As I read the Mercury News last week about the plans to adopt some of Hollywood’s ideas to curb the problems downtown, my first reaction was that if the current system isn’t working, why not try something else? Keeping some bars open until later in the evening, or having staggered closings, sounds like a good idea from the outset. So we’ll have less people tricking out on the streets, and people just having a nice time without booze in clubs and bars. What a great idea! But will this really happen in San Jose?
I am afraid what seems like a good idea on the outset will turn out not to be. Instead of a calmer last call or closing, will people stash booze in their cars, drink more and then go back into clubs and become an even larger problem than they were before? Will drunks roam the streets waiting for other clubs to get out and cause more trouble? Some studies have shown that club-goers, to keep up with the later closing times, just go out to their cars and do drugs.
This solution will only be a band aid for the real problem – that a number of the big nightclubs downtown are attracting the wrong clientele, and this staggered closing won’t change that. It could make it worse. Again, if the clientele weren’t looking to cause trouble, than that would be fine, but I think that closing down Santa Clara Street is a better alternative to giving people more of a reason to hang around downtown until 4AM.
And as a downtown resident, what will all these people outside my window until 4AM do for my beauty sleep?
I have a friend who is a cop in a city that did the same thing – stayed open past 2am – and he said that it was exactly as you said. People were doing drugs & drinking in their car, and just up to no good. Think about it, if you aren’t ready to go home at 2am, what do you want to do? My bet is continue to party and I don’t mean meaningful conversation! As a downtown resident, I can deal with 2am drunk people but not 4 or 6am drunk people!
Well, George Kennedy, never one to miss a potential headline, will now lead yet another investigation into the NorCal debacle.
Having established the fact three times, the Mercury News, Civil Grand Jury and Council Investigator—the DA now has “serious questions” regarding the garbage contract.
George, where have you been?
This epiphany comes after the Mercury News, this Blog and the three investigations have all laid out the facts. What will his investigators do? The works all done.
Oh, well, at least we can now get everybody to tell the same story again under oath, possibly out a few emails from the council and potentially hamstring the Mayor, get him to resign or at least indict him before his year is out.
This is the worst form of politics. We no longer simply want to win an election, we want to indict our opponent. Mistakes, even admitted ones, are now the basis for long investigations with a goal of criminal intent.
Well, I know I’m pushing this ball up hill, but electoral politics should not be a prelude to an arraignment.
In the final analysis, everyone will be pleased when this investigation is over and the DA finds that mistakes were made, not rising to criminal intent and that the Council were victims like the rest of us.
Any other finding will done for political purposes only.
In NYC, closing time is 0400 and generally it works fine. The problem is not what time the bars close, it’s that certain elements of the bar/club going public are disruptive and don’t behave well. It doesn’t matter what time the bars close, you have to deal with the problem of clubs that attract unruly clientele.
Rich, what does your comment have to do with the subject?
Secondly, let me say that I agree with you completely. Now apply it to your favorite enemy, George Bush.
Can anybody spell hypocrit?
and will expose her too. Collusion and Conspiricy
Rich,
Gonzalez did not deceive the public on his own. A majority of the City Council conspired to give labor their secret deal and to put cash into the hands of Norcal. The DA’s investigation will probably reveal a wider and secret effort by Gonzo, some Council members, the City Manager and Attorney to hide the facts from the public about this contract. That is a clear violation of State law. The Mayor and the Council are not above the law.
The consequences of violating State law should fall on Gonzo and those Council members that aided and abetted in the Norcal conspiracy. This is not the first issue to be handled in this manner. Gonzo and his allies have mishandled many issues. Some of the most egregious abuses of the public’s trust have now become public. There may be other facts that have been hidden from the public. It’s up to the DA to reveal the systematic effort by Gonzo and his allies to conduct the public’s business in private, to the detriment of voters and citizens of San Jose.
If the DA uncovers criminal activity, the consequences will be jail time and heavy fines. If Mr. Kennedy uncovers violation of the open meeting laws of the State, Gonzo and those Council members need to pay the political costs for this abuse. The Council members involved in this behavior will be labeled as untrustworthy and unqualified to not only seek higher office, but to continue as Council members. Gonzo, in his usual arrogant and self-centered way, is taking his allies down with him.
Once the DA files his report, many individuals will be hurt by Gonzo’s behavior. Rich, your candidate for Mayor, Cindy Chaves needs to begin to consider alternatives to running for Mayor in 2006.
Gelvey,
I don’t see any investigations of George W. despite is flagrant disregard of the Constitution.
But for the sake of consistency, I have on a number of occasions, and despite my loathing of his politics, said the same thing about Tom Delay.
I can not only spell hypocrite, I can define it.
Gonzo’s History,
There is no evidence of criminal intent by anybody. The DA went to the Civil Grand Jury for a reason.
If the rest of the Council had been involved with this vast conspiracy, don’t you think the Mayor would have used it as a defense?
It is already documented that the Council asked the Mayor to insure labor peace in any agreement. The Mayor took it upon himself to solve the problem.
The only thing a further investigation could possibly lead is the ending of the Mayor’s term. I don’t think this incident rises to that level.
Though others obviously disagree.
Stick to Single Gal subject and screw the Garbagegate scandal and ethics b.s.!
nightclubs that decide to stay open after 2:00am to introduce the soft closing policy can
enforce a no in and out policy after 2:00am
to prevent people from going to their cars and drink or do whatever else. trust me the way san jose is dealing with the 2:00am curfew for late night establishments at this point time is ridiculous. why not follow the lead of a city that has made creditable progress in dealing with this problem. personally i think 2 or 3 loud people at 3:00am or 4:00am is better than 10,000 loud distruptive people at 2:00am
another SJ filth
Rich:
You make great points. George is out for blood because he was asleep at the wheel. I guess the voters will have to pay for his inattentiveness.
Rich,
The SCCDA could also have the criminal grand jury looking into this matter too, and they need not disclose this information to the pubic or media.
I am willing to bet that SCCDA will find something that is chargeable.
or (both)
The Civil Grand Jury will approve the official accusation of misconduct against Ron G from Councilman Cortese that could remove the mayor from office.
Ron G will have no other choice but to resign. He will probably try to give some heart felt speech about the things he has done for San Jose, and cry on cue for the cameras and media. So touching, that the San Jose performing arts could do a play on it. “Garbage-gate and the Mayor of no shame”
According to the city charter of San Jose, a vacancy in the mayor’s office can be filled by an appointment by the council or by an election. If an appointment is made, the council can select a person who is not one of its members, so they could select a past Mayor of San Jose.
Sorry Rich your girl Cindy will not get to be Mayor if Ron G resigns or is taken out of office.
The problem is mikejones, it will not be 2 or 3 people but a steady stream all night. And any number of loud people at 3 or 4 am is enough to wake somebody up! How “enforceable” would the in and out policy be? Whoever the bouncer chooses to enforce it with…
Rich, how much are you getting paid by your clients to write these posts?
If memory serves me, I think S.F. tried late hour clubs at one time. After the newness wore off, they for the most part went back to 2AM closing. Not enough people wanted to stay up until 4-5AM to make it profitable.
Druggies though, did like the restrooms in the clubs in which they conducted a brisk business.
So, Single Gal, if you really wqant to party all night long, move to Chicago and western suburbs of same. I could really advise on some great clubs there.
All other issues in this city pale compared to the deterioration of our city government. Rich can shill for Cindy all he wants but he has yet to provide any documentation that clears his candidate in this mess. Certainly the mayor did not do this by himself, even with Joe’s steady hand at the wheel. It is well known inside and outside the Hall that Cindy is deeply involved in this and other councilmembers may be in deep as well. Why Rich and a majority of the council want to keep their heads in the sand (which is how Gonzo has gotten away with his misdeeds all these years) is a mystery.
For Rich to talk about “mistakes” is laughable. The only “mistake” in the mayor’s eyes is that he go caught. Everything else in this scandal was calculated and based on the premise they would never get caught. There was no mistake.
Sorry to get off subject on this blog, but I just can’t help it!
On the day the District Attorney opens an investigation on Norcal and Gonzales, San Jose’s “honorable” Mayor is in Mississippi helping a town recover from the hurricanes. I hope that town reciprocates and sends their mayor to help with our own local disaster, the out of touch politicians at San Jose City Hall.
We have problem clubs throughout San Jose not just in the downtown and need to address how to regulate all the San Jose clubs and their associated alcohol, drug, increased traffic especially impaired driving, cruising and violence problems with comprehensive city wide club / on site alcohol consumption solutions.
If we only implement more restrictive downtown regulations some clubs, as we have already seen, will move with their club problems to the neighborhoods which is not a solution.
We need to involve all the affected groups in developing proposing comprehensive city wide club / on site alcohol consumption regulations as recently happened with off site alcohol sales at gas station convenience stores where the City Council, Police, Fire and Planning – Code Enforcement Departments coordinated with the affected businesses, neighborhoods and California ABC to develop city regulations and reporting requirements to include those community groups that have concerns about proper treatment of club patrons.
Was everyone happy, no but most participants thought it was the best comprehensive solution to balance the neighborhood, business, community groups and city department concerns about off site alcohol sales and the related problems.
We will have future policy and procedure reviews to address any problems that we did not anticipate or need to changed.
If everyone works together we can develop and implement fair and comprehensive city wide club procedures and regulations.
Many other cities have restricted clubs to designated club / entertainment as part of the club solution both in the downtown and neighborhood areas and have specific police, fire and planning regulations as well as club / entertainment district fess to pay for the additional public safety, street lighting and cameras, planning and police club inspections etc
Sj Downtowner
downtown will never be as quiet as a regular suburban neighborhood thats why its “downtown”. bouncer enforcement is not the issue here. soft closing works. your right on fact that their probably will be a steady stream of 3 to 4 people exiting club goers through out the night but then again isnt that better than 10,000 people all at once. their is a big difference in the steady stream from one club to another than a culmulative off all clubs combine together forcing people on the streets all at the same time. you really can’t ignore the drunk factor in all this too. people getting out at 3:00am or 4:00am have time to sober up and aren’t as drunk as people who just got done with last call and are forced to leave at 2:00am. isn’t this why we are exploring the soft closing option?
I agree with you single gal that Santa Clara street should be shut down, or make it one way in each direction with a wide median. I was also thinking, why not look to Santana Row on doing it right, vs. Hollywood. SR has a number of bars that offer DJ music afterhours, yet you don’t see these venues attracting the ” drunken thug life.” You also don’t see cruising occurring down the middle of SR.
Gonzo’s history # 6: Don’t kid yourself, GH—no-one will do jail time or get heavy fines over garbagegate; although if Gonzo pleads or is convicted, he should be given a restitution sentence of the entire cost to taxpayers of the unnecessary second investigation. With Gonzo hiring Alan Ruby, who does Joey G III hire?? Councilmembers will be convicted of being nothing more than spineless and clueless.. Voters get what they deserve. Remember, when elections come up, don’t vote for the person who has the best/most lawn signs; and for heaven’s sake, don’t vote for an incumbent.
Richie # 7: There is no conspricacy with the council. They are too stupid and spineless to need to be made co-conspirators. Who would ever enlist Forrest Williams in a conspiracy? Who needs him? They just went along with whatever Gonzo/Guerra pushed their way.
Am I missing something—who with any backbone at all ever be cowed by Gonzo? Or is it really just the go-along-to-get-along that has been an integral part of politics for cenuries?
You still don’t get it, Richie—we don’t need another investigation of Gonzo, I agree, we’ve already had one more than was needed; but we have had no investigation of the nonfeaseance/malfeasance of the city council. What a bunch of slackers!
I think my councilperson is Ms. Chirco; but I’m not sure since I have never heard of a single substantive thing she has ever done. She must be against traffic (ooohh!!)—something that voters could latch onto.
SJ Downtowner #13: Would I like to be kept awake by drunken revelers leaving bars? No. That’s why I don’t live downtown.
Choosing to live near a bar, or a place where bar patrons go, is your choice. So don’t whine when it gets noisy at night. Its just like choosing to live under an airport flight pattern. If you get the benefit of the lower purchase price, don’t whine and ask all the taxpayers to pay for your sound attentuation.
It would be nice if all drunk bar patrons were respectful of the sleep time of people who live nearby, but it’s totally unrealistic; indeed, it’s ridiculous to expect that to happen.
On the other hand, cops don’t need to treat all bar patrons as fleeing felons. They know who the troublemakers are. Unfortunately, in our PC world, they are not allowed to utilize their honed instincts. Instead, they have to go through some charade in order not to be accused of profiling.
In the TSA, profiling is a good thing, so why not in plain old everyday police work? If the Ambassador Club has a huge majority of out of town black patrons, it ain’t racism if a whole bunch of black troublemakers from out of town get popped. It’s reality.
SJ Downtowner # 14: GOOD QUESTION!
Richie is very bright and well-versed in politics, but he is a shill just the same. He should be required to post a disclaimer along with all his comments, which would inform us of all his current and recent-past clients. CNN does it every time they do a story on Time Warner.
Flavan # 16: isn’t this just Watergate all over again? A 3rd rate burglary brought down a President when a swift mea culpa would have made it all go away. Is there a gene in politicians that prevents them from this common sense solution?
Ed #18: you make a lot of sense. But the real issue is the few problem club owners and the few problem club patrons.
That’s why profiling should be encouraged, not discouraged. Good cops know who the troublemakers are before they start making trouble. Harass the hell out of them everywhere, and leave the civilized revelers alone.
To all:
First, nobody pays me to write on this blog—but I am open of offers.
Second, #16 Cindy Chavez has not hired a Defense Attorney, nor does she need me to defend her or prove her innocence.
On principle, I don’t believe in investigations for the sake of curiosity. If no evidence of wrong-doing exists, why investigate?
For Cindy, this will be a political positive because the investigation will be independent and will finally conclude. Those who trying, through innuendo, to implicate her in this mess will be sorely disappointed.
She welcomes the investigation, I do not. I believe it is a huge waste of time, especially when everybody knows the essential facts.
Finally, I am not on Cindy’s campaign payroll—though again, I’m open to offers.
I do hope she wins because she has been a tremendous advocate for San Jose Neighborhoods, including downtown. She shares most of my political philosophy—though we don’t agree on everything—and she is the acknowledged leader on the current City Council.
I believe she will make a outstanding Mayor and have been forthright in making those comments.
Finally, my entire client list can be found at http://www.erwgroup.com. Personally and professionally I’ll answer almost any question posed, just don’t make me fill out a form, swear under oath or face the burden of an unnecessary, politically motivated investigation.
Single girl you really got these guys going on some other subject how do you accomplish that? I think different closing hours is great but they should be 8, 9, and 10 PM.
I love the if no evidence of wrongdoing exists, why investigate? “
Isn’t that what an investigation means?
Ryan-
Earlier staggered closings – brilliant!
Ryan,
Second tier cities like San Jose have such an obsession with having a 24 Hour Downtown because they think that they are a big city now. When in fact we are just a big suburban city. Lets get real, how many cities advertise that they are “The tenth largest city in America” that explains all the inferiority complex going on in this town. We deserve this, We deserve that…
Why do second tier cities (although I would argue that we are at the top of that heap) such as San Jose have such an obsession with having a “24 Hour Downtown?” This undercurrent of insecurity must drive policy at some level or another. Close clubs at 4 am? How about staggering closings earlier? I don’t think San Jose would lose much if their club scene slowed down one bit. Now if DTSJ could only support a club with live music…
Rich, glad you picked up the proper spelling of “hypocrite” I tossed your way…
RonJuan is toast. For anyone who cheats his wife and family, can the lowly taxpayers be far behind?
Barbara A.