Carson City Saloon temporarily closes its doors due to recent South Side violence
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A popular sports bar on Pittsburgh's South Side has its lights shut off and its doors closed temporarily because of crime on East Carson Street.
Until further notice, people won't be seen having a good time in Carson City Saloon. Instead, you'll see the doors are locked and a closed sign. The owners said enough is enough, and the bar could be closed until something is done to stop the violence and chaos on Carson.
"It's just getting out of hand, and we don't know what else to do," said Brian Vetere, one of the owners of Carson City Saloon.
Brian Vetere, his brother, and his father opened the three-level sports bar 17 years ago. He said this week, they had to close for the safety of their staff and customers.
"Because it was literally just scary outside. And my staff was always coming in, they were always scared to leave at 2 a.m., we always had security walk them over, but they were still scared to walk and work," Vetere said.
A deadly shooting over the weekend was the last straw. On Sunday at 1 a.m., surveillance video captured police flying down East Carson Street. Pittsburgh police said shots were fired in the 1300 block of Sarah Street, and officers found a man with a gunshot wound near South 13th and Carson. The man later died at the hospital.
About an hour later, in another video, you can see Carson is packed with people running away after loud bangs are heard.
Vetere said they're calling for action from city leaders. He said it would be helpful if more officers were hired to cover the neighborhood.
"I know their recruitment levels are down, and if they could do that, that would be amazing because there's only four to five officers, I was told, patrol the streets on Friday and Saturday nights, and that's not enough, and they can't do their job when they are so undermanned," he said.
He said he thinks it would also be helpful if the city added a curfew for juveniles.
"A huge one would be a curfew, there's so many 12, 13, 14-year-old kids running around the streets of the South Side drinking and smoking weed, not even going into the bars obviously," Vetere said.
Rich Cupka, the owner of Cupka's Cafe 2, is on the board of the South Side Chamber of Commerce. He said they need action over meetings.
"We need police to be proactive and not reactive, and we just need the will of the mayor to do something," Rich Cupka, owner of Cupka's Cafe 2.
Cupka said if the city can't recruit more officers, then they should get assistance from other departments.
"I'm tired of meetings, we've been having meetings for three and half years, over 50 meetings, and nothing is getting done. We need the mayor to do something; we need the county police, the sheriff, we need everybody to come down here and help out because the city is understaffed," Cupka said.
Vetere said business has been drastically down for Carson City Saloon because people are scared to come to the South Side, and now, he's heartbroken for his loyal employees.
"Me having those tough conversations saying, 'I appreciate you, but I would like you to get other jobs because you have to take care of yourself,' and that was really difficult; they're really sticking by us," Vetere said.
"I said, 'Let's just shutter the doors.' It's not worth getting shot over," said Vetere.
KDKA-TV reached out to Mayor Ed Gainey's office for comment and to Pittsburgh Public Safety for comment from the chief.
Don Berman with SouthSideCAN provided a statement in response to the recent violence and its effects on businesses, saying:
"We at the South Side Community Action Network are heartsick about the loss of life from this past weekend as well as with the continuing disturbances our community has been experiencing this summer. For some time, our group has been working with an alliance of residents, business owners, bar operators and property owners to make the South Side a better place to live and work. Our goal is to find out what stakeholders in the community care about enough to act and enable that action by utilizing the assets of the community. Public safety has been a top priority as there has been a lack of control on East Carson Street that really needs to change. We've been working with Zone 3 and the new chief of police to get more resources on East Carson St. earlier to ensure that visitors are held responsible for their actions. We are also working closely with the South Side Hospitality Partnership to set a standard for behavior for businesses and visitors to the district and to hold them accountable for illegal, disorderly, and violent behavior."
