READING, Pa. \u2014 It looks like a bar, but police say this is something else. A black market of bars. Illegal, unlicensed, and in some cases, dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want building owners to use the buildings as intended,\u201d said Jack Gombach, managing director for the City of Reading.<\/p>\n
So now, the city is stepping in. An ordinance introduced on Monday would give police, fire, and codes officials more power to shut these places down.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo really go after public nuisances, specifically after hours clubs and bars and pop-up bars,\u201d Gombach said.<\/p>\n
Officials say many violent crimes in Reading start at these gatherings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe common thread\u2026 they\u2019ve all started at these after hours bars,\u201d Gombach added.<\/p>\n
Police say these aren\u2019t regulated businesses. They\u2019re popping up in homes, garages, even vacant buildings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m talking about a completely unpermitted, unlawful operation with absolutely no oversight,\u201d said Reading Police Deputy Chief Aaron Demko. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing shootings, we\u2019re seeing robberies, we\u2019re seeing stabbings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police say they\u2019ve identified between 15 and 20 locations across the city. And they\u2019re hard to stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey advertise this stuff on various social media groups,\u201d Demko said. \u201cThey might have 500 to 700 people engage in these advertisements or posts before they even occur.\u201d<\/p>\n
And fire officials say this is also about safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in this office for over 10 years\u2026 so I know what a building is. I know what that building use group is,\u201d said Fire Marshal Jeremy Searfoss. \u201cAnd when I walk in and I see 200 people, this is not that\u2026 that\u2019s an egregious violation of the fire code that requires immediate action for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2014 It looks like a bar, but police say this is something else. A black market…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[46152,3066,23051,2696,28,736,128,130,129],"class_list":{"0":"post-160860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-aaron-demko","9":"tag-jack-gombach","10":"tag-jeremy-searfoss","11":"tag-ordinance","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-reading","14":"tag-reading-city","15":"tag-reading-city-headlines","16":"tag-reading-city-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}