Recommendation to receive the application of Cloud 9 Sports Bar L.B, LLC, dba Cloud 9 Sports Bar Long Beach, for an original Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) License, at 1740 East Artesia Boulevard, determine that the application does not serve the public convenience and necessity, and submit a Public Notice of Protest to ABC on the bases of high crime in the reporting district and residences within 100 feet of the establishment.  (District 9)
Item 20 is a report from police department. No comment. Recommendation to receive the application of Crown nine sports bar Long Beach for an original ABC license at 1740. Is Artesia Boulevard determined that the application does not serve the public convenience and this is a necessity and submit a public notice a protest to ABC on the basis of high crime in the reporting district and residences within 100 feet of the establishment. District nine is a second on this motion first. Okay. Vice Mayor. Thank you. So I want to hear from staff first, and I wanna hear from the public before I get my comments. Thank you. Commander LeBaron. Honorable Mayor and City Council. Item number 20 is an application for an original Onsale Beer ABC license. This location is currently. Closed, resulting from the suspension of a previous. ABC license. The police department has conducted our investigation and. Based on the high crime formula for the reporting district, as well as the proximity to residences within 100 feet of the location, the Long Beach Police Department believes this application does not serve the public convenience and necessity and recommend a public notice of protest be submitted to ABC. That concludes my report and I am available for any questions. If you might have. Any public comment on this, please come forward. Yeah. I'm here. My name is Debbie Flynn. I'm representing Grant Neighborhood Association. We are also I'm the one that denied the claim to ABC and talked to our detective, our Zoller, on this. I've been in the neighborhood for 24 years. We have seen a lot of fights come out of that bar. We've seen prostitution. We have seen. Drunk drivers come out of that establishment. Hit parked cars in the middle of the night, two, 3:00 in the morning. We have seen used. Condoms, children walking to school, finding use condoms on the sidewalk. The trash is atrocious. I have no idea why they can't pick it up, but they need to be responsible if they're going to stay in the neighborhood and be responsible for what they do and what their patrons do. I don't see any reason why they should have their liquor license. Especially when they're using it for underage drinking. And it's been proven from a detective. Marcella has told me from her report. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speakers. Hello. My name is Patrick Conlon. On the internet, the insulin. I was told I'm not actually here to speak on cloud nine. I was told to speak during this time just because you ran out of general comment. And actually, is that. Now this has to this has to be on this issue. Has to be on this issue. Yes. Sorry. One of your staff told me to wait for the end of the meeting. You can speaking. It's expected. There's a there's a second public coming here at the end of the meeting. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Councilman. My name's Brett Johnson. I live on Rose, which is. The bar is off artesian Rose. I grew up. There. I've been there for. Over 24 years. My mom, my father. Now I'm raising my. My my daughter there and my my wife. I've known this bar for a long time growing up there. And I've seen when it was Dutch Mill to players, to all these different bars. And I saw it was an opportunity for my family to actually own something in our neighborhood and take advantage of of something of what we want to call it, a dream. I think everyone wants to be their own owner and take advantage of raising their kids in their neighborhood. And I saw this chance for me to take advantage of it. With that being said, I talked to my best friend and my uncle. We actually walked the bar, already talked to a North Division commander who mostly told him that we want to change things in the neighborhood. We want to be on track with him and be on the same page. Well, when the vice came around and talked to us, we told them that we're signing on with the cameras. We're all for everything that we need to do to make the neighborhood better. Me growing up there, I want the bar to be back high. It was when I grew up. There were no problems, no friction, no fighting, no none of that. Like I said, I'm raising my daughter on the street, so I'm asking for you guys to give us a shot. We invested a lot. We didn't know that we were going to have this many issues because we didn't know that the bar was hated so much. We had to find it out later on down the road. It almost made us feel like we made a huge mistake. But I know we can change things around and it's going to be for the good for the neighborhood. One of the things that we want to do is going to continue to go out to the meetings we wanted to link up with Ground Association. I have heard of Great Association, but everything snowballed on us so fast that we weren't able to meet with her and we were trying to meet with you are still there. We talked to Jessica and Chris, so they told us certain things that we would have to do and the timing was just bad right now. Well, good for you. Congratulations. But it was just bad for us. So just. We're just asking for you guys to give us a chance. Thank you. Thank you, Nick Speaker. Honorable Mayor. Councilwoman, my name is Shaun Addison. I am the new owner that is requesting this license. 4:00 at night. I was raised in Long Beach. Got my high school education here. My college education. And I'm proud to say that I am from Long Beach or I was a I guess you could say made a man here . When I was presented with the opportunity to own a business in the city. I jumped at it. My best friend, as anybody would like, he said, is something that we've always dreamed of from the from the jump. It was just it was a great idea. You know, we were all for it. And then slowly but surely, we started to hear all this negative stuff about the previous owner and a lot of things that have been brought up about the previous owner. But that's not us. And I haven't had a chance to meet with the Grant Association. But like he said, we're all for being a part of the community. A lot of the things that she brought to to our attention just right now, some things that we haven't heard of cleaning up or making sure that things that may be a nuisance in the neighborhood are are taken care of by the new owners of the bar. Like you said, we met with the North Commander, Division COMISAR We had a good discussion with him, Jose Gonzalez, which is the plan that the community's community association policemen. We met with Detective Barzola and we've heard a lot of things that, like I said before, the previous owner did and he took advantage of a lot of things. But that's not what we want to do. Like we said, we want to get the bar back to what it was and we're hoping that we're afforded the opportunity and a chance to do that so we can be a part of the community and something that they can be proud of is not looked on as a nuisance, but just as a reputable business in the neighborhood. Thank you. Thank you. And our last speaker. Good evening. My name is Dan Forsberg. I'm the president of the DeForest Neighborhood Association in support of the Ground Association. I do have experience with that bar, in particular, not with the new owners, but over the last three owners between urinating underage girls, running in and out of there, busts going on close to that area. And I mean, it's unfortunate for these folks that they're they're coming in and being blindsided. However, we have an overconcentration of bars, liquor stores in problematic areas, including motels on Long Beach Boulevard, etc.. It's time that we honor the residents of North Long Beach. I've been there for 35 years. It's time we honor them with a little bit of an upswing to honor that renaissance that Rex is always talking about and move on. So I support Debbie and what she's doing. I'm hoping that these folks will meet with the Grant Association. They meet the first Thursday of the second Thursday of every month. You know, I don't know when the purchase has gone on, but I've also seen many, many, many times where there's a quick sale and it's grandfathered and all kinds of other things go on. It's time we stopped doing those types of things and just respect and honor the neighborhood. Thank you, Vice Mayor Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So. So with this circumstances, you know, it's a bit unfortunate that, you know, this is the this is the you know, the first time I heard from this property owner was, you know, a week or two ago because, you know, there was I'd probably received about 50 communications from residents within the last month . And when I say it's unfortunate, it's not particularly the new owners fault, but I think we need to be more clear in the direction when people apply. As soon as were notified that these things happen, we should have some sort of a process to, you know, go work with these people to modernize and update their users. We can say no tonight. But the reality is those bars aren't going anywhere. The last commander, when when when did this liquor license get shut down? The the previous liquor license. Mike, the previous liquor license was. Suspended in August of 2016. August 2016. And when was the last violation? It was at that same time. So it's been it was close is 2016. And just last year, I took my staff on a tour of all the bars after it was closed down. And it was why it was open and it was selling alcohol. We went to two tours to every single one of them, and that's just the history of this. There's a lot of history of these establishments. So the question for me isn't necessarily how do we continue to shut down bars on Artesia? The question is how do we pivot and create a new standard for bars on Artesia? You can have a dove bar. You can have something high quality. Muldoon's is an example. Rock Sands is an example. All the bars on on Second Street, these are great examples. But the standard for Artesia is it's just frankly too low. And we have to build more congruence and confidence with our residents and our neighbors because there's no way there's no way that this was going to. I mean, it's easy job for me because staff has already recommended a protest. So I'm going to uphold staff's protest. And I'm going to ask that. With this and I've talked with city staff already, and this is not a part of the motion. This is I just think it's appropriate for me to state this. I want to meet with our economic development folks and and whoever else is appropriate code enforcement, whoever, to develop a real strategy for the bars, the six bars on Artesia Boulevard. We've already done we've seen some great examples of what can happen. The last gentlemen's club in Long Beach was on Artesia Boulevard, and we leverage for them to give up their entertainment license in exchange for alcohol becoming a sit down restaurant. Now, their Uptown Bar Grill. Neighborhood associations actually meet there. You know, Pistons, a historic bar on Artesia Boulevard has been closed for years now. A new a new owner, Michael Barber, who has Falcons and others making an investment. How can we have a strategy on Artesia Boulevard to where property owners, if they want to invest and they want to be a good player, someone who wants to make an investment, increase the standard, raise a standard for the area. They have a path to do so. And it's not just we come to city council and they continue to get shut down. So my motion is to uphold staff's recommendation. But I do I would like to sit down with the property owners now that we've you know, we've met them, I'd love to sit down with them with our economic development folks and figure out a better strategy and agenda for this bar and all the bars in Artesia. So that's my motion. Thank you. Okay, there's a motion and a second. Please cast your votes. Motion carries. Maximum item. I think it's 15.