Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the hearing and grant an Entertainment Permit with conditions on the application of Mineshaft, Inc., dba Mineshaft, 1720 East Broadway, for Entertainment With Dancing by Patrons.  (District 2)
Okay, great. That was easy. Thank you, John. Good to see you guys. Moving on to back to the agenda here. So we have are we going to continue back on the hearing? So we have hearing item number two. Hearing two requires an oath. Anyone that's going to participate, please stand. You and each of you do solemnly state that the testimony you may give in the cause now and pending before this body shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God. Thank you very much. With that, I'm turning this over to staff. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The staff report will be handled by Jason McDonald, purchasing and business services manager. Thank you, Mayor. Council Members. Jason McDonald for financial management. Tonight you have in front of you the application for entertainment with Dancing for Mineshaft, doing business as Mineshaft at 1720 Broadway in District two, all of the necessary departments have reviewed the application. The application and proposed conditions are contained in the packet that was provided. We are prepared to address any questions or concerns along with the police department regarding the application of those conditions. That concludes our report or available for questions. Thank you. Thank you. With that, I have a motion and as I'm sure that's over to Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to just clarify a couple of things with our city staff. And vice mayor. Also, just because there was a hearing, we're also able to hear public comment before you make the motion, if you'd like. Oh, yes, can we do that? Okay. So if anyone wants to comment on the hearing, now would be a good time. Please come down. Hi. My name is Tom Herzog, 1725 Second Street on the property owner that goes through next door to the mine shaft at 1724 East Broadway. My partner and I have lived in the home for 20 years. The wall of the mine shaft is actually the property line with my property and knowing their mine shaft is there when I moved in. So we knew that we've raised our two sons, adopted sons, and we've actually been able to do it. Last time I was here was for the same issue noise, public disturbance, smoking affecting the neighborhood, trying to figure out the balance between the commercial and the residents. So I've talked to Brock. He does a great job of responding to the planning inquiry. You know, that didn't really do too much and brought me to this point. He said that this is a normal evolution of a business, but our school board sued the city for the normal evolution of a business, which was the Long Beach Airport expansion. That very noise complaint destructing a neighborhood and going against the general plan, which is to create a healthier, quieter environment. Have you seen the onerous and lengthy noise complaint? It takes weeks and months to actually do a noise complaint, and that's what you are putting on the city residents. People are paying a tax dollars. People expecting you to do your jobs. I've called a number of the officers I've talked to Brock and to his office. Does a great job. I understand. I understand the bars there, but I have defecation, urination, drugs, sex in my parking lot. We have people picking up, people yelling and screaming. The cigaret butts out on the sidewalk, the pollution, just the trash in general. Something has to be done. I don't think extending a dancing permit, extending the louder pay system for an older building to a company where those people don't even live in Long Beach. You're up in Redding, California. I'm really not invested. Number of neighbors. Number of people trying to make community. But yes, it is an apartment. It is transient. It is not a normal residence. We don't have the support that someplace against like talk of circuits where you get a whole bunch of residents coming in and actually lobbying and actually getting results. So we're left to make complaints. File complaints with the Long Beach City police take their time to complain to noise. And if we don't log each call and the city police department last time didn't have any record no record for any complaints of the year. Just that didn't happen. So we're left to look like, oh, I'm a liar. But no, I know we what my noise or I'm not trying to be a gadfly, not trying to sit there and call time. But when I was in my front room, living room of a 100 year old house, it just turned this year trying to improve my neighborhood, spend my money in my hometown, that small town charm. But yet, all here's boom, boom, boom. Or people screaming or having to go out and talk to my my neighbor, who's actually has a little using a place and had to clean off defecation from the parking lot or, you know, vomit. That's ridiculous. Something has to change. And really love Long Beach, but it makes me feel like moving. I don't feel that small town charm right now. So I hope you vote against this. Thanks. Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. Mr. Mayor and council members. My name is Gerry Cochrane. I'm the owner of an apartment building that runs 1732 through 1738 East Broadway. My building is right between the Brit. And the mine shaft. Earlier this year, we acquiesced to allow the Brit to. Have entertainment in their open patio with limited time. What you're looking to do right now is to get all of these people to go to bars for the same thing all night long. As my previous person mentioned. We have to clean up the bomb. We have to clean up the cigaret butts. We have to clean up the defecation every day. So let's keep in mind that this is also a residential area, as well as a major thoroughfare to the inside of the city. So. Adding entertainment. To the mineshaft. He's just going to get the people to move back and forth between the two bars constantly. So that the neighbors, the people who live in that building are going to have to deal with all the noise and all the trash and all the cigaret butts. That is constant. I might add that recently over the last 30 days, I know after this permit was focused that all of a sudden the place was getting a little bit cleaner. Things were looking a little bit better. Let me tell you, if you go back 30 days and I'll be more than happy to take pictures for you and provide to the city council how many hundreds of cigaret butts and defecation and gum and things that I had to clean up in front of my building every single day to try and keep tenants in the building. The owners of the of the permit, we agreed to allow them to to have music there. They said they were going to try and cover the open patio to contain the noise. They didn't do anything. So I know they posted somebody out front to try and keep the traffic or keep the noise down. But, um, my tenants every particularly Saturday and Sunday, particularly as we've had extreme weather recently, had to close their windows in the afternoon. So that they can just hear themselves or enjoy their own peace and quiet. So I just ask this council to consider this is not just a commercial area. This is also a residential area. I'm trying to keep tenants in my building. I'm spending an average of 15 to $20000 per unit trying to get tenants or stay. But it's very difficult based on the noise. And if you offer them to move with music and noise, that'll expand between two units. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Time's up. And then we have our last speaker, please. Thank you for hearing me. I'm Jeff, darling. I am representing the owners of the mineshaft. We also owned the Brett Bar. This is a family owned business. Our uncle started these bars 32 years ago and has owned them continuously. When he passed away in 2003, it became part of our family bar. We do live in Redding, California. This year I've spent three months of my time down in Long Beach living here. We have an apartment downtown. We own a condo in a historic building. I feel like we're very much part of the community. Some of our employees have worked for the bar for over 25 to 30 years. So we have a long standing history here. The things that we're asking to do in this permit are specifically to have a deejay and entertainment dancers, something that's happened continuously for the history of the whole bar. So we're not really asking for something that's uniquely different, like the Brit bar that has a large patio and does have more noise issues. We made some concessions and we settled it peacefully here in this council meeting to close the patio at 10:00. And it has greatly affected our business. But I'm not going to be bitter. I'm going to move on. We have to do business and take care of our employees. Our employees are part of our family also. They work here. They live here. We've made several attempts to alleviate some of the concerns that was recommended by the city. We had the police department come out. It's really difficult to speak to some of the specific things that they talk about, like defecation. Cigaret Butts is an urban area. It's very close to Bixby Park. We do have it's a thoroughfare there on East Broadway. Some of the people there spoke tonight. They have homeless people sleep in their doorways. They leave trash. It's very difficult for a bar that polices and does custodial every single day in their property and takes care of their particular space, too. To worry about the whole urban environment and some of the things that we've done this year. We made a new solid back door for noise to keep the noise at a minimum. We had a uniformed security guard that pulls patrols the street between both bars to keep the patrons quiet during the evening hours. We've installed security cameras to monitor the front entrance with the ability for the police department to have its own username and log in so they can monitor that at expense to us. All bartenders have taken leads, training as asked, so they are more aware of not serving intoxicated people. Um. All of our security wear clearly identified staff shirts. We've updated all the building to the current ADA requirements. As for that building, we just have gone to several measures. We contribute $71,000 in taxes. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you very much. Mr. Goodhew. It's very good. You click as the address. It's listening to this. Here's how I see this. You've already got a problem. A way to partially address this is for any person who votes to approve this. Would agree to this. Number one, you will provide your 24 hour seven cell phone number. Two of the two gentlemen that spoke opposing this that are neighbors. Allowing them to call you at whatever hour. The noise. Wakes them up or disturbs the neighborhood. Number two. You will underwrite the cost of having. Someone first thing in the morning. Check the sidewalks, sweep up any feces, cigaret, butts or whatever junk is there. And transport that to your council office. The first thing the next day. And after a year. Or after six months, bring this back. Based upon the number of your feelings, based upon the number of calls that you will gladly take at two or 3:00 in the morning. And the amount of feces. The amount of cigaret butts and other litter that the people had to go out and clean up because their custodians had done. Thank you. Thank you. Back to the hearing, Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to thank our speakers and follow up with staff on some of the questions that I had. Okay. I think I see stuff there. If you could clarify for us, this was mentioned by one of the speakers, actually, I think the owner's representative, that the dancing component of the permit is for performers and not for the patrons. Is that correct? Vice Mayor That's correct. The council letter is that it seems to have indicated patrons it was intended to say performers as per their application. Okay. So it is performers and not patrons. I appreciate that. And that the entertainment is only for Friday and Saturday until 1 a.m. and Sunday between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.. Correct. That is their application and as recommended by the police department. Okay. And then there is discussion about the breezeway and Mr. Herzog brought that up, I believe, if we could know, are the patrons using the breezeway behind the establishment as a makeshift patio or smoking area? Are you aware of that? Our office is not aware. I think we've had concerns from residents that that, in fact, is taking place. It's a physical space that's available. So I'd like to alert you to that and make sure that that's part of any monitoring or compliance that we're looking for. Because if that is happening, we have to ensure that the conditions that arise in the condition that it be closed attend. And so that's my concern. It might not be a physical space that we recognize because we're not aware of it, but it is a space that people are using. And so we have to include that as part of the 10 p.m. cutoff. For noise and other things in the smoking and all of that that sort of permeates beyond the property. And I appreciate the gentleman that came to speak on behalf of the family property. I'm not sure where he went that you are. I'm sorry. And. You're right. It is an urban environment and. You know, not a secret. I'm an urban planner, but nowhere in my experience do we accept that defecation and everything else is part of the urban experience. It's. It's a consequence of. Poor behavior. Poor management throughout. It's a combination. It's not just the business owners responsibility or the city's responsibility. It is what happens. And when we have establishments that that bring in a lot of customers, which thankfully you have a successful business. You do. And and we're thankful for the balance that we try to strike on Broadway. Broadway was purposely many, many years ago zoned in this multiple zoning type effort with residential and commercial and business. And and whether that's good or bad, you know, you'll have to ask the residents and the businesses. It is a tough balance to strike. But just as we do with our homes, we clean up the area out in front of our homes. It does little to say that it's not our patrons or it's not something. It's in front of your home, so we have to clean it up. And so I thank you for doing that, but I want to ask staff I have seen in permits where that is actually conditioned, where, you know, the property owner is required to maintain cleanliness outside. And that's something that I would like to be sure is I know they do it voluntarily, but I do think that that has to be a part of our monitoring effort. And whether it's code that gets involved, any part of Broadway is not a part that we can risk having mean not maintained to a livable standard, a sustainable standard and a standard where patrons do want to keep coming back. We have daytime patrons that should want to find it appealing to walk on Broadway. And we're making many efforts to make adjustments, some infrastructure adjustments to the street, to the public right of way so that it can be more appealing. And it's not a thoroughfare. And you're right, it kind of is a thoroughfare. And we are you know, through our planning efforts, we are trying to slow that down. And so but that has to be matched with what we ensure the business owners and patrons do. And if I could also ask staff. Actually, if I can have a response to. The part about the cleanliness. I know we're both talking to you and but you're good at this. I think the discussion was, is where is the appropriate enforcement activity coming from? And I think that's a determination we'd have to make in cooperation with the police department and code enforcement as well as in the ABC conditions. Okay. I don't know that the area being discussed is specifically under the control for the purposes of the entertainment permit, but it could be added as a condition potentially. And we'll review that with the attorney's office as well. Okay. And I would appreciate that and ask that we do that well. And certainly with the loitering and cigaret butts yelling and loud noises late at night, these are the types of activities that I know your security team is probably aware of and very conscious of keeping an eye on. But we have to not just be aware of it and sort of the observant of it. We have to have that controlled as part of your conditions and more importantly, just just being a good neighbor. I know you can't control human behavior, but if they are patrons, we do expect that. We expect that kind of management. We expect that kind of crowd management and behavior management. Whether it's for the neighbors that live right next door or really other patrons are trying to enjoy themselves on the street as well. So those are the requirements that I am asking you to ensure is worked into the conditions and and follow up in enforcement. I don't want to leave our community represented by the few people that have come here, but they do represent that entire community. I know this. I don't want to leave them with this expectation that these are the things that will change unless we can actually follow up and enforce them. So if there's any changes to that, I'd like to know directly through my office. But for now that is my request and my belief that we will move forward with that. With that, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make the motion to conclude the hearing and grant an entertainment permit with conditions for the mineshaft, including closure of the patio or the makeshift patio that could potentially be the breezeway by 10 p.m.. Thank you. There's a motion and a second. We've done public comment. Members, please cast your votes on the motion. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Moving on to the next hearing, please. The next hearing is, I believe, hearing three.