ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Neighbors and business owners say they’re frustrated, and some say they’ll be packing up, after another weekend incident in the parking lot of West Ridge Plaza near the Rochester-Greece line.
One man was shot, and a woman was assaulted. Some feel not enough is being done to stop it.
“Disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, reckless driving,” were some of the offenses Mike McBride read from a list he wrote early Monday. “City curfews aren’t being honored, and the city noise ordinance, down the drain.”
McBride is a local Neighborhood Watch member who lives a few blocks from the plaza. He says the noisy large gatherings are a Sunday night ritual. And he’s sick of it.
“There's no arrests, no tickets,” said McBride, of the dozens of cars and people who blast loud music, spin their wheels, and race around the parking lot. “They do whatever they want, and they get away with it. Total anarchy, total chaos, no respect for the law.”
A video taken early Sunday night shows a police car approaching one gathering. Neighbors say police chase the group away, only to have them move to other locations, before circling back. A few hours later, a 22-year-old man was shot multiple times in the lower body. A woman who police say confronted the disorderly group while recording them had gasoline and oil poured on her.
“Of course I worry about it,” said Keith Murray, another neighbor who’s lived in the area for more than four decades. “What that lady did was what everybody wants to do. She just had the guts to do it. She came up here to complain. Everybody wants to do that, and say get the heck out of here.”
Business owners are also frustrated. Matt Reis owns Bathtub Billy’s, a longtime bar and restaurant. He says the chaos has been going on at least for the six years he’s owned the business.
“It’s just time for the landlord or somebody to step up and do something,” said Reis.
After pouring thousands of dollars into renovations and improvements at his bar and restaurant, Reis is looking to move.
“We had a five year option coming up to renew our lease, and we planned on doing it,” he said. “But at this point you can’t. It's just, getting worse and worse as it goes.”
McBride says he gets a lot of calls from neighbors, who also call police. But still, the large gatherings continue.
“911 is as good as dead number,” said McBride. “The RPD does a circle in a parking lot, leaves, these guys know that you get away with it, back they come.”
Rochester police tell Spectrum News they’re working with the owner of West Ridge Plaza to address the latest incidents there, and to keep large crowds from gathering. A police spokesperson says police are frustrated, too.
McBride, who referred to the group as “punks” and “low-lifers,” says more needs to be done, before someone is killed.
“This is only gonna get worse,” he said.