A roving task force will flood a three-block stretch of North Beach this weekend to crack down on the venues and partyers that some say are running the neighborhood and scaring away tourists.

Responding to concerns about violence, noise and public drunkenness, the task force will descend upon a 250-foot corridor of Broadway that packs 15 alcohol-serving establishments. The stretch of dance clubs, pubs and strip clubs — with collective capacity for more than 2,600 people — attracts partyers from all over the Bay Area.

Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, North Beach’s district representative, said the rowdy foot traffic was mostly generated by dance clubs — particularly in front of the area’s largest dance club, the Zebra Lounge.

On its Web site, the club boasts it has the largest dance floor in North Beach and a sound system that “pummels over 10,000 watts” of music.

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“There might be an element of folks who come down there for the adult entertainment,” Peskin said, “but it’s in front of the dance clubs where you have 300 people on the street, one person bumps into another person, and then, boom, out comes a knife.”

North Beach residents and business owners said while in the past they have tolerated noise and fights, the aggression has escalated, pointing to a recent stabbing and shooting. They also pointed to rowdy “party trolleys” that dump drunk partyers off at bars that will serve them more alcohol.

In preparation for the weekend crackdown, a North Beach task force meeting was held on Thursday at City Hall that brought together law enforcement, members of the Entertainment Commission, community activists and representatives from several city agencies. Random spot-checks will begin during the busiest hours of Friday and Saturday nights, with the task force searching for overcrowding, illegal noise levels, liquor law violations and other offenses.

Entertainment Commission President Jordan Shlain said problems with North Beach partyers has been slowly getting worse over the years, which is why the Entertainment Commission called for the interdepartmental task force.

“The tourists don’t want to go there anymore,” Shlain said. “We want to make North Beach the vibrant place that it once was, not the thug haven it’s become.”

San Francisco Police Department Capt. James Dudley said due to a shortage of resources and police officers citywide, there is “minimum staffing” — one sergeant and 10 officers — in the North Beach area on weekends.

Shlain said he was confident that the oversight group could convince the clubs to collectively support paying for two or more off-duty officers, who would be paid overtime for the extra North Beach shift.

beslinger@examiner.com