South Side’s late-night revelry prompts fresh scrutiny and familiar fears

Hundreds of rowdy revelers poured into the South Side streets around 2 a.m. Sunday, after nearly 20 bars and clubs that line East Carson Street shut down for the night.

Pittsburgh police were waiting.

Clouds of vape smoke and marijuana grew thick over the sidewalks in one of Pittsburgh’s busiest entertainment districts.

“Hey, get out of the street — let’s go!” yelled an unidentified officer — sporting an Army-style helmet, full fatigues and an automatic rifle slung over his shoulder. “Get outta the street! Go home! Go home!”

Then, minutes after 2 a.m., a single gunshot rang out near 14th Street.

Panic briefly swept through the crowd as people darted in different directions. Sirens from multiple police cruisers and emergency vehicles offered a disjointed and cacophonous wail.

Nobody was injured by gunfire.

The chaos subsided as dozens of Pittsburgh police officers, for at least the second consecutive weekend, formed a riot line stretching across East Carson Street to control the crowds. As Commander Jeff Abraham and Pittsburgh City Councilman Bob Charland, wearing a bulletproof vest, looked on, cops pushed the crowds out of the neighborhood.

“We’ve made some really positive incremental changes but, just like a diet, you can backslide a bit,” Charland told TribLive on Monday morning.

“But, if you compare what’s going on now to 2020 through 2022, it’s a different ballgame,” he added. “We’ve just got to keep working on it. It’s a continuing work in progress.”

Pittsburgh police Monday said officers this past weekend made nine arrests in South Side’s entertainment district, which they started patrolling aggressively in 2023. They also made 17 traffic stops and handed out 26 non-traffic citations, many for carrying open containers of alcohol in public or smoking marijuana.

Pittsburgh police Monday said the bureau is working with Charland and others to stunt rowdiness on South Side.

Those efforts include working with Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. to target bars that serve underage drinkers — and plans to close some local businesses before bars let out for the night.

“If persistent disorderly acts continue to occur leading up to bar break at 2 a.m., then police will close East Carson Street and immediately begin to disperse any unlawfully assembled individuals,” the bureau said in a statement.

A year after crime on the South Side appeared to be trending downward, several people — from elected leaders to area business owners — told TribLive the tone so far this summer concerns them about the progress East Carson Street recently has made.

On Saturday, shortly before midnight, Charland trekked down to East Carson Street, whose bars, clubs and other businesses fall in his council district.

A week earlier — as Saturday bled into early Sunday — Pittsburgh police radioed out an “all-call” to bring in backup from surrounding municipalities.

About a half-dozen police forces, including Monroeville, Etna and Shaler, sent officers to the scene. Those departments did not respond to South Side this Saturday or Sunday.

But at least two officers, armed and in full fatigues, patrolled the block at closing time. Officials from the city, county and state police were unable to identify those men on Monday.

A drop in crime

Despite the appearance of a recent uptick, reported crime in South Side has dropped slightly week to week, police said. That is in line with an overall decline this year.

Between June 18 and 22, police made eight arrests and issued 31 non-traffic citations, the bureau reported last week. Police stopped seven vehicles. They seized four guns.

Fewer incidents have been reported in South Side’s entertainment district this June than this time last year, according to Pittsburgh police data.

In June, police made 35 traffic stops, compared to 70 in June 2024, the data shows. Traffic and non-traffic citations, parking citations and the number of tows also are down.

Only arrests have increased — 34 this June, up from 27 in June 2024.

“I was expecting to see more — and that was the case Saturday until the night got really serious,” Charland said Monday.

‘We’ve still got other problems’

Police union leadership was concerned Monday with staffing.

The head of Fraternal Order of Police No. 1, the union representing most of the police bureau’s rank-and-file, worries the bureau is focusing too much attention on — and sending too many on-duty police officers to — South Side.

“They pulled every cop from night-turn down there this weekend — there was no one else on in the city,” union president Robert Swartzwelder told TribLive.

“The city doesn’t have a strategy to manage a major incident in one zone,” Swartzwelder added. “A fire, a shooting, maybe a bad car accident where you’ve got to shut down multiple roads. They’re all on the South Side. But we’ve still got other problems.”

Pittsburgh police didn’t respond when asked how many officers were on-duty on East Carson Street over the weekend — or how many were patrolling the rest of the city at that time.

The recent rowdiness on South Side is affecting businesses, several people told TribLive.

At first glance, business owners said the area looks like it is flourishing. But the hundreds of people seen walking the streets is deceiving, some said.

“I think there is a narrative that people are busy,” said Jimmy Hoffman, who owns Mario’s South Side on East Carson. “But our business is hurting more than ever.”

During the summer months, business owners say they are seeing an increase in activity — it’s just not entering their establishments. On recent weekends, the most heavily attended venue in the South Side has been East Carson Street itself, Hoffman and others said.

Christie Miller owns two South Side businesses, Twelve Whiskey Barbeque and Doce Taqueria. She said that while police have been doing a good job pushing people out of the area at the end of the night, she doesn’t know what else could be done to stop youths from filling the streets.

“They’re not here doing anything wrong. They just don’t belong here,” she said.

Charland, however, maintains South Side is continuing to ride the improving trend the neighborhood first witnessed after the pandemic ended.

About six new businesses — all of them restaurants or retail shops — signed leases in South Side in the past three months, Charland said. One, a salon, held a ribbon-cutting last weekend.

Miller said the narrative that South Side is unsafe contributes to people not wanting to visit. But she feels her businesses have been successful.

“It’s frustrating that one instance makes people not want to come,” she said.

A total of 18 bars and liquor establishments were operating, as of Sunday, on East Carson Street between 10th and 19th streets, police spokeswoman Emily Bourne said.

As of Monday, there were 22 active liquor licenses for restaurants and breweries on that stretch of Carson, according to state Liquor Control Board data. That’s about half of the 50 active licenses, up from 44 last year, on the entire length of the road.

“When bars close, the district should close,” South Side community activist Don Berman told TribLive.

Charland, though, maintains that a curfew for minors on South Side is “unfeasible,” in part because the police force lacks the manpower to accompany each minor away from the area.

The councilman does want businesses open in the entertainment district past 2 a.m. on weekend evenings to shut down after the bars’ last calls. Those six to eight businesses include vape shops, restaurants like Cambod-Ican Kitchen and La Bodega, and pizzerias such as Sal’s and Giovanni’s.

“I want all of them closed by 2 o’clock,” Charland said. “No one should be in their establishments at 2:01.”

Megan Trotter is a TribLive staff writer. She can be reached at mtrotter@triblive.com. Justin Vellucci is a TribLive staff writer. He can be reached at jvellucci@triblive.com.