READING, Pa. \u2013 Behind closed doors, late at night, there\u2019s a different kind of nightlife in Reading.<\/p>\n
Officials say last weekend, fire crews were called to a packed building \u2014 one never meant to hold that many people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fire alarm devices, the smoke detection, was actually covered on purpose because they knew there was going to be smoking in there,\u201d said Fire Marshal Jeremy Searfoss.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is actually a criminal tampering charge, which rises beyond just a citation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Officials say it\u2019s part of a larger pattern: illegal after-hours bars operating across the city.<\/p>\n
Some are now calling it a \u201cblack market of bars.\u201d<\/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, but shutting them down has not been easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe might go kick a bunch of people out one night, and it might pop right back up the next night or the next weekend,\u201d Demko said. \u201cIt\u2019s just been a repetitive process for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, the city is trying a new approach. An ordinance introduced this week would give police, fire and code officials the power to step in sooner.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt allows us to look at these buildings from a public safety standpoint, through the fire marshal\u2019s office,\u201d said Managing Director Jack Gombach. \u201cSo looking at things like use of the building, how many people are there, safety codes, fire codes.\u201d<\/p>\n
City leaders say the goal is not just fines, but real enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat it would ultimately do is give our emergency services team the ability to shut down the property and then potentially revoke their certificate of occupancy,\u201d Gombach said.<\/p>\n
That means a building could be shut down entirely until it meets safety standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo pay a $200 fine doesn\u2019t really do anything,\u201d Gombach added.<\/p>\n
But officials also want to be clear, this ordinance is not about businesses following the rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe majority of the city are law-abiding\u2026and they\u2019re doing things the correct way,\u201d Demko said.<\/p>\n
The ordinance could be voted on within the next two weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2013 Behind closed doors, late at night, there\u2019s a different kind of nightlife in Reading. Officials…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72776,72777,128,130,129,62784],"class_list":["post-161406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-black-market-bars","tag-illegal-bars","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-reading-pennsylvania"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161406","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=161406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}