Seattle city leaders are worried that violent incidents surrounding the Seattle nightlife scene are becoming more common.

A shooting at Tommy's on the Ave. and the 2005 Pioneer Square brawl that left Seattle Seahawk Ken Hamlin in the hospital have garnered enough media attention that the City Council is now addressing nightclub violence as a serious problem.

Recently, the Seattle City Council met to debate the Nightlife Ordinance, a set of proposed restrictions developed as an attempt to curb club scene violence. Councilmember Sally J. Clark, chair of the Economic Development and Neighborhoods Committee, and Councilmember Jan Drago proposed the ordinance.

According to the Council's Web site, the ordinance would create a Nightlife Review Board that could mitigate disputes between club owners and residents, as well as a new nightlife enforcement unit that could impose fines on establishments that cause neighborhood problems. The ordinance would also require the city to strengthen its noise and nuisance codes and would impose tightened operating licensing requirements on clubs.

"This package strikes a balance between encouraging the health of Seattle's nightclubs and preserving neighborhood safety and livability," former councilmember Clark said in an official statement Larry Culp, former owner of Larry's, the Pioneer Square bar where the Hamlin incident occurred, thinks the crackdown by the City Council on the Seattle nightlife scene punishes business owners without effectively dealing with the problems.

"Club owners aren't responsible for what happens in the street," Culp said. "We live in an increasingly violent culture. There's too many goddamn guns out there, and that's not a club owner's fault. Of course, alcohol intensifies the problems. So, certainly, these situations are predisposed to be around nightlife; they're not going to happen at the local nursery. But when you've got the City Council and the mayor arguing about lighting and four-feet lap dance restrictions, you've got to examine the head that's wagging the tail here."

Larry's was a popular Pioneer Square establishment for almost 30 years. In recent years, the club gained notoriety as a venue oriented predominantly toward hip-hop, and disputes with residents became more frequent.

The Hamlin incident sparked a media blitz and a mayor's office crackdown. Following a stabbing incident inside Larry's on New Year's Eve 2006, Larry's had its liquor license revoked and was shut down.

"Blaming the club owners [for violence] is sort of like blaming a bank for being robbed," said David Osgood, the attorney who represented Larry's as well as several establishments in the current dispute.

Under the new ordinance, revocations of liquor and operating licenses would be common penalties for establishments that disrupt the peace. Fines for noise complaints would be raised to $6,000, and a new administrative staff would be hired to deal with nighttime issues.

"What I've heard over the course of our work is that people genuinely value Seattle's music and performance scene, want neighborhoods to feel safe and livable and want rules that are clear and enforceable. This package gets us that combination," Clark said in a press release.

Culp does not think these regulations will be effective, and he said they will burden business owners.

"It's very hard to make a profit in this business," he said. "If you have the added burden of constantly looking over your shoulder for people trying to shut you down, there's no room for success or creativity."

Culp thinks answers lie not in regulation but in changing the way Seattle nightlife operates.

"In other cities, clubs can stay open all night," he said. "In Seattle, people come into clubs at eleven or midnight, pound drinks until last call at 1:30, and then they're pushed into the street with nothing to do. Violent incidents are never in the club, they're always outside afterward. So let the clubs stay open until five or six, trickle people out, and people will burn out and go home."

Culp also believes bars need to be able to exercise more control of their own security.

"They need to allow bars to hire private police. The night of the Hamlin incident, when we closed at 1:30, there was not one cop on beat in Pioneer Square. If there was an off-duty cop sitting at the bar all night, they'd think twice about coming back with a gun and shooting someone," Culp said.

Because of concerns about corruption, it is illegal in Seattle for bars to hire off-duty police for private security purposes, but other types of businesses are able to.

"After we were shut down, I took my kids to see a movie, and the theater had a cop hired as private security," Culp said, "I thought it was so ironic that the Oak Tree Cinema could have police to make sure that no one cut in line or stole candy but we can't hire them where we really need them."

Concerns about violence didn't prevent another crowded Saturday night in Belltown last weekend. As usual, lines of club-goers wound up and down the blocks waiting to get into various establishments.

Neil Radheshwar, a 21-year-old college student standing in front of Belltown Billiards, said, "That's part of urban living. It's not going to stop people from going out. It's Saturday night. People are going to want to go where the action is."