Underage, overindulgent teens drawn to N.Y. clubs

The velvet rope outside one of Manhattan's trendiest nightclubs was but a gateway for Michael, a 19-year-old from Long Island. Followed by his four male friends, all 19 or 20, he sashayed past a stagnant line of 50 people waiting outside Mood NY during the early morning hours Saturday. From a pocket inside his black sports jacket, he pulled out his Bank of America credit card and whispered to the bouncer that he planned to buy a $300 bottle of Grey Goose vodka once inside.

Like that, the cavernous nightclub's doors opened, releasing a scalp-tingling belch of hip-hop music onto East 28th Street, one of several blocks in lower Manhattan that have become meccas for teenagers from North Jersey and other suburbs seeking the thrills of grown-up, big-city nightlife. "When I go out, this is my identification," Michael said later, holding up his credit card and describing what has become a weekend ritual for his teenage friends, who requested that their last names be withheld.

Michael and other young club-goers interviewed Friday night and early Saturday said most suburban teenagers know well the secrets of passage into Manhattan's freewheeling mega-nightclubs: Have money. Look sexy. Or know someone. As might be expected, the perils of being underage and overindulgent are not as widely acknowledged by teenagers. Serving as a chilling reminder last week was the beating, rape and murder of a Harrington Park 18-year-old, whose night began with a booze binge in an exclusive West Side Manhattan club Tuesday night. The murder also raised questions about how strictly Manhattan clubs enforce age restrictions.

Jennifer Moore was walking down the West Side Highway drunk and alone at around 5 a.m. when she got into a cab with 34-year-old Draymond Coleman of West New York. Minutes earlier, Moore had stumbled away from a nearby impound lot, where an intoxicated friend fainted while arguing with a parking clerk who refused to release their towed car because the girls were too drunk. Police say Coleman took Moore to a Weehawken motel, where he raped her, strangled her and then dumped her body in a trash bin near the building.

Mostly unfazed, club-goers Friday night complained of heightened security and stricter identification checks in the wake of the killing. But many predicted the gruesome murder would not slow what has become a rite of passage for precocious suburban teens. "Clubbing is huge," said Mike Witmer, a 17-year-old from Bernardsville who rode the PATH train with friends into Manhattan on Friday evening. "It's really trendy. The whole point is to be seen." Music, not drinking, was on the agenda Friday night, they said. Mike and his friend Eva Jensen, a 16-year-old from Califon in Hunterdon County, were bound for a concert at the Bowery Ballroom with two friends from Westfield, Dan Chabanov and Susannah Page-Katz. But had they been tempted, Susannah said, it would have been easy to find a place to drink, even without an ID.

Another train passenger, Megan Davis, said that rule served her well when she was under 21 and going to bars and clubs in Manhattan. She is 22 now, confident about how attractive she looks on these nights, with long brown hair, heels and a short white miniskirt that barely covered her thighs. "When I went out at 18, I got in everywhere," said Davis, who lives in Summit and works for a fashion company in Rochelle Park. "It depends on how you look and what you're wearing."

Hoboken's PATH station is a conduit for young people bound for New York. Several PATH conductors complained that kids are often drunk by the time they arrive, fresh from drinking on NJ Transit's commuter trains, which permit passengers to consume alcohol. They yell at one another, and fumble to put their tickets into the turnstile's reader. A PATH station official shook his head at the mention of kids running onto trains bound for binge drinking in the city. "They are totally undisciplined," said the PATH official, who asked not to be named because his employer does not allow workers to be interviewed without permission. "It's nothing you can control, because New York City is the magnet."

Friday night, the section of Chelsea around the ultra-posh Guest House, where Jennifer Moore went with friends Tuesday night, looked like the Las Vegas strip plopped down among the metal shops, parking lots and warehouses of the city's underused far West Side. Police put up metal blockades, stopping traffic from turning onto 27th and 28th streets. An officer said this was common practice on weekends to ensure the safety of the crowds that gather outside the clubs. By midnight, the streets were filled with high-heeled young women walking in slight shorts and clingy shirts that could pass for bikinis. Men wore dark pants and double-cuffed shirts. The line to enter any of the dozens of clubs was a block long. Some people skipped the lines, calling out bouncers by their first names. Others left in frustration.

Outside Marquee on 10th Avenue, one of three women from River Edge estimated that half of the people inside were underage and had gotten in by either showing fake identifications or knowing someone connected to the club. She had come out of the club to smoke a cigarette. She would not give her name but said she was 21. "A lot of times, girls are under age," said the young woman, who was wearing a short white silk miniskirt, a halter top and green eye shadow. "If you come in with people who are promoters, they don't ID you." A promoter had not only allowed her and her friends to jump the line. He had gotten them a cab ride to the club, a table and all the free drinks they wanted, she said. Tuesday night, Moore reportedly got into the Guest House because she knew a deejay there, according to authorities. Others said money or good looks were paramount to getting behind the velvet rope, whether of legal age or not.

A dozen blocks to the south, in the cobblestoned streets of the Meatpacking District, 22-year-old Rita Mariano of Roselle Park said getting into clubs "is not about fake IDs anymore, it's about if you know somebody." Once inside clubs, teenagers have carte blanche, she said. She was speaking from experience. "I started coming when I was 16," she said. "I knew people who ran the clubs," such as China Club, Limelight and Exit. "A lot of underage kids went to those clubs. Everybody was drinking, on drugs and dancing to trance music."

Outside a club with neon lights and pulsing dance music, 22-year-old Ma Savalidze, of Brooklyn said underage kids from New Jersey, often derisively referred to as "bridge and tunnel" by New Yorkers, are among the club's regular clientele. "I was one of those underage girls," she said. "If you dress sexy, it works every time." It was nearly 3:30 a.m. and partyers began emerging from the string of bars and clubs in the Meatpacking District to buy sausages from street vendors and hail cabs. One young man sat on the edge of a sidewalk, hunched over and vomiting. Derek Jeter, the New York Yankees shortstop, left a club and star-struck girls chased him until he ducked into a cab.

Michael, the 19-year-old from Long Island, and his friends were looking for their next stop. They had left their private table at Mood NY a half-hour earlier, the bottle of Grey Goose finished. Tired and tipsy, they argued about whether to take a cab to the train station or pop into another bar in the Meatpacking District. They opted to cut the night short after several of Michael's friends said they had no money, and he decided he had spent enough for one Friday night. Next week would be another matter, though, he said.

You can drink on NJ Transit trains but it's best to do so discretely (ie, keep your beer can in a paper bag).

On the Long Island Railroad and Metro North they actually sell alcohol on the platform!

And of course there is absolutely no smoking!

I spent a lot of time (and money) on Bleeker Street then too. The Peculier Pub and the Bitter End (RIP) were my favorites.

That's where my friends and I spent most of our post-college years hanging out. Loved the Peculiar Pub.

Hung around Mondo Cane, Kenny's Castaways, and The Red Lion the most though. Also used to go to Paddy Reilly's late at night, because Irish reggae/rock/punk/party band would play there until about a quarter to four.

McSorley's was fun in high school. We used to cut school and drag a cooler of beer around Central Park, listening to buskers all afternoon. Then hop in a cab to McSorley's. It got kinda old after high school though. Too many tourists! Best thing about leaving McSorley's though was the dope who hung up a sign that read "No Unnecessary Noise!" outside his building, which caused every single car that drove by to blare it's horn the whole way.

Misguided youth was a lot of fun. Got everybody through it alive, luckily.

"It's no shame to want to go out and have a good time with friends. Alcohol, for better or worse, is part of that for most adults."

I agree. However, looking at my peers, I very rarely see any modicum of common sense on their part. Indeed it is a rarity on the party scene.

I'm not against having a good time--I'm against people using their head and doing it safely and legally. If they can do it while keeping themselves out of trouble, I have no beef with it...8^)

OTOH, I've never seen the point in clubbing, but that's just IMO...

I still say if 18 year olds can fight and die for this country they should be allowed to drink.

I still say if 18 year olds can fight and die for this country they should be allowed to smoke a joint.

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