ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - St. Louis police Large crowds, shots fired, racing and cruising vehicles all added to a chaotic Saturday night and Sunday morning along Washington Avenue in downtown St. Louis.
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Les Sterman a resident and member of Citizens for Greater Downtown St. Louis retweeted out a video of people jumping and dancing on a police car.
KMOX asked Sterman what action his group will take to combat this late night problem. Sterman says "there are a number of things that need to be done, we've been advocating for this all along, and the City needs to be much more focused upon how they grant liquor licenses, how it deals with problem properties that the cause of a lot of issues Downtown."
Sterman says law enforcement has to be part of that conversation. "We have to deal with the things that cause the disruptions and everybody needs to be working together. We have been focused on Community Improvement District Downtown which has been largely passive in dealing with issues that we are seeing now."
Sterman says "the City government is the regulatory authority, it's law enforcement, it's civic groups, everybody needs to be on the same page and we need to have a real strategy for Downtown and we haven't up to now. We just assume that Downtown will take care of itself, and it just doesn't. We've really suffered through the pandemic, I think a lot of people thought it would get better by itself and the pandemic is over, but actually the opposite seems to be."
Sterman is also concerned about the public health implications that were apparent over the weekend, hundreds of people yelling, screaming, not wearing masks or social distancing.
KMOX reached out to St. Louis Police and Downtown Alderman Jack Coatar, but our calls were never returned.
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