Memphis’ iconic Beale Street will no longer charge visitors the $10 cover charge to walk on to Beale Street after 11 p.m. on Saturday nights.
The cover charge was imposed back in early August when police found a man unconscious and bleeding from the head while a crowd of people stood by watching rather than helping the badly battered victim.
“The cover charge was a knee jerk reaction to slow down the crowd and reduce a decade long problem,” president of the Beale Street Merchants Association Ty Agee said.
The decade long problem Agee is referring to is the crime rate that occurs during Saturday nights on Beale Street during peak hours, starting at 11 p.m. and going well into early Sunday mornings.
During those peak hours, Beale Street can have up to 10,000 people flow through it—which is “too many people,” according to Agee.
Since the cover charge was implemented, Agee said, “Crime has dropped 52 percent since last year.”
The pressure to lift the $10 cover charge came from the Memphis City Council.
Memphis City Councilman Harold B. Collins believes the cover charge was discriminatory and illegal and should have been brought to the city council before being implemented.
“Beale Street is an international street that belongs to the people of the world,” Collins said. “If it is about security issues, we have the best police department in the country.”
To Collins, implementing a cover charge takes away the chance to experience the rich and diverse culture downtown Memphis has to offer to people who cannot afford to pay $10, such as university students.
“Beale Street should be free to students with limited resources,” Collins said. Another concern regarding the cover charge is whether or not it has taken business away from popular bars on Beale Street.
27-year-old Eric Yoder, a server at B.B. Kings Blues Club, believes the cover charge was ultimately a good thing and that business remained the same during those peak hours.
“The only thing that has changed is the amount of people on the street, which has only led to a decrease of incidents on Beale Street and allows police the space to respond in a timely manner,” Yoder said.
Yoder shared his experiences on Beale Street before the cover charge was implemented.
“There have been countless times when I have gotten off of work at 2 only to be elbow to elbow with 2,000 other individuals and this overwhelming number of people on such a small street is a recipe for incidents to happen,” Yoder said.
Since the cover charge was only a temporary solution, the Beale Street Merchants Association has future plans that might help control the crowd, such as selling wrist bands on certain nights, and something Agee called “A BealeStreet Buck” that will give Beale Street patrons something of value back in return.
