Rochester, N.Y. – Twenty-four hours after a brawl broke out in Charlotte, families and young people soaked in the sun around Ontario Beach Park.
There appeared to be a police officer at every turn and no scuffle to be found.
Meanwhile, at nearby restaurants, people sat overlooking the water as they sipped a beer or soda.
Still, business owners do foresee a drop-off in foot traffic following the disturbance on Memorial Day.
"Of course, it is a little bit," said Lee Selover, the owner of Windjammers Bar & Grill. "I hope we can get some police down here full time, not just eight hours a day or three hours a day or whenever they want to do it."
Eugene Cleveland, who was sauntering through the park with his nephew, doesn’t think the outburst will keep families from the area.
"This is a very popular beach," he said. "They might be a little wary, but people will show up to this beach especially on a hot day like this."
Meanwhile, the Rochester chapter of the NAACP is calling for a community meeting to sketch out plans to quickly react to future disturbances.
"That may mean calling RTS buses in right away to get (the young people) home as soon as possible," said Edward Goolsby, president of the local chapter.
To Eric Glenn, who witnessed the melee, the answer is simple: give young people more places to go.
"Don’t give us one option, we have no place to go," he said. "Seabreeze was closed down; it’s hard to get way out to Darien Lake and pay $50 a ticket, so give us more than one option."
City councilman Adam McFadden says the ultimate solution relies on parents and the community quashing what he calls the gang culture.
"The harsh reality is--it exists here, and what we saw at the beach is what we’ve been seeing in many of our neighborhoods, it’s just that people who normally don’t see that got to witness it personally," McFadden said.
