An effort to address complaints of noise from after-hours partying, street racing and reports of guns being brought into establishments in the King Street district of Riverside would be partially funded with new City Council legislation.
Ordinance 2024-0757 would appropriate $10,000 in matching funding for Riverside Avondale Preservation and the Park and King Area Association to hire off-duty Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office officers on Fridays and Saturdays to provide traffic and law enforcement.
The city funding would go toward a pilot program launched in mid-summer by RAP and district merchants to respond to rising reports of unruly behavior in the vicinity. Most of the private funding comes from bars and restaurants along King Street.
The program is designed to bring in officers from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. until the holidays, which business owners and residents hope will be enough time to tamp down problems in the area.
Shannon Blankinship, executive director of RAP, said neighbors had seen an increase in groups of people gathering in cars in parking lots and residential streets for parties with alcohol and loud music. Those meet-ups have generated complaints of loud music, revving of car engines, squealing tires and dangerous driving, she said.
She said merchants and her organization were concerned that the illicit partying was becoming a scene that would keep growing if not curbed.
Jim Love, president of the Park and King Area Association and a former Council member, said the JSO responds to calls from the district but often is stretched thin on Fridays and Saturdays as bars in Five Points, Brooklyn and other nearby areas close in the late-night hours.
“Especially on Friday and Saturday nights, there’s a lot of action happening and we’re just one of many places that need to be (protected),” he said.
When officers are available, he said, they make a significant difference.
“The police presence – just the presence – slows it down,” said Love, who operates a State Farm insurance agency at College and King streets. “Having a police car on the corner of Post and King really helps.”
Love, who served on Council from 2011 to 2019, said complaints about activity in the district are nothing new. He said he fielded them while he was a Council member.
However, he said King Street businesses had seen an uptick in problems since the summer of 2023, when the JSO cracked down on reports of disorderly behavior in the Five Points district. The heavier police presence in Five Points prompted a migration of bar-goers to King Street, he said, with some gathering in parking lots for after-hours parties with loud music.
“It’s a nuisance problem, mainly,” he said. “But the neighbors have kids, they live a house away from the noise, and they don’t mind it up to a point. But this is happening at 2 a.m. or later. It’s sad and they need some relief.”
The stretch of King Street between Park and College streets is home to several bars and restaurants, including The Garage, Park Place Lounge, Rogue, Kickbacks Gastropub, Mickie’s Irish Pub, D’Bo’s Daiquiris, Wings and Seafood, The Loft, Keg & Coin, Dart Bar & Games, Riverside Liquors and The Restaurant in Riverside.
Blankinship said hiring off-duty JSO officers involves going through an online portal and making a bid for officers to do the work. Officers are not obligated to work off-duty, so sometimes requests for service in the district have gone unmet.
Love said it costs $1,500 per weekend to bring in the officers.
The ordinance would provide the partners with a grant from a community development corporation contingency account. RAP will manage the security partnership, according to the ordinance.
During a Sept. 16 meeting of the City Council Neighborhoods, Community Services, Public Health and Safety Committee, Council member Ken Amaro asked whether the issues could be solved by imposing earlier closing times for the bars.
Council member Jimmy Peluso, whose District 7 includes Riverside and the King Street district, said the ordinance was designed to provide “the right amount of touch” by boosting security without forcing establishments to shut down early and lose out on revenue from late-night customers. Peluso introduced the ordinance, which was filed Sept. 10.
“We want to make sure we don’t harm our businesses,” he said.
Peluso said traffic and security issues persist in Five Points, forcing JSO to maintain a presence there. He said Five Points business operators were working to establish a business improvement district similar to the one overseen by Downtown Vision Inc., a nonprofit that provides services such as trash pickup and graffiti removal with funding that comes mostly through fees paid by Downtown property owners.
Love said some King Street businesses, including his own, were taking steps to curb late-night partying by installing security cameras and better lighting in their parking lots.
He said the new Tunis restaurant at 2700 Post St., which recently opened at the site of the former Panda House Asian restaurant on the southwest corner of the intersection, had made considerable improvements in its lot.