Hookah Hell on Wayne Avenue
When I went in to contest my property taxes on Monday, Aug 3rd, I pointed out that since 2009, my street has been disrupted by frequent police calls to 121 Bonner Street. They average about one safety force call every other week. Yet, my property values have almost doubled in 15 years- despite me making zero improvements to my house- other than to add security systems after frequent break-ins.
The people on the “Board of Revision” tried to tell me this had nothing to do with my property values. I asked them if they were crazy and continued. I pointed out that I’d been told by prospective tenants that they wouldn’t live that close to the neighborhood cancer.
They asked when I showed them actual sale prices of houses much larger than my cottages for much less, if I’d sell my cottages for what I said they were worth- and I said no, but, I’d have a hard time having an open house, because the potential buyers would be treated to what I have to deal with on a daily basis- open pit burning of things that don’t smell like wood, loud music, arguments, people, truck exhausts as they rev the engine, shirtless males, with foul mouths, the list goes on. I will say that they do take very good care of their grass, and the house doesn’t have garbage all around like the two shitholes catty corner at Bonner and Johnson, where we’ve known drugs were being sold. One of them recently had a chimney topple and fall through a first floor roof right into the kitchen. A quick roof patch job was the solution- after the hole was open for a few weeks!
The house next door couldn’t keep good tenants in it, and has been on the market for coming on 7 or 8 months. It’s been broken into many times, the air conditioner stolen, even with security systems.
And now we come to today’s news:
Dayton police are investigating after a man was shot outside a hookah bar on Wayne Avenue Sunday morning.
Officers were first dispatched to disperse a large crowd at the Hookah Star and Smoke Shop at 1243 Wayne Avenue around 3 a.m. Sunday.
Dayton police Sgt. Roberta Bailey said that while officers attempted to clear the crowd both inside and outside the bar, around five shots were heard by officers from behind the establishment. A signal ‘99’ for officer assistance was requested when the shots were heard, prompting a response from several surrounding jurisdictions in Montgomery County.
Source: Shooting victim found outside Dayton hookah bar
When I first moved into the neighborhood, this oddly newer building on Wayne, with the parking lot in front, breaking the consistent street rhythm of buildings lined up like soldiers in formation along the sidewalk. It was a Lawson’s store- a lot like a UDF, but with the addition of a real deli, where you could get sliced meats and cheeses. I used to shop there. It closed long ago, and hasn’t had a steady tenant for years despite the proliferation of convenience stores. Apparently, a convenience store that can’t be seen until you’re passing it isn’t in high demand.
Last year, a young guy whom the neighborhood has come to know as “Tiger” turned it into the “Hookah Star Smoke and Juice Bar” since it doesn’t have a liquor license. Looking at the refuse outside the bar every Sunday morning will tell you that there is plenty of alcohol being consumed inside- either poured from flasks or the bottles that are littering our streets each week. Apparently, since there is no liquor, closing time is flexible as well- with the party going on all night long, inside and outside this “fine establishment.” The crowd is young, with a lot of 18- to 24-year-olds, who like to peel out around the ‘hood with their tuner cars as they leave between 3 and 5 a.m. Not long ago, the owner discharged his own gun inside to give the patrons a good idea of who’s the boss.
Neighbors have been complaining all summer long about the joint. Tiger built a sturdy fence around the back of his lot- to keep the patrons who use it like an outdoor party park, from being seen and video taped by the residents of Historic South Park. The Eagles lot next door, the tire store, South Park Tavern’s lots- after they were closed, had become additional overflow parking for the party palace.
Lots of calls to the police, to zoning, to the city, with very little response, until finally a few weeks ago, when the cops starting showing up en masse at 3 a.m. to shut the place down- making our neighborhood into a racetrack for the little rats scurrying away from the scrutiny of the law. We had more traffic on our side streets at 3 a.m. than all day, thanks to Hookah Hell.
Dayton Police had heard rumors of some massive parties coming across the city as the summer was ending. Curfew sweeps were to begin, picking up kids under 18 out after 11 p.m. The Hookah bar was one of the targets. The kids get taken to the patrol headquarters, where residents staff the phones, calling parents to come pick up their wayward lieges. Last night was to be another night of residents pitching in to do work we pay taxes for.
The sweep happened at 11, and the Hookah bar was a stop. Then again at 3 a.m., the DPD did as it did last week, the cops came to close the place down. Last night, things didn’t go quite as planned as one of the patrons decided to get shot by another. Don’t say you didn’t see this coming.
Multiple police calls to the same location almost invariably are a good predictor of future troubles. Somehow, our understaffed police force, impotent prosecutors, and lackluster leadership can’t seem to figure this out.
It will be interesting to see if the Hookah Star Smoke shop and Juice Bar is back in business after this last incident, or if we’ll keep having problems until someone actually dies.
Why it takes so long for Dayton to figure out how to take care of neighborhood cancers is beyond comprehension. Maybe if they really understood that quality of life is the number one factor in “economic development” – not brick sidewalks, and occupancy rates, we’d actually make some progress that would justify the tax hikes they believe are warranted. Even for those of us who have to live with a cancer nearby.
Is there really any hope that our officials will finally realize that brick is not a paving material for the 21st century? They seem almost mentally ill with the notion that 5th street in the Oregon must be brick, they tried re-bricking it with a concrete underpinning at the traffic lights a little over a decade ago, and if you go look closely at the current state of those bricks, you’ll think “what a waste”–that is unless you’re one of those who think streets are for something other than making it possible to get from one place to another efficiently.
Let’s for a moment think not fondly on the paving job in front of Riverscape, where they originally stamped the asphalt with faux-brick texture–a pointless exercise that made the ride uncomfortable until the asphalt, as always, got smoothed out in ordinary use. What a waste!
Geez….don’t you think it’s time to move?
For some people I suppose this is just a place to live. For many of us here, this is our home.
It is not time to move Dave C.;it is time to bring back our rights, the constitution that is being violated daily, locally, and nationally being taken away from you and I.
Cynthea, yes it is a place we live, sometimes not by choice but we do what we can everyday to live in the place we find ourselves and many want to uproot the place we call home for many of us that are struggling as it becomes more and more unlivable and we deserve better than being contaminated by all the wrongs assaulted on us left undone!
Sorry, but I prefer my dwelling place to be in a gunfire-free area.
I moved out of Dayton bc of situations like this. Stay and fight? Go ahead. I rather just have piece of mind and safety. Certainly it’s cheap to live there. But, for a lot of people in Dayton, sacrifice the tats and smokes and cell phones and tricked out rides and save that money and move. Eat at home, go to the grocery, skip Taco Bell. But our society today doesn’t think like that is a real option.
Things will never change. So why stay? When people become old and weak they just get taken advantage of by this criminal class. So move while you are young and can still enjoy a full life.
Oh yeah, “great in Dayton.” Let’s cheer on City Hall and Shitty Wide Development projects instead of policing known problem establishments. Typical – but correct me if I’m wrong, the same party continues to hold sway over this ever decreasing populus so how is anything ever going to change?
It’s urban living without a decent size population. All cities have their slum area, but dayton, bc it is small, is almost a slum area throughout. Certainly there are great people and properties but get a few bad apples, or or Daytona case a lot of bad apples and “game over.” Seriously… Move….
For those of you slamming those of us that live in some of Dayton’s stable neighborhoods, just shut-up. You’ve already moved, so what are you whining about? We live in a urban area. There is good and bad to that. There are also several very nice neighborhoods in the city. South Park is a microcosm of that—there is good and bad parts of that neighborhood (where I have a rental that has never had a vacancy and rents for more than you think). I just find it so comical and stupid that people get on here and bitch about a place where they don’t even live and frankly don’t know dick about.
I lived in Dayton for a number of years. I moved when my neighborhood started resembling the one David Esrati lives in now.
In retrospect, I can honestly say that moving was a great idea.
This just in- from the Neighborhood President-
Amazing.
Is this your young entrepreneur? Nice.
https://www.facebook.com/nimr.ibrahim.5
Dave C., that’s great for you, and I genuinely mean that. But not everybody has the same views, wants, or tastes for where they want to live. I swapped suburban living for the city, and that was the best move I made. I used to try to explain that to folks who live in subdivisions named after trees and homes that were built cheap that already have major issues, but I gave up.
Congrats on the imminent demise of the Hookah Hole. Hopefully the owner will just throw in the towel, and go elsewhere.
As far as city vs. ‘burbs vs. rural, to each his own. I just do not think anybody should be in danger in their own home or the area surrounding it.
Besides, if Dave E. gets shot, who’s gonna run this blog?
From today’s Dayton Daily-
Source: Hookah bar operated as nightclub