Chelsea Nightlife
With police on the beat, club beat still goes on
By Lawrence Lerner
Walking north on 11th Ave. near the mid-W. 20s on Saturday night, amid the gigantic former warehouses-turned-galleries, upscale condos and sundry businesses, the popular and much maligned West Chelsea club scene is barely discernible. At 26th St., it starts to take shape, as high-heeled beauties and young studs dressed in stylish suits emerge from taxis and livery cabs, while a half-block south a knot of police officers hangs in the shadows, petting their horses as they bray in their trailers.
Turn right onto 27th St., and the shadows give way to what could easily be misconstrued as a movie set - blinding searchlights at each end of the street, a ring of metal barricades blocking through traffic and corralling a mob of clubgoers along the sidewalks, and cops in the middle of the empty street, monitoring the enormous crowd.
Over on 10th Ave., it's a similar story. The thumping of house music merges with blaring car horns as a steady stream of auto and foot traffic creeps through the congested terrain. Police officers are confiscating open cans and bottles in front of Marquee, where a long line awaits entry in front of the velvet ropes. A mobile police command-and-control center sits across 10th Ave., its remote surveillance cameras hanging high on lampposts along 27th St.
To Chelsea residents, many club owners and patrons, the increased police presence is a welcome, if long-overdue, response to quality-of-life problems that have been exploding for the last several years in Chelsea, especially in the swath between 10th and 11th Aves. from 24th to 29th Sts., which has gained notoriety for several recent violent incidents and its sheer density of nightlife: more than 20 dance clubs, lounges, bars and restaurants with a capacity of more than 10,000 patrons. But despite the elevated scrutiny that the area has come under by the police, government officials and the press, the club scene in West Chelsea appears, for the most part, to be alive and well.
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