People line up to enter a bar on Emancipation Avenue in Houston. Bars and nightclubs have always been a part of the landscape, but residents say it gets out of control with partying, lewd behavior, traffic, trash and illegal parking.

People line up to enter a bar on Emancipation Avenue in Houston. Bars and nightclubs have always been a part of the landscape, but residents say it gets out of control with partying, lewd behavior, traffic, trash and illegal parking.

Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle

There’s a rhythm that happens in Houston neighborhoods like Third Ward. 

A bar shutters and peace returns. 

Tamicha Roberts knows what that feels like. Since last year when a bar in a small strip center on Emancipation Avenue closed, she and her young son have enjoyed the quiet nights and clean streets that come from not having hoards of bar patrons park on their street, urinate on their lawn and leave condom wrappers and debris behind. 

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After neighbors took their concerns to the media last summer, I wrote a series of columns about rogue nightlife last summer. There appeared to be a push for change. A Houston Police Department task force was formed to crack down on illegal bars and clubs, and the noise, litter and lewd behavior around Emancipation and Blodgett faded.

For nearly nine months, the nightlife problems and noise have been less troublesome. The cold weather helped, too. 

But spring temperatures have a way of encouraging mayhem, and new bars are sprouting like weeds. Some pull the proper city permits. Others operate with a casual disregard for any rules. They probably know the city’s enforcement tends to be spotty. 

READ THE SERIES: Residents of Houston’s Third Ward fight nightlife noise, trash and chaos. What can be done?

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A new bar has opened on Emancipation. Across the street, a two-story house has added a deck out front with bar stools and an inflatable projector so patrons can casually walk from the new bar to the deck with their alcoholic beverages and party to music loud enough to wake people up several blocks away. 

There’s no parking, except on residential streets. Those streets with permitted parking are fair game for those who don’t care about the rules. There are no portable restrooms, no additional trash cans and no regard for residents who have to endure the music and the roaring of cars and motorcycles speeding down Emancipation until early morning hours. 

“We had some good months,” Roberts said. “It’s been quiet and really peaceful. Now, it’s back, so we don’t come outside in the evening at all during club nights, Thursday through Sunday. We’re not coming outside. It’s not looking good right now.” 

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Roberts bought trash-pickup sticks for her neighbors to help with cleanup on the block. The bars, she said, should be responsible for picking up the trash their patrons throw from their cars or drop as they walk. 

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The noise is another matter. Music blasting beyond city-maximum noise levels. Car alarms going off. People loudly loitering in front of houses.

Roberts bought her house a few years ago and within the first week of living there, the noise was unbearable and cars were getting broken into regularly, she said.  =She even discounted her downstairs tenant’s rent because of the noise.   

“When I was rehabbing my house, I a got citation for the generator being on after a certain time because a neighbor complained. So how is it that we can’t get the bars to turn down the noise?”

Residents have watched this cycle play out again and again.

Vehicles make their way down Emancipation Avenue in Houston.

Vehicles make their way down Emancipation Avenue in Houston.

Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle

They call for help to Houston Police, County patrol, the city’s 311 help line, elected officials. Last weekend, the partying spilled into the street blocking traffic, which snarled through the neighborhood. 

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Sherine Farid and her family moved into the area last March from Magnolia Grove near Washington Avenue and noticed the problems right away. The loud bar music shook their windows and had them wearing earplugs inside their home. 

“I like to party, and I love going out. I’ve partied everywhere in the world, but I’m not going to party and throw trash in the street, urinate on people’s yards, drink alcohol in open containers and block the road so if you are trying to get to your street, you can’t get home,” she said. 

She frequently called 911 to report the noise, illegal parking and other issues. But rarely did law enforcement help, she said. Then she and her family were threatened after she warned a bar patron about parking without a permit on her block. A week later, her car windows were smashed in. Nothing stolen. 

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Like Roberts, Farid has relished the quiet peace after that bar on Emancipation closed last year. That the neighborhood is facing the same headache again is disappointing. 

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“To be fair, this is happening on Washington Avenue. It’s happening in Montrose and a lot of places. But the city isn’t owning up to the problem that they have the power to solve. They say they don’t have enough staff, but that isn’t the problem of the citizen. We’re supposed to express our concerns, and they should find solutions,” Farid said. 

Houston prides itself with entrepreneurial freedom and lack of zoning. But freedom without accountability to taxpaying homeowners isn’t liberty. It’s reckless abandonment. 

The city has the power to end this cycle. The only question is if it actually will.