A local developer says a police officer is threatening to cite
people who dance at cafes or street fairs downtown.
A local developer says a police officer is threatening to cite people who dance at cafes or street fairs downtown. However, the officer dismissed the claim and said police just want to keep the downtown safe and don’t care if a couple people boogie, as long as they keep it low key.
“I’m not on a war path. I’m just going by what the rules say,” said Sgt. Kurt Ashley, who reviews dance hall permits on behalf of the city.
The zoning code allows dance clubs in commercial districts, but only in a portion of the downtown area and only with a special permit reviewed by police. The law, outlined in the 2006 Downtown Specific Plan, reflects residents concerns at the time about crime in the downtown area and its proximity to alcohol-fueled dance clubs.
The council will discuss the issue Monday night even though council members directed staff in June 2008 to leave current codes in tact.
After that meeting, James Suner, a developer with stakes in the downtown, said Ashley told him he would “shut down” businesses that allowed dancing. Ashley attributed these accusations to Suner “trying to stir things up.”
“All of this is just absolutely shocking to me. None of this is complaint-driven because nobody is complaining about a few people dancing,” Suner said. “The bottom line is the police department is trying to seize the business license process as a way to enforce a kind-of ‘no living’ rule because it’s easier to patrol an empty downtown than an active downtown.”
Sue’s Coffee Shop sits at the corner of Fifth and Monterey streets in the city’s “historic core” and regularly hosts live music. Ashley said it would be fine if a few people wanted to dance there, but local regulations specifically forbid full-blown dance halls in the area.
That includes the Gaslighter, where a concert turned illegal dance last May resulted in police arresting juveniles and young adults for tagging, drinking in public and fighting. Businesses in two pockets immediately outside the core – such as the Fire House Bar and Grill a few hundred feet away from Sue’s – can operate dance halls and sell alcohol as long as they don’t also sell food.
Council member Cat Tucker said she was “glad” the council will revisit the issue because “it’s not the intent of the law to cite someone who’s drinking coffee and wants to stand up and dance.”
“(But) the police department will not be enforcing the ‘no dancing’ rules if a couple of people were to get up and dance on an ad-hoc basis at the local coffee shop should that business have music, so long as the business does not create a dance hall through advertisement or redistribution of tables and chairs … to tacitly encourage dancing,” Chief Denise Turner wrote in a memo to City Administrator Tom Haglund.
Turner also pointed to the unlawful dancing at the Gaslighter as an example of this code’s enforcement. In June, the council eschewed the idea of an “entertainment permit” to host live music, which police and staff thought of after Mark and Susan Gaetano applied to reopen the Gaslighter in late 2007.
Turner’s memo also points to violent incidents – including two homicides – at the Oakwood Lounge near Monterey and Sixth streets, El Rio Nilo bar and night club across the street, and the Aloha Club bar at the corner of Seventh and Monterey streets. The dozen or so major incidents since 2008 are a departure from the area’s much higher crime rate during the 1990s.
“Caution should be exercised and history revisited when considering how and where the addition of more dance halls will occur in order to avoid the problems of the past,” Turner wrote.
Suner and others called the entire issue absurd.
“I’m pretty sure dancing is a constitutional right,” Suner said.
Tucker was involved in drafting the Downtown Specific Plan and said, “It pertains to opening brand new dance halls equal to Rio Nilo – not someone dancing at Sue’s or a sponsored festivity like Fifth Street Live – so we need to nail down the ordinance a little bit better.”
Mayor Al Pinheiro also remembered the crime of the ’90s and said he did not want to see nightclubs bumping out of control. Police “have to have the ability to control” the area while respecting sensible dancing, he said.
“It is frustrating that we have to be touching bases with this again, but at the end of the day police need clearer instructions,” Pinheiro said.
