Rink slips on crowd issues City wants it to step up efforts at closing time

Rink slips on crowd issues
City wants it to step up efforts at closing time

By Donna Goodison | Tuesday, October 12, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets

Photo by Mark Garfinkel

Dorchester’s Chez Vous roller rink has been considered a haven for Boston teens looking for a fun night out, but a city official fears street fights that erupt when 100 to 300 kids leave at closing time could devolve into a much more serious incident.

The city’s Licensing Board called in Chez Vous owner Greer Toney for a hearing last week for allegedly failing to control the crowd leaving the rink after Boston police reported an August fight around the corner that’s said not to be an isolated incident.

“Fundamentally, I believe (the rink) is a healthy outlet, and this is something that warrants the attention of everybody - from the owner, the people who run it, as well as the Boston police, the MBTA police and the (BPD’s) Safe Streets initiative,” acting Licensing Board chairman Michael Connolly said.

But he added: “It potentially has the ability to blow up on us. I just want to hopefully defuse a potentially dangerous situation.”

Connolly and fellow board member Suzanne Iannella are deadlocked about how to handle the incident and another alleged violation in which an emergency exit at the rink was bolted closed. Iannella wants to cite Chez Vous, and Connolly wants the police - District B-3 is located across a parking lot from the 78-year-old rink - to work with Toney to address the problem.

Toney could not be reached for comment, and Boston police officials did not respond to Herald inquiries.

Part of a potential solution may be an earlier closing time for Chez Vous - 11 p.m. perhaps instead of 11:45 p.m., according to Connolly.

“What happens is a substantial number (of the kids leaving Chez Vous) get on MBTA buses and go back to their homes,” said Connolly, who met with police officials twice last week about the issue.

“Others will start to head home on foot, and they’ll end up two or three blocks away from the Chez Vous and a fight will break out between two groups of teenagers, he said. “There is a problem here. It’s not an isolated incident.”

The last time there was a major problem at Chez Vous was five years ago, when a 15-year-old was stabbed in the thigh during a fight inside the rink.

Chez Vous beefed up security following two horrific incidents in 1994. Hooded gunmen opened fire in the rink and injured seven teens and, months later, a collision of two skaters resulted in a fatal stabbing of an 18-year-old outside the rink.

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