weapon in self defense. Gun control is a failure - the cat is out of the bag. The only people gun control controls are the law abiding citizens. By the way, I'm not a NRA gun nut. I'm a liberal.

I just heard a gunshot outside my house...

The acts of violence against citizens is horrific. I think part of the tragedy also is that the youth of Baltimore have few options to expell the natural energy that comes with being a teen. What the members of Takeova are trying to do is profit from the City's failure to provide its residents with wholesome activities such as dances at recreation centers/ PAL Centers that PARENTS and POLICE should chaperone. They provide an experience for these kids; they create memories. This may be the only time some kids ahve any positive social interaction. When the rec centers are closed down and hours limited, of course the teen scene moves to the corners and nothing positve can come from that. Teen agers like to gather for social events, its human nature. They like to group themselves together in cliques, its natural. Give them the venue for this. What is unnatural is the lack of guidance that comes from the home AND from the city government's inability to recognize the needs of citizens AND actually provide some services. Let the damned Senator close down and fund the recreation centers/ PAL Centers with that money. Maybe then the residents of Mount Vernon and other Baltimore neighborhoods can feel safe whilst the entire village comes together to raise all of its children. Takeova is at least trying to give them something to do for a few hours every weekend. Don't kill the messenger just because they are telling you MAYOR and CITY COUNCIL that you're continuing to fail our young people. Invest money and time into these kids now so they won't have to make the news later. We know that there are parents not parenting their children; we pay for it everyday at DJS. Why would you suggest any one person be held accountable for that? It takes all of us. Be proactive, not reactive. Engage the likes of CJ the CEO of Takeova to provide the entertainment for events that young people will enjoy and the citizens can feel good about. It just makes sense.

Freaking unbelievable. These stories made me rethink coming to town at night, even for classical music. It is just not worth it. This is a third-world city.

Over the weekend, an out of town guest of the Baltimore Hostel was attacked while walking around in Mt. Vernon / downtown. The police...did not take a report because they said they could not do anything about it.

Yay Baltimore! Show the world what you're made of!!

What is wrong with you people? Mount Vernon was not a utopia ruined by this club. They are has always had problems with drug abuse, prostitution, crime, drunks wandering the street etc. What is the real issue here....

The real issue here is that you confuse public nuisance with public safety. Broken glass can be cleaned up. Stale urine in the street will be washed away.

Physical violence is not the same. Enormous swaths of this city are testament to the fact that once a neighborhood becomes steeped in violence and apathy, that community faces ruination.

Mt. Vernon isn't some utopia, no one claimed it is (I think that's technically Canada). But it's also one of the few neighborhoods in the city that's relatively diverse and integrated. That diversity is about inclusion, but also about safety.

"Tom Stuehler, proud owner of The Belvedere, home of The Ultralounge, needs to stop counting his money long enough to evict his tenant."

This is an excellent point. Even if he does not own The Belvedere, there should be a lease agreement between The Belvedere and Suite Ultralounge. I am sure there have been some sort of violation in the lease that could force them to evict the tenant. I don't see how money is even an issue here. With this place gone, I am sure there will be another business who would be willing and able to take over. I would even bet the residents would be willing to pay a higher condo fee to get them out.