Philly set 11 p.m. curfews for nuisance businesses months ago. Citations so far: zero

Philadelphia lawmakers say they’re waging war against late-night nuisance businesses.

City Council passed a law in March that would require smoke shops, takeout restaurants, and bodegas in part of Kensington to be closed between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Similar legislation passed in June covering three other districts across the city.

But nearly half a year after the Kensington curfew passed, the city says it has not issued a single citation for violations of the new rules.

A spokesperson for the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I), said last month that the department was working with the Philadelphia Police Department to enforce the curfew. Both agencies acknowledged that enforcement had yet to begin.

Last week, Joe Grace, a spokesperson for Mayor Cherelle L. Parker — who ran for office in part on tackling neighborhood quality-of-life issues — said the administration was supportive of the strategy of cracking down on convenience stores, vape shops, and other small businesses that some residents say attract crime in the early morning hours.

But he acknowledged that the city was still creating and distributing “educational materials” to advise store owners of the new rules.

“The priority is ensuring laws are implemented effectively, not hastily,” he said. “It would be unfair if the city began citing businesses before educating [store owners].”

Grace noted that the city had been sued in the past over aggressive business enforcement, but pledged that the city would begin enforcing the curfews “in the coming weeks.”

Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, whose district includes much of Kensington, also said the police department required months to write a new directive allowing officers to enforce the ordinance, rather than waiting for L&I to take action.

Lozada’s office helped create a list of late-night businesses that residents have cited as trouble spots, and said she is committed to making the curfew work.

“We’ve been watching who continues to operate, and we know who the bad actors are,” she said. “We’re ready to go.”

City Council’s curfew plans emerged in response to waves of so-called nuisance businesses opening across the city, many of which openly flouted permitting rules. These include unlicensed smoke shops opening under grocery store licenses, 24-hour convenience stores lacking late-night operation permits, and other businesses exploiting Pennsylvania’s unregulated “skill games.” Many establishments targeted by the legislation feature slot-like casino games that attract casual gamblers around the clock — to the annoyance of civic groups.

The rise of ‘mini-casinos’

“The thing that drove that whole curfew was those businesses with skill games, aside from the drug dealing and all that nonsense that goes on,” said Rolando Sánchez, business improvement district manager for the Kensington-based Impact Services, a community development nonprofit. “They’re mini casinos.”

Despite high levels of political interest in cracking down on quality-of-life issues, the city has long struggled to enforce new regulations.

L&I has faced a critical inspector shortage, with few inspectors working the overnight shift to cite scofflaws. The agency has historically been reluctant to invest the resources to take habitual offenders to civil court.

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In March, Lozada secured passage of a bill that imposed an 11 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew on businesses that did not already have a 24-hour permit, or a liquor license. In May, three other Council members introduced legislation to add additional curfews to other areas of the city. Under these rules, beat cops working the graveyard shift would, in theory, be able to issue violations if they saw a business flouting the new curfew.

“Residents don’t want what happened in Kensington and some other areas of the city to happen in our area,” Councilmember Anthony Phillips said in May. “This bill sends a clear message that in our neighborhood we’re not going to tolerate any level of disruption.”

Many corner gambling parlors are clustered in areas already dealing with vice crime, such as Kensington Avenue, spurring residents to complain that operators were fueling or benefiting from criminal activity.

Although the city has attempted to ban skill games locally, state lawmakers and gaming industry leaders are currently waging a legal battle over the future of the untaxed and unregulated gambling machines, which have proliferated across the commonwealth.

Yet Sánchez said that even if the state machines are legalized and regulated, he hopes the curfew stays in place so the machines can’t draw large after-hours crowds. On Kensington Avenue, many businesses are still operating late into the night, as if nothing had changed.

“The complaints aren’t gonna stop till the job gets done,” Sánchez said.