Midtown Partyplex (1219 Connecticut Ave. NW) may harbor multiple “safety concerns,” said Dupont Circle’s ANC 2B during its monthly meeting at the Brookings Institution (1775 Massachusetts Avenue NW) on Wednesday.
The commission voted 4-0-1 to send a letter to the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) board in advance of an Oct. 21 protest hearing concerning the renewal of Midtown’s alcohol license.
“Since [November 2013], ANC 2B has become aware of numerous other problems at Midtown as documented in ABRA’s investigation history,” reads the letter. “Serious problems requiring ABC Board attention since the ‘expiration’ of the license of the license on Sept. 30, 2013, comprise underage drinking and violence including death, assault on police officers and sexual assault.”
Commissioner Abigail Nichols, 2B-05, is the one who motioned to send the letter.
Nichols noted that the ANC first voted to protest the bar’s license due to noise complaints from neighbors in November, 2013. Since then, she said, the ANC became aware of more serious problems.
“In those two years after, other kinds of operational problems have come to my attention as the commissioner for that area,” she said. “In 2013, there was a brouhaha in which people fighting inside Midtown were thrown out onto the street. One man died. Two police officers went to the hospital,” said Nichols.
“Midtown made the papers again in february about a week after they reopened after they closed down for underage drinking and assorted things,” she added.
“What we are doing here with this letter is not trying them for those things,” Nichols said. “What this is doing is saying to the board, we noticed this pattern, we ask that you take action.”
“This is a very large nightclub with lots of dark corners,” Nichols added. “Commissioner Michael Upright, [2B-04] and I went to the police headquarters Sunday just to see if we were overstating the nature of the problem, but we looked at this list of violations and problems that the police have been called for and I’m confident we’re not overstating the level of problems there.”
