I guess it is time for another secret meeting. Skrel to the rescue.

Didn't the City Council vote against police recommentaions to allow 1515 to stay open later? Or was that another bar? If so did this happen during its "later" closing time?

A poster on Claycord.com listed a website that prostitutes use to "blacklist" customers. The Danville guy is listed twice as a "rapist" by prostitutes. Stay classy 1515.

Liquor + Huge Holiday Crowd (college kids are home) = disaster waiting to happen.

BTW... Let's not blame the staffing shortages on bar fights. Be real.

Pretty sure stuff like this happens just about every weekend downtown David. And what are you talking about "staffing shortages?" I didn't read that anywhere.

BTW-pretty sure the 26 year old Danville guy isn't a college student and I'd venture to say Mr. Enriquiz is currently hanging out in Bay Point and not on his way back to USC.

Jim, when was the last time you were out after midnight for a couple of hours to know it happens about every weekend...

Yeah, I'm with you, Enriquiz or the Danville guy may go to a college campus... to steal something.

Bob Simmons was the only Councilmember to vote against extending the alcohol serving hours for 1515. When he becomes mayor next month, let's hope the Council finally comes down on some of these bars masquerading as "restaurants".

Touche about being out late WC, but the information is stll out there.
http://www.walnut-creek.org/citygov/depts/police/bulletin.asp
The city's "daily police bulletin" displays all the police calls and if you browse just about any Friday or Saturday night you will see multiple fights, drunk arrests, DUI's etc. The quick summaries you read in the paper or here on Patch are just that, summaries. There are 30-40 police responses for a variety of things during just the "bar hours" on weekends. I also cheat a little by having a radio scanner :)

Jim, a lot going on in those bulletins all over town. The number of alarm activations seems to be a big draw on resources. I don't find it fair when a private citizen pays an alarm company a monthly fee yet all citizens pay indirectly for the response to an activation. I hear activation calls on my scanner constantly...

"Others fled the scene when the police arrived, and police said many people who remained in the area were uncooperative." Isn't that so typical of the way we'd all react?

This obviously reflects an establishment that caters to well-heeled patrons out to enjoy late-night culinary delights, accoutered with a splash of alcohol ... as opposed to a den of sloshed criminals who pack themselves back into their car and play bullet-tag with other similarly trash-laden vehicles on their way back home.

I wonder if these gangstas took in a show, shopped at Macy's, or otherwise contributed to Council's economic ecosystem on their visit?

Perhaps, during the next election season, someone can ask Mr. Skrel and other candidates for reelection why they thought it was a particularly good idea to forsake WCPD recommendations and grant these establishments licenses for early AM alcohol sales, instead of denying them or granting them conditionally? Can any of them explain how such discretion furthers their family-friendly rhetoric?

Vice operates under a conditional use permit (Y09-035, approved 10/29/2009). 1515 operates under a conditional use permit (Y09-046, approved 09/15/2009). Lift, with their drug-dealing bouncer, operates under a conditional use permit (Y08-093, approved 11/24/2008). The condition that keeps these bad actors in business is that all of the City Council members are selected by the Chamber of Commerce and won't do anything that could be perceived as anti-business. Until we get some Council members who care more about the residents than the business interests, nothing will change. I'd be happy to support a candidate who promises to roll up the downtown sidewalks at midnight.

obiwan - slippery slope you propose. I get punished with your proposal.. Dinner at 7pm, movie at 9pm... I would no longer have the option for desert and drinks afterward at a downtown establishment. You've impacted my quality of life... :)

WC-Independent (or should it be WC-Inebriated?) You can still have desert. You can have coffee or lattes or whatever. But if you're going to booze it up, that's best done AFTER you drive home anyway.

OK - I'm sure that you are responsible about drinking and driving. And you probably don't play bullet-tag on your way home (great line, michael!) But one of these days one of those gansta wannabes our bar owners cater to is going to squeeze off a bullet in the direction of some fine, upstanding citizen such as yourself who was only in town for dinner, a movie and desert. And that's really going to impact somebody's quality of life.

But just to show I'm not unreasonable, I'll move the curfew to 12:30am. That will give you time for ONE drink after the movie gets out. :-)

Thanks for the extra 30mins!

What the rules as to when these establishments become a public nuisance and lose their license?

Well, if all the alcohol service ends at 12:30pm, the City isn’t going to attract that many hardcore drinkers in the first place. I’m told that the ladies in those places don’t even START to look good until you’ve got at least a 1:00am buzz on.

The rules in the existing Conditional Use permits would be adequate to identify and fine or even close down problem bars if the City Council had the willpower to enforce them. For example, the following is a condition of Vice’s continued operation: “The applicant shall control its patrons and prevent disturbances in and near the premises”. It’s quite clear that Vice has failed to meet this condition. The City Council chooses to look the other way.

The bar owners all bitch about the unfairness of staggered closing times under the Conditional Use process, and there are still some bars in this town that are “grandfathered” in and don’t need a use permit anyway. My preferred solution is to elect a Council who will enforce what we have until we can implement a City-wide 12:30pm closing time, and end the problem for good.

Sometimes after dinner with a group of friends downtown we middle-aged suburban folks all actually go dancing at WLPJ's. And we have a pleasant time. Does WPLJ's have better security or management? Or is it just not a place that draws the wild bunch?

WPLJ's is not in the downtown area where all the fights occur. Plus, with all of their drag shows, it draws a slightly different crowd.

Isn't WPLJ's next to Ruth Chris on Olympic???

Oh my goodness SR, you don't get out much do you? TIKI TOMS is next to Ruth Chris on Olympic. Used to be called the Pink Gable (neighborhood bar) many years and several incarnations ago. I'll leave you to figure out where WPLJ's is.

And by the way David, did you really mean drag shows???

As in transvestite stuff? Really? Didn't know.