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A stabbing, intoxicated underage girls, secretive nightclub managers, and a sausage vendor conveniently located in the shadow of a blood-stained parking garage have come together in a strange tale. Although this might sound like the plot of a 99-cent mystery novel, such elements actually make up the story behind the new restrictions Boston has placed on clubgoers throughout the city.

Last New Year’s Eve weekend, Boston began enforcing a ban prohibiting those under the age of 21 from attending clubs after 11 p.m., essentially limiting the club scene to the over-21 crowd.

A CIVIC RESPONSE

Safety concerns may have triggered City Hall’s restrictions, particularly one event three months ago at the Avalon, a nightclub on Lansdowne Street next to Fenway Park. On Nov. 26, 2006, bouncer Craig Vierra was stabbed by a 20-year-old man and later died in the hospital.

“You know they did all this [the new restrictions] because a friend of mine got stabbed,” says Erich J. Lamb, who spends many nights a week standing in the area between the row of clubs and a nearby parking garage. Lamb passes time getting to know clubbers and bouncers while standing behind a cart emblazoned with the words “Italian Sausage Vendor” and catering to the needs of clubgoers late into the night.

According to Lamb, in the early morning of Nov. 26, Vierra had been working at the Avalon when a fight broke out inside. A 20-year-old man identified by the Boston Globe as Oscar Rosa was asked to leave.

After exiting the club, Rosa went into a nearby parking garage, retrieved a knife, and proceeded to stab Vierra in the liver. The Globe states that police chased Rosa after he fled the scene, and that he was charged with assault and battery. Twelve days later, Vierra passed away, and Rosa’s charges were upgraded to murder.

Less than a month later, City Hall put the new ban into effect.

Vierra used to frequent Lamb’s stand, and many bouncers still do, giving him an insight into their responses to the stabbing.

“The other bouncers are a little worried,” Lamb says, “but they’re cautious [about this type of thing happening again].”

Lamb and his partner, Paul M. Chaves, have conflicting opinions on the fairness of the new ban.

“I think they [the restrictions] are good,” says Chaves. “They keep kids out of trouble. You see a lot of young kids [that are trying to get into clubs] sent right back.”

But Lamb says he believes that the restrictions are outrageous, saying that he hasn’t seen a change in safety issues. Instead, he says, he’s seen many people become irate because they’ve been sent away.

A MIXED RECEPTION

Jennifer Mehigan, a spokeswoman for City Hall, says that the restrictions are in the best interest of the city at this point.

“There were some public safety concerns in the clubs that had under-21 events,” she says. “Public safety is the number one concern of the city.”

According to Mehigan, there was a correlation between unsafe activity in the city and the presence of a younger clubgoing crowd.

“These [public safety issues] happened to occur on nights when these [18-and-over] events were taking place,” she says.

The new restrictions have created a divide among Boston-area residents. Some club managers and older clubgoers applaud the Mayor for his attention to public safety, but other club staff and many students, like Alexander W. Doubet ’10 wonder whether the city should have examined the situation more closely before passing the law.

“After all,” Doubet says, “correlation does not equal causation.”

The Roxy, in downtown Boston, is just one of the many clubs that have been affected by the change. Views on the new ban depend on whom is asked.

“The city did night clubs and kids a favor,” says George M. Kaleva, co-manager of the Roxy, which has an upstairs level for those 21 and over and a downstairs previously for those that were 18-plus. According to him, even though people under 21 are not legally permitted to drink either at the clubs or elsewhere, alcohol consumption is still the major issue in that age group.

“If you’re underage, you will find a way to get a drink,” he says. “If we catch [underage people] drinking, then we throw them out, but it still puts our liquor license at risk. And if you’re 21 and have a few cocktails in you, you’re closer to acting like an adult.”

According to Kaleva, the Roxy could not previously deal with the issue by simply making the club 21 and over because of competition between nightclubs in the Boston area. If his club had raised its age cutoff and other clubs had not, the Roxy would have lost business.

“I’d like it to stay just the way it is,” he says of the new restrictions.

Just downstairs from his office, though, a bouncer for the club has a different take. Carl L. Anderson says that college students are key to keeping businesses up.

“The night that they enforced the 21-and-over rule, the club downstairs was only about halfway full,” Anderson says.

Clubs depend on a number of different strategies to lure prospective clubbers in, among them the allure of younger members of the opposite sex. Previously, clubs such as the Roxy had hosted nights where the age restrictions were 21 and over for males but 18 and over for females.

“When I was 21, I wanted an 18-year-old girl,” Anderson says, explaining why some business from men 21 or older has been lost. “Some club owners are going nuts from this, because they make a ton of money from [18- to 20-year-olds]. And [younger crowds] act wild, but they just want to have fun. They aren’t looking for trouble. People that are 25, 26 are just old teenagers and want to start trouble. There’s excitement just for the 18-year-old to be here. You’re 25, 26, you say ‘I’m here. Now what?’”

“Now what?” is exactly the question a group of 19-year-old Wellesley students were asking themselves two-and-a-half miles away last Saturday night.

“It’s bad,” N. Claire Toma quickly offers of the new restrictions while standing in front of the Avalon. Her friend Tiffany J. Woo agrees.

“It sucks,” Woo says. “They should just check our IDs at the bar. This just encourages people to get fake ones.”

Clubgoer Maren F. Difonzo favors the ban.

“I agree with [the restrictions],” she says. “I’m 23. I don’t want little kids playing with me. There isn’t any drama anymore if someone accidentally spills someone else’s drink,” she says while enjoying a drink and a cigarette outside the club Embassy.

MUSICAL DISHARMONY

The new law doesn’t only affect the party scene. Those under 21 are also barred from attending concerts and musical events at music venues.

“I personally know bands that don’t want to play 21-plus shows, so they would go play in Lowell and other places that you would have to take the commuter rail to get to,” says Natalie C. Jacoby ’10, a frequent concert-goer. “Unless they have some ridiculous statistic saying that 18 and over shows are more dangerous, this just doesn’t make sense.”

Mehigan, the City Hall spokeswoman, says that clubs with musical performances can seek prior approval from City Hall to have audiences under 21 after 11 p.m.

Even so, Shirley L. Hufstedler ’07, a disc jockey for WHRB’s Record Hospital and outgoing president for the Harvard College Alliance of Rock and Roll, says she feels that these restrictive measures have a significant negative impact on the music scene and other communities that frequent 18-plus venues in Boston.

“City officials have cited safety as their main motivator in creating this policy. However, it seems like a drastic means to an end,” she writes in an e-mail. “This decision has the potential to be seriously detrimental to both music culture in the area and to youth culture in the area.”

Furthermore, Hufstedler asserts, those most affected by the law are often powerless to do anything about it.

“The population this restriction targets is often not Boston or Massachusetts residents,” she writes, “and, therefore, often doesn’t have the power of the vote to influence city legislators, nor are they traditionally the group with the greatest assets to influence the decision.”

AN IMPERMANENT SOLUTION

The future of the restrictions is still unknown. According to Mehigan, they are intended as a temporary means to combat the city’s public safety concerns.

“This is meant to be temporary,” she says. “The city is not looking to hurt any of these businesses.”

She says that the clubs, police department, and City Hall are working together to create an alternative solution. But at least one police officer says he is thankful for the change and would like to see it stay.

“We have enough trouble with the 21-plus crowd,” he says, speaking on terms of anonymity due to law enforcement confidentiality regulations. “It’s not wise to mix the two [age groups].”

The officer says that since the restrictions have been in place, the overall atmosphere has been better, attributing some prior problems to the fact that it is difficult to monitor the situation inside the clubs.

“The city’s trying to get a grip on things,” he says. “A lot of times the bouncers take it outside and it would be best if they let us handle it from the door.”

At least for now, the officer has his way. Until further notice, the 18 to 21-year-olds within the city limits will have to find places to go that are more age appropriate—by the city’s standards, that is.

As Anderson puts it, “They tell you when you’re 18, you’re an adult. But you’re only an adult ‘til 11.”

—Staff writer Alexander B. Cohn can be reached at abcohn@fas.harvard.edu.