The severe beating of Seattle Seahawks player Ken Hamlin outside a Pioneer Square nightclub comes on the heels of a city review of public-safety issues in areas where such businesses proliferate.

Meanwhile, a Pioneer Square business owner and a community official say the nightclub where the fight involving Hamlin started early Monday is one of the area's problem spots. The club's owner says it is being unfairly targeted.

A "joint assessment team," composed primarily of various city departments, sought to figure out how agencies other than police could help address public-safety issues at dozens of businesses within the Seattle Police Department's West Precinct, which includes Pioneer Square, Belltown and Queen Anne.

The team's report, which could become public as soon as Friday, is based on a series of weekend visits to 85 nightclubs, bars and restaurants over a seven-week period during the summer.

While some hope the report could be a first step in addressing problems that crop up within the area, including violence, others are skeptical, calling the still-unreleased report late, off the mark and superficial.

Nick Licata, chair of the Seattle City Council's public safety committee, said he approached the mayor's office a year ago about forming a "committee to look at late-night entertainment in the city."

The idea, he said, was to form an advisory group, including businesses and patrons, "to talk about how they can all get along," in addition to establishing enforcement measures that could lead to shutting down businesses that prove troublesome.

But Licata said the resulting effort, in addition to being late, fails to address ways the city can deal with businesses cause problems.

He said the joint assessment team instead has focused its efforts on relatively minor violations, an effort he called "enforcement on steroids for the weekend."

Last month, during an update before Licata's committee, officials from the mayor's office and Seattle police presented a list of the types of violations noted during the weekend of July 8 and 9. Among them: Some clubs failed to display business licenses, and the Fire Department identified locked or blocked emergency exits.

Licata faulted the mayor's office for failing to adopt a systematic approach to resolve conflicts between residents and businesses.

Jordan Royer, Mayor Greg Nickels' public safety adviser, said he wouldn't respond to Licata's claim that the mayor's office was slow, calling that "a perception thing." As for Licata's contention that the administration lacked a solid approach, Royer said, "If people want to take shots, that's fine. We want to solve the problem."

Steve Crosier, general manager of Doc Maynard's in Pioneer Square, which was visited by the city inspection team, said he was faulted for not having a permit for table candles.

"When the real problem," Crosier contended, "is a few clubs bringing us all down."

Crosier and Cliff Montgomery, executive director of the Pioneer Square Community Association, took specific aim at Larry's Nightclub, where the fight that landed Seahawks free safety Hamlin in the hospital started. In addition, a verbal dispute just outside Larry's Nightclub on July 31 prompted a videotaped beating about a block away from the club.

"I continue to see problems with a certain nightclub, which is Larry's Nightclub, and their patrons getting into fights in the public realm, and these fights turn violent and cause bodily injury, and negatively affects Pioneer Square overall," Montgomery said.

Larry's owner, Larry Culp, contends his club is being targeted for criticism by its neighbors and enforcement by police "because it is friendly toward what I guess you could call an 'urban' clientele. ... We've had so much notoriety because much of the people who come here are black and we play hip-hop," he said.

"It's true we might have a few bad actors," Culp added. "But when they're in my club, they don't act badly."

Seattle police maintain Pioneer Square is a relatively safe neighborhood, as they did during the summer following the assault caught on videotape. That case remains under investigation.

Yesterday, Seattle Police Sgt. Deanna Nollette said the existing public perception "is being shaped by two high-profile incidents," referring to the videotaped beating and the Hamlin incident.

"That's not a realistic overview of the town of Pioneer Square," she said. "I'd say that Pioneer Square is a safe venue."

The census tract in which Pioneer Square is located has produced by far the most incidents garnering police attention this year, according to statistics posted to the Seattle Police Department's Web site.

For the first eight months of 2005, there were a total of 2,510 incidents. The tract with the second-highest number of incidents, also in the West Precinct and hugging the waterfront to the north, had 1,052 incidents.

The one-word explanation, according to Nollette, is "density," referring to the crowds that gather for sporting events at nearby stadiums, for late-night entertainment and also because of the heavy concentration of social-service agencies in the downtown core.

Tina Bueche, a longtime Pioneer Square businesswoman, resident and activist, said she believes the area is safe, but needs more police officers to deter periodic problems.

"Stupid people do stupid things, fueled by alcohol," said Bueche, a clothing-store owner who previously ran a tavern and a diner in the area. "That's true everyplace in the world."

Seattle Times staff reporters Mike Carter and Steve Miletich contributed to this report.

Peter Lewis: 206-464-2217 or plewis@seattletimes.com