Downtown hip-hop-oriented clubs closing in face of security problems
OAKLAND — One by one, Oakland's troubled downtown nightspots are closing, a victim of their own popularity and a musical format that tends to draw a younger, more violence-prone crowd. But Oakland after hours isn't dead, just moving to a mellower beat, it seems, as the uptown area takes root and Old Oakland's resurgence fosters a booming nightlife.
Still, the so-called uptown entertainment district has taken another hit with the closure of the once-posh @17th nightclub on 17th Street. Mingles on the Embarcadero closed a year ago; Sweet Jimmie's on San Pablo Avenue a few months before that.
All three had featured disc jockeys playing hip-hop or Top 40 hits some nights, with radio ads drawing young, mostly African-American patrons from around the Bay Area. The clubs also drew the hangers-on who didn't want to pay the cover charge or kids who were too young to get in. Both, it seemed, would end up on the streets after closing time.
It was mostly the scenes outside the clubs that caused headaches for their owners, security guards and Oakland police, who were often called in to keep the peace, shut down sideshows, and respond to fights, stabbings and shootings.
The owners of @17th closed their doors voluntarily after two men were shot and killed and another wounded after leaving the nightclub in the early hours of Aug. 3, said Barbara Killey, the city's administrative hearing officer.
Killey had been working with the owners to come up with ways to discourage problems inside and outside the business. Killey said the owners had agreed to install cameras outside the buildingbut hadn't yet done it when the shootings occurred. Once they closed, Killey told them they couldn't reopen until they had installed the cameras and better lighting and met other safety conditions imposed by the city.
The club is still closed, and efforts to reach the owners were unsuccessful.
Oakland police Lt. Paul Berlin said the downtown area has been "unbelievably peaceful" since @17th closed. There were five separate shooting incidents nearby in the past year, but nothing since the club closed.
Mingles on Embarcadero was also constantly on the defensive over outbreaks of violence and drinking and loitering on the blocks around it near Jack London Square. Owner John Ivey voluntarily closed the venue a year ago after someone shot into a crowd of people leaving the club, killing a pregnant woman.
Ivey had tried to discourage troublemakers by imposing a dress code that forbade baggy jeans and T-shirts, but there were still problems.
Those problems did not occur on nights the clubs hosted jazz or blues, but that type of music doesn't pack the house, Berlin said.
After years of complaints from police and city officials about violence and sideshows around his nightclub, Jimmie Ward excluded hip-hop entirely from his musical lineup and saw his business dry up. He closed the club and sold the building.
A former San Jose nightclub owner later applied for a permit to open a nightclub in the same location, but police and city leaders couldn't support his plan to offer Top 40 hits that included hip-hop.
The applicant was also up against a municipal ordinance that prohibits cabarets from opening within 300 feet of schools, churches or libraries. Elected officials, realizing that such an ordinance all but prevents the creation of a true entertainment district downtown, will consider an amendment Tuesday that allows discretion in granting permits to new clubs that adhere to strict conditions.Killey said the applicant has since said he plans to open a salsa club, which might work in his favor.
"From a police perspective, I have no problem with any club opening up in Oakland," Berlin said. "However, we have to do it right, and have everything in place; the right amount of security, the right signage, the right people monitoring the customers and making sure we don't have loitering."
Berlin said the owners and managers of @17th tried to do the right thing. In fact, they were very cooperative, he said. When Sweet Jimmie's was open, large crowds leaving both venues at closing time would create a critical mass in the area that often sparked sideshows, and sometimes, violence. It was better after Jimmie's closed, but not good enough.
"Kids from Richmond, Pittsburg, the outlying areas, were coming in and acting up," Berlin said, adding that most of the victims who were hurt or killed were not from Oakland. "The club had security. They tried their hardest to make it work, and the city worked with them."
Zazoos and Geoffrey's play Top 40 and hip-hop, but Geoffrey's draws an older crowd, and neither has been plagued by the same type of violence, Berlin said.
So where is the younger, hip-hop crowd going now? Maybe San Francisco, said Abdul Qudus, 35, one of the partners of Air, a loungelike dance club on Ninth Street in Old Oakland that opened nearly two years ago.
The venue doesn't play hip-hop, and it has a dress code, so young people aren't going there, or at least not more than once.
"We're more like a bar lounge instead of a club," Qudus said. "We have a DJ, but we try to keep the music more on the mellow side, soul, reggae.
"The dress code kind of deters them outside, and when they get inside, there's not Top 40-KMEL kind of songs. So even if they do get a chance to get in, they don't come back," he added. "The music and the vibe we create is different. If you like the hyphy kind of thing, you won't get that here."
The amendment to the Oakland Municipal Code regarding cabaret permits will be discussed at the Public Safety Committee, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., City Hall, 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza.
OAKLAND — One by one, Oakland's troubled downtown nightspots are closing, a victim of their own popularity and a musical format that tends to draw a younger, more violence-prone crowd. But Oakland after hours isn't dead, just moving to a mellower beat, it seems, as the uptown area takes root and Old Oakland's resurgence fosters a booming nightlife.
Still, the so-called uptown entertainment district has taken another hit with the closure of the once-posh @17th nightclub on 17th Street. Mingles on the Embarcadero closed a year ago; Sweet Jimmie's on San Pablo Avenue a few months before that.
All three had featured disc jockeys playing hip-hop or Top 40 hits some nights, with radio ads drawing young, mostly African-American patrons from around the Bay Area. The clubs also drew the hangers-on who didn't want to pay the cover charge or kids who were too young to get in. Both, it seemed, would end up on the streets after closing time.
It was mostly the scenes outside the clubs that caused headaches for their owners, security guards and Oakland police, who were often called in to keep the peace, shut down sideshows, and respond to fights, stabbings and shootings.
The owners of @17th closed their doors voluntarily after two men were shot and killed and another wounded after leaving the nightclub in the early hours of Aug. 3, said Barbara Killey, the city's administrative hearing officer.
Killey had been working with the owners to come up with ways to discourage problems inside and outside the business. Killey said the owners had agreed to install cameras outside the buildingbut hadn't yet done it when the shootings occurred. Once they closed, Killey told them they couldn't reopen until they had installed the cameras and better lighting and met other safety conditions imposed by the city.
The club is still closed, and efforts to reach the owners were unsuccessful.
Oakland police Lt. Paul Berlin said the downtown area has been "unbelievably peaceful" since @17th closed. There were five separate shooting incidents nearby in the past year, but nothing since the club closed.
Mingles on Embarcadero was also constantly on the defensive over outbreaks of violence and drinking and loitering on the blocks around it near Jack London Square. Owner John Ivey voluntarily closed the venue a year ago after someone shot into a crowd of people leaving the club, killing a pregnant woman.
Ivey had tried to discourage troublemakers by imposing a dress code that forbade baggy jeans and T-shirts, but there were still problems.
Those problems did not occur on nights the clubs hosted jazz or blues, but that type of music doesn't pack the house, Berlin said.
After years of complaints from police and city officials about violence and sideshows around his nightclub, Jimmie Ward excluded hip-hop entirely from his musical lineup and saw his business dry up. He closed the club and sold the building.
A former San Jose nightclub owner later applied for a permit to open a nightclub in the same location, but police and city leaders couldn't support his plan to offer Top 40 hits that included hip-hop.
The applicant was also up against a municipal ordinance that prohibits cabarets from opening within 300 feet of schools, churches or libraries. Elected officials, realizing that such an ordinance all but prevents the creation of a true entertainment district downtown, will consider an amendment Tuesday that allows discretion in granting permits to new clubs that adhere to strict conditions.Killey said the applicant has since said he plans to open a salsa club, which might work in his favor.
"From a police perspective, I have no problem with any club opening up in Oakland," Berlin said. "However, we have to do it right, and have everything in place; the right amount of security, the right signage, the right people monitoring the customers and making sure we don't have loitering."
Berlin said the owners and managers of @17th tried to do the right thing. In fact, they were very cooperative, he said. When Sweet Jimmie's was open, large crowds leaving both venues at closing time would create a critical mass in the area that often sparked sideshows, and sometimes, violence. It was better after Jimmie's closed, but not good enough.
"Kids from Richmond, Pittsburg, the outlying areas, were coming in and acting up," Berlin said, adding that most of the victims who were hurt or killed were not from Oakland. "The club had security. They tried their hardest to make it work, and the city worked with them."
Zazoos and Geoffrey's play Top 40 and hip-hop, but Geoffrey's draws an older crowd, and neither has been plagued by the same type of violence, Berlin said.
So where is the younger, hip-hop crowd going now? Maybe San Francisco, said Abdul Qudus, 35, one of the partners of Air, a loungelike dance club on Ninth Street in Old Oakland that opened nearly two years ago.
The venue doesn't play hip-hop, and it has a dress code, so young people aren't going there, or at least not more than once.
"We're more like a bar lounge instead of a club," Qudus said. "We have a DJ, but we try to keep the music more on the mellow side, soul, reggae.
"The dress code kind of deters them outside, and when they get inside, there's not Top 40-KMEL kind of songs. So even if they do get a chance to get in, they don't come back," he added. "The music and the vibe we create is different. If you like the hyphy kind of thing, you won't get that here."
The amendment to the Oakland Municipal Code regarding cabaret permits will be discussed at the Public Safety Committee, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., City Hall, 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza.
shut its doors due to the excessive violence that took place outside the cabaret after closing hours. Basically, whatever arguments started in the club always seemed to turn deadly outside the club. As a result, Mingles had a reputation for being the last club you might live to party at.
