UPDATE:
At 3:10pm, we received the following press release from Chief of Police George Kral:
“After further discussion with the parties involved with the Downtown Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA), Toledo Police Chief George Kral has decided to re-instate normal operation of the DORA for Friday night.
The decision to suspend the DORA was made before the ordinance was in effect. However, to this date there have been no negative issues involving the DORA, so we have decided to rescind Friday’s suspension.”
Yesterday (June 28), it was announced that the Downtown Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA) would be suspended for the night of the Robert Easter Jr. fight (this Friday).
We are currently investigating this story. Updates will made made as available.
Last fight
Robert Easter Jr. beat Luis Cruz in a boxing match on February 10 of this year. WTOL reports that “police responded to several fights happening on the streets” after the match.
KC Saint John, manager of the Durty Bird, remembers that night: “We get a lot of the pre-game business, so we had plenty of clientele…. We had no problems, no safety issues… We are a couple blocks away [from the Huntington Center], so we heard about some trouble, but didn’t see any.”
KC said the atmosphere downtown that evening was consistent with other major events, such as Mud Hens and Walleye games, large concerts and the recent WWE Smackdown Live event.
When DORA began on June 15, KC said that the Durty Bird attempted to add a level of security to the restaurant by placing employees at the front and back doors. However: “We found we didn’t need it. We just did it that one day, just in case. We have our staff educated [on DORA rules]. For larger events, we do beef up our staff, but that’s not on a security [concern], that’s just [so we have more employees] across the board [for the high-volume of patrons]. We’re strict about not over-serving. We don’t have to have a security guy at the front or back door.”
Other area bars have been contacted. At press time, we have not received a response.
Deciding DORA
We attempted to contact the Toledo Police Department’s Chief Kral at 10:40am today, June 29. Chief Kral’s secretary told us that he was unavailable for comment at the time of our call, saying that he was speaking with Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson about the decision to temporarily suspend DORA and that “some things might change.”
We attempted to contact Cindy Kerr, Executive Director at Downtown Toledo Improvement District (which performs trash collection, litter control and safety/hospitality services for the DORA), at the same time. She was also unavailable to comment, but we were not told why.
Shortly after, at 12pm, the Toledo Police Department informed us that a statement will be released later in the day.
City Council candidate Sam Melden posted a video on his Facebook at 2pm, saying the decision was “not the best option for everyone.” He questioned whether or not DORA would also be temporarily suspended for other events, like the Fourth of July or St. Patrick’s Day, and added that “if we don’t, it is absolutely exclusionary to one specific group of people… fans [of Robert Easter Jr.] aren’t going to get the same access and same enjoyment of downtown that we want to give to everyone else.”
DORA in other Ohio cities
Five cities in Ohio currently have a designated outdoor refreshment area: Canton, Middletown, Lancaster, Lorain and Toledo. We have contacted each city. So far, we only have a response from Lorain and Canton.
When asked if Lorain has used a blackout day to temporarily suspend the Downtown Outdoor Refreshment Area for a large event, the Mayor’s Assistant, Louise Kilbane said, “No, we’ve never done that. I’m not sure why you would. It’s never even been discussed.”
According to Michael P. GIll, Vice President of Economic Development at the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce, Canton has never used a black out day to temporarily suspend their DORA.
Brawls after big events in downtown Toledo
Earlier this year, an off-duty Bay Village, Ohio, police officer and his brother were assaulted outside of The Blarney (601 Monroe St.) at 2:12am on Sunday, May 7. The Blade reported that the brothers were approached by a group of unknown men and words were exchanged over the Pittsburgh Penguin hockey jerseys worn by the brothers. A fight then ensued and the brothers both landed in the hospital. At 7:35pm on Saturday, May 6, the Toledo Walleye beat Fort Wayne 5-0 during Game 5 in the conference semifinals. The win advanced the team to the Conference Finals of the ECHL Kelly Cup Playoffs. The Blarney is less than two blocks from the Huntington Center.
On early Sunday morning, August 28, 2016, a bar fight outside of the Bronze Boar (20 S. Huron St.) led to the arrests of Mud Hens pitcher Warwick Saupold and two players from the visiting team, Dovydas Neverauskas and infielder Gift Ngoepe of the Indianapolis Indians. The Indianapolis Indians were in Toledo for a three-game series held over the same weekend. The Bronze Boar is less than a block away from Fifth Third Field, where the Mud Hens lost to Indianapolis 2-0 at a 7:05pm home game on Saturday, August 27.
