Not much has changed:

A 17-year-old girl was fatally shot early yesterday at a nightclub crowded with teenagers near the U Street corridor, a rapidly transforming area of the District that has drawn a sometimes volatile mix of young people who flock to the bars and restaurants at night.

The shooting of Taleshia Ford set off a rapid response from city officials. Acting Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier ordered that the club be closed temporarily. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) called for more aggressive policing of underage clubs. And D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) said he would introduce legislation barring minors from nightclubs where alcohol is served.

Ford, a senior at Booker T. Washington Public Charter School, had begged her reluctant mother to let her go with older family members to Smarta/Broadway, also known as Club 1919, at 1919 Ninth St. NW. Although it caters to teenagers, Smarta/Broadway has a license to serve alcohol to adults. On Friday night, a go-go band was playing the rhythmic, percussive dance music that defines the D.C.-based genre.

Ford, a bystander, was shot when a gun brought to the club by another patron went off during a scuffle with a bouncer.

Licencing teen dance clubs to serve alcohol to adults is a terrible idea, especially in this city, since the only adults you’re going to find at a teen dance club are either looking for chicken or looking for trouble. The whole point of having age-based drinking laws is to divide adult spaces from those visited by juveniles.

There ought to be some kind of neighborhood-wide evaluation of the local night clubs, since they’ve been such venues for violence in recent years, before something like this happens again at the next badly run, poorly monitored facility:

Ford’s death marks the fourth killing associated with dance clubs in the U Street area in less than three years. The previous incidents eventually led to clubs being closed permanently. City officials closed Between Friends after a stabbing in 2004, Kili’s Kafe after a patron was shot in 2005 and Club U after a stabbing in 2005. All had operated as restaurants by day and dance clubs after hours.