Park Street has seen them come and seen them go. The Blue Elephant, stripped of its liquor license by the Lewiston City Council, is the latest chapter in the saga of the downtown bar scene.

Years ago, when Lisbon Street was lined with watering holes, the city passed a “density ordinance” to thin the boozy herd. Now the council is more strict; its decision to deny the Blue Elephant’s license renewal should put every barkeep in the city on notice: shape up or ship out.

The Blue Elephant has been in the vortex of the nightlife debate since it gained popularity with patrons last summer, but drew the ire of its elderly neighbors in the adjacent Oak Park Apartments. A resident-led effort to shut the bar down failed in the fall, but the Elephant’s owners’ inability to make the most of its reprieve sealed its fate.

Allowing members of motorcycle clubs to wear colors inside was the last straw, as a recent club-fueled brawl doomed the Blue Elephant.

In October, when debate first raged over the Blue Elephant, Club Adrenalin and the troubles with Oak Park, seasoned observers of the Park Street scene prophesied that, as in the past, this problem will take care of itself. And so it has.

It’s a shame, because downtown needs nightspots. It needs youthful investors such as Aja Stevens-Bell and Ajantha Weerakkody, the Elephant’s owners. Lewiston needs everything the Blue Elephant brought to Park Street, without the ancillary troubles of its clientele, who were described so eloquently during Tuesday’s council meeting as “happy,” “tired,” and “alcohol-infused.” Euphemisms appear to be alive and well, while plain speaking is apparently sleeping off a drunk.

It’s going to take some plain speaking, and plain thinking, for the city to avoid future situations like this. It can’t be in the business of shutting down businesses, as not only are Stevens-Bell and Weerakkody facing ruin, so also is their landlord, who told the council he’s losing his shirt on his investment. And the city can’t lord over entrepreneurs like Gerard Poisson – whose liquor license for the “Double Deuce,” inside the former Rock’n Robins in the Promenade Mall was also approved Tuesday – like magistrates, and issue stern warnings that if your place gets out of hand, we’ll shut you down, too.

Councilors also passed a moratorium Tuesday on new establishments along Park Street. A cooling-off period is warranted, but the city must make the most of this time, and recommend some real solutions to this chronic problem. There’s a new downtown committee; let its members tackle it. Put the planners to work, as well. And maybe dust off the density ordinance – created to solve a past problem – and craft amendments so it can help solve problems of the present.

Bars, and their patrons, are going to make noise, lead to acts of idiocy and cause headaches for police. That’s never going to change. What needs to change, however, is the perception that inalienable truths of management will lead to the city of Lewiston shutting you down.