Opinions vary on source, solution of problems downtown
In the week after a stray bullet paralyzed an 18-year-old USC student, most people have agreed that Five Points has a problem.
But opinions vary on just what that problem is.
City leaders, business owners, students and residents have pointed variously to big-picture challenges — gangs, a “revolving door” judicial system and a lack of collaboration between local police departments — and to smaller-scale struggles, like a hard-to-enforce loitering ordinance and crowded sidewalks late at night.
“I don’t know that we have a 100 percent accurate idea of what’s going on,” said Columbia City Councilman Moe Baddourah, who represents Five Points and is running for mayor.
The range of opinions has led to a broad range of suggestions, from requiring bars to close at 2 a.m. and blocking traffic on weekends to raising the state’s minimum sentences and passing a stricter loitering ordinance in the city.
But each appears tied, at least in part, to the area’s growing popularity, from a USC-centric village to a regional hangout.
Interim Columbia Police Chief Ruben Santiago said Five Points is now frequented by residents of Camden, Sumter, Orangeburg and other nearby towns, who come to hang out and not to visit businesses.
Debbie McDaniel, a longtime Five Points business owner, said the crowds on a recent night were “astounding.”
Elijah Ngugi, who drives a taxi nearby, called them “unpredictable.” Santiago said language in the city loitering ordinance makes it difficult to enforce in Five Points, where most people move around, even if they’re only hanging out.
USC President Harris Pastides said the packed sidewalks led him to think the area’s roads should be blocked off on weekend nights, one of five suggestions he made last week as he called Five Points unsafe after midnight.
The Five Points Association said in a statement late Friday afternoon that it was “adamantly opposed” to that and another of Pastides’ proposals — mandatory 2 a.m. bar closings.
“Neither addresses the real issue in Five Points — gang violence,” the statement says.
Ryan Kay, owner of the Harden Street bar Pinch, agreed that a regional gang problem is “boiling over” into Five Points and said that its reputation for popular nightlife helped attract them.
“Any time there’s an easy target, it will attract criminals. A young, intoxicated student by themselves is an easy target for a criminal,” Kay said. “Every entertainment district in every city in every part of the world has these issues. It’s not something specific to Columbia, and it’s not specific to Five Points.”
Larry Sypolt, a former FBI analyst who is also running for mayor, said the string of high-profile incidents in the area — from the beating of Carter Strange in 2010 to the shooting of first-year business student Martha Childress this month — also owes to a county-wide crackdown on nuisance clubs that has driven such businesses into city limits. Mayor Steve Benjamin, the third candidate in the Nov. 5 election, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“They still provide that same nuisance, but we’re not documenting it; we’re not building that case trying to get them out of there,” Sypolt said.
Sypolt said that showed a need for better cooperation between local law enforcement; he has called for Columbia police to share resources with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.
Columbia police and the Richland County Sheriff’s Department are expected to team up in Five Points, and Pastides said USC would be open to sending campus officers if they’re asked.
Still, he said, he doesn’t think it’s the USC law enforcement division’s responsibility to patrol there otherwise, which some Five Points merchants have called for.
Pastides said he’s OK with the differences of opinion he’s seen in the last week and that he expected them. And while he still doesn’t think Five Points is safe late at night, he’s made a personal goal of not having to go to the hospital again as president to visit a student hurt in the bar district.
“I don’t think those perspectives are incompatible, but I think it’s important for us to be frank with each other,” Pastides said. “We all would like to snap our fingers and make it safe or suggest it’s safe, but it’s not that easy.”