It’s closing time on a sultry Saturday night in July, and Hermosa’s sometimes notorious downtown is tame as a pussycat.

Stragglers talk in knots outside Pier Plaza establishments. Up on Hermosa Avenue the knots are a bit larger and the stragglers a bit louder, but not that much.

Four members of a brand-new civilian group called Volunteers in Policing are prowling the downtown and the nearby residential neighborhoods, asking people to pour out the beer from their plastic cups and to stop urinating in public. On this night the party patrol hasn’t seen much action.

A visible police presence haunts the area as it has for years, and the nightspots’ managers have been aware throughout the evening that they might be subject to unannounced inspections by firefighters and police for overcrowding. Those same managers are well aware that city officials have moved to impose earlier closing times on three downtown establishments for allegedly violating too many rules or requiring too much police attention.

The call for a quiet and calm downtown represents a sea change in Hermosa, where homeowners and families have been slowly but surely replacing young renters since the 1970s. For years critics of the town’s nightlife fought a tug-of-war against the nightlife’s enjoyers and purveyors, but there are significant signs that the tide has turned, and if the party isn’t over, it will have to pipe down.

The party started in 1997 with the opening of the sparkling Pier Plaza promenade, which helped Hermosa attract a South Bay night crowd of which the previous hot spot, Manhattan Beach, was glad to be rid.

As Hermosa partied, resident activist Jim Lissner spent years pushing against what he called an over-saturation of alcohol-serving establishments in town. He challenged new liquor licenses and begged officials to think twice about upping the town’s blood alcohol content.

Lissner started out marching alone. But as he marched, the more and more residents began to fall in line behind him.

Old rental apartments continued to be torn down and replaced with more expensive condos. Single-family home prices soared and some new buyers plopped down millions, giving them a costly stake in their town. Greater numbers of homeowners popped up at public meetings to complain that late-night revelers from downtown careered through their neighborhoods, shouting beneath their shutters, peeing on their plants and even fighting outside their front doors.

Lissner used the internet to launch websites with information on Hermosa’s official doings, including those that are alcohol-related. In time, other residents launched sites of their own.

In 2006 an aggressive Neighborhood Watch formed, growing to more than 300 actively involved residents led by 150 block captains. The Neighborhood Watch website includes information on overcrowding citations against the nightspots.

Hermosa voters elected City Council candidates who heard residents’ complaints against the bars loud and clear. In November 2007 Michael DiVirgilio, who called for stiffer regulation of Pier Plaza businesses, got the largest number of votes.

Also in 2007, Lissner’s persistent action caused push to come to shove. Sharkeez, one of the most popular restaurants on the Plaza, had been gutted by fire in May 2006 and was planning to expand when it rebuilt. The City Council had loosened parking restrictions on the Plaza to allow the expansion. Lissner started collecting signatures for a ballot referendum that would let Hermosa voters overturn the council’s action.

Lissner got enough signatures to place his referendum on the ballot. Sharkeez’ owners responded by abandoning their expansion plans, saying they had to get busy rebuilding and couldn’t wait to see what the voters would do.

But the council’s loosening of parking rules would still have applied to other Plaza businesses, and the council majority faced a decision: either it would place the matter before voters, or reverse its action.

The pale, soft-spoken Lissner gazed up at the council dais, and the council majority blinked, voting to overturn their own action rather than face the voters.

A minority made up of Councilmen Kit Bobko and Michael Keegan wanted the matter placed on the ballot. Neither was sticking up for the original council action, which Bobko had opposed as hastily conceived. They said they wanted the voters to have their say about the Plaza.

What are we afraid of? Bobko asked his fellow council members.

Calling foul
The city’s crackdown has come chiefly in the forms of stepped up inspections for overcrowding, and restrictions such as earlier closing times for three nightspots singled out by Police Chief Greg Savelli.

The crackdown has not been entirely fair, according to some. On Hermosa Avenue, late-night hours were curtailed for The Shore and Blue 32, prompting owners to complain that they were unfairly singled out.

We feel that The Shore Restaurant should not have been singled out [for a review of its operations] when many nearby restaurants and bars had a much higher combination of police calls, alcohol violations, overcrowding violations and code violations in 2006, 2007 and 2008, co-owner Rainer Beck wrote in an Easy Reader letter to the editor.

This type of selective enforcement gives other businesses a significant competitive advantage over the next few years. In all fairness, what applies to us should apply to every similar business, he wrote.

Beck called for reviews of all liquor licenses and city-issued conditional use permits now, bold-facing the word for emphasis.

The Shore management and staff are committed to acting as responsible members of Hermosa Beach. We expect the same from our fellow tavern owners, he wrote.

City planning commissioners earlier this month imposed a 1 a.m. closing time on The Shore. At the time, Shore representative John Bowler, a former Hermosa councilman, said the restriction would move up last call only 15 to 30 minutes.

Commissioners praised The Shore as more of a legitimate restaurant than a nightclub.

Commissioners came down harder on Blue 32, which stands next to The Shore, imposing a midnight closure.

Blue 32 co-owner Dave Lowe also said his establishment was improperly singled out for the review, and contested Savelli’s accounts of the need for police resources to attend to Blue 32.

Lowe mounted a vigorous defense before the commissioners, saying complaints against Blue 32 were often exaggerated. On one occasion, he said, a city occupancy check counted 170 patrons inside Blue 32, then the management contested the count, and the patrons were herded outside for a count-out that found 125 patrons, which was not a violation.

Lowe said he paid fines for a couple of overcrowding violations, then decided to contest overcrowding citations, leading to two of them being dismissed by the city prosecutor.

State officials have accused Blue 32 of repeated violations of its state-controlled liquor license by selling more alcohol than food. But Lowe pointed out that state officials had not reached a formal conclusion about the allegations. He said it would cost $5,000 a month to meet a city requirement for audited receipts to prove that as much money is made from food sales as alcohol sales.

The Planning Commission also imposed a midnight closing time for Dragon on the Pier Plaza. The restriction was affirmed by the City Council, but it could be lifted in five months. Dragon’s owner has taken the position that it will continue to improve the business and hope city officials agree to reinstate a 2 a.m. closing time (See story page 14).

‘Unprecedented’
Ron Newman, president of the Hermosa Beach Restaurant Association and co-owner of Sharkeez, which reopens tonight on the Plaza, described the city crackdown as unprecedented.

I’ve never seen anything like this in all the years I’ve been in business, Newman said.

I think maybe a few hundred people would love to see the area go to sleep at an early hour. A majority doesn’t, he said, but the trouble is they don’t care about politics.

The City council, he said, overestimates the proportion of residents critical of the nightlife.

It’s a total imbalance, he said. If they hear from 30 homeowners the council folds.

Newman ‘ and some city officials ‘ said the nightspots get blamed for some problems that actually stem from neighborhood parties.

I live on Hermosa Avenue at 33rd. There’s nothing up there but homes. But there’s noise outside my place all the time from people coming from private parties or going down to the beach, he said. Two times recently I had to get up and turn on the outside lights just to let people know I was there. We live at the beach. You expect this stuff to happen.

But, he added, Downtown is changing for the better. Chief Savelli has done a really good job, and so have all the restaurants in the [Restaurant Association]. It’s a quieter, safer place, definitely more family oriented.

Even here
Even at two establishments long praised by police on patrol — Hennessey’s Tavern on the Plaza and Cafe Boogaloo on Hermosa Avenue ‘ owners complained that the overcrowding checks were overzealous.

I think the whole attitude of the city has changed toward businesses, said Paul Hennessey, who has operated in Hermosa for 32 years. The business environment has deteriorated like I’ve never seen before.

At about 3 p.m. the day of the town’s annual St. Patrick’s parade, police halted his operations for 45 minutes or more for alleged overcrowding, which is a violation of the state fire code, Hennessey said.

A city-approved band was playing on a city-approved stage outside on the Plaza, and 20 people were standing in line for the bathrooms at nearby Hennessey’s, he said.

He was cited for alleged overcrowding and is fighting the citation.

I think one time they told me 16 people were upstairs and another time they told me it was 49 or 50 people, Hennessey said. Obviously there was some ebb and flow.
He also said the inspectors counted his ample staff as patrons.

His attorney, Tony Capozzola, said, Paul Hennessey has been a fixture in Hermosa Beach for over 30 years, and he has never been involved in any enforcement action.

He has been involved in city activities and has received awards from the Chamber of Commerce for his civic involvement.

He sponsors Little League functions and cosponsors a bandstand, with the city, that they put right in front of his location on [during the Saint Patrick's Day celebration]. He’s always cooperated fully with the city and other regulatory agencies, and we are looking forward to an amicable resolution of this matter.

The city put that band right in front of him in the first place and then charged him with overcrowding, Capozzola said.

Steve Roberts, owner of Cafe Boogaloo, said a fire inspector freaked out one night and cited him for a level of overcrowding that wasn’t possible.

They said we had 300 people in here. I could take out every table and chair, and fill up the kitchen and the upstairs [where customers are not allowed to go] and I couldn’t fit that many in here, Roberts said. In 13 years I haven’t had a citation. I haven’t even had a warning.

A count-out, in which the establishment is emptied for a half-hour or more, left Roberts contending that he was 20 people over his limit.

In addition, he said, when the inspector came in Roberts was doing his own counting and working to trim the crowd, which had come to watch Grammy-winning musician Tab Benoit.

He just freaked out. People were up toward the stage and he couldn’t walk through, and he just freaked out, Roberts said. I understand, he’s watching out for safety. He’s doing his job.

Roberts paid a $1,200 fine.

It’s a lot of money, he said.

Still, he said, It’ll never happen again. We mind our Ps and Qs.

The fire inspector was on vacation and could not be reached for comment.

The city’s interim fire chief, Steve Parker, said during his two months on the job the establishments have stepped up their self-policing to avoid overcrowding.

He said a three-person fire and police team make unannounced checks of the town’s establishments, and respond to complaints of overcrowding, which is illegal under the state fire code.

Self-policing by the nightspots is the goal, he said.

Ideally we would love to not go out at all, he said.

Newman said count-outs are done when a nightspot’s management disagrees with a count made by inspectors from the fire and police departments.

Roberts sees the city crackdown as cyclic.

I’ve seen it flip-flop. You get a different council and a different [planning] commission, and it rolls with whoever can put the gavel on the table, Roberts said. I feel they have an agenda to quiet the city down and they’re doing it.

Calls for caution
Amid the smoke and fury, most City Council members are calling for a calibrated crackdown, fearing that too strong a hand might throttle Hermosa’s tradition of informal, beach-community fun.

Mayor J.R. Reviczky, who voted against a midnight closure for the embattled Dragon nightspot on the Plaza, has been the most outspoken city official to caution against throwing the baby out with the beer-water.

There is less tolerance of what was formerly acceptable in the beach lifestyle. I’ve been here most of my life, and I enjoy not just the good things but our blemishes that give us something to talk about. That’s my opinion, and I’m not in the majority anymore, he said.

Reviczky has taken part in the crackdown, telling the nightspots to clean up their act or face restrictions. But Reviczky also has taken part in monthly meetings with Savelli and the nightspot owners to gauge progress in quelling late-night problems.

I’ve been attending meetings with the residents and merchants for about a year now and the [police department's] statistics are getting better, Reviczky said. They’re trying to address the concerns of the community ‘ maybe not fast enough, depending on how you define fast enough.

Reviczky also said some of the late-night problems come from residents’ parties.

We’re still a young community. The red cups you see and the bottles that people accuse the businesses of being responsible for, the merchants are not responsible for that, he said. No one leaves a tavern or a restaurant or a bar with a red cup or a bottle. Those red cups are coming from our residents.

Reviczky harkened to Hermosa’s troubled relationship with the Pier Plaza area back when it was open to cars, before it was turned into the pedestrian Plaza. Long-timers say it was a rough place in the ’70s, and then a rowdy, sometimes drug-dealing element was weeded out and the area lay dormant until the Plaza was built.

I’ve been here long enough that I’ve seen what it’s like to have no businesses downtown, said the four-term councilman. In the early 90s we were broke and the downtown was boarded up. We’re a victim of our own success, in a way.

Bobko said as the late-night issues continue to be discussed, a larger pro-nightlife contingent might emerge.

If we made everybody close at midnight there is an element that would be thrilled, but we might kill off some businesses without really thinking about that. Hermosa is a beach community, I don’t think it’s going to become a teetotaler town, he said.

In the long run the great compromise will occur, Bobko predicted.

DiVirgilio, an outspoken proponent of regulating the nightspots, said he wants to turn up the heat only enough to make them behave like good neighbors to the residents, a view shared by Bobko.

If we use a big-bat approach in that process, we could wind up losing things we really like, DiVirgilio said. There are things that people on both sides of this discussion like about Hermosa ‘ there’s a relaxed, easygoing atmosphere that encourages people to have a good time.

DiVirgilio said the nightspots are responding to the warnings ‘ and in some cases the restrictions ‘ of the City Council and Planning Commission, and the complaints from resident groups. He also said the downtown is moving toward a balance that includes businesses such as Mama D’s restaurant that is frequented by the demographic that Hermosa is becoming, like young families ‘ not necessarily just-out-of-college singles ‘ who want to walk out for an evening.

Councilman Pete Tucker said the city’s enforcement efforts have prompted the nightspots to comply with the legal conditions governing their operations, and he credited Savelli with identifying those conditions. In at least one case the state liquor licenses called for earlier closing times than the city allowed; in the case of Blue 32 the city allowed dancing until officials learned that the establishment’s state-issued liquor license did not.

Tucker also praised Savelli’s efforts to determine which nightspots needed the most watching.

We’re starting to get compliance [from the nightspots], he said. It’s a slow process, it’s not instant gratification.
Tucker also predicted that the nightspots would prosper even under a more watchful city eye.

The Plaza is a popular place, he said. Those businesses are not going anywhere.

Tucker expects the establishments to better police themselves, and said a $2 million-plus investment in the rebuilt Sharkeez will help attract a whole different clientele. Sharkeez’ owners pointed to changes aimed at pleasing former critics, such as allowing diners only on the outdoor patio.

We’re a restaurant, co-owner Greg Newman said as he showed off the new Sharkeez, with wood floors, finer fixtures and Moroccan-themed touches. We’ve always had a huge menu.

Councilman Michael Keegan said the city is merely requiring nightspots to comply with the terms of their city-issued conditional use permits and liquor licenses. In many cases those documents require nightspots to serve as restaurants that serve alcohol, not bars that serve food.

I see them evolving into something more like restaurants, with more of a balance of food and alcohol according to the codes and ordinances, Keegan said.

He said Savelli is doing an exemplary job with the downtown.

Keegan said he foresees a downtown with re-gentrified restaurants.

An upscale downtown won’t attract such a late night crowd. People don’t go out to eat at midnight, he said. The late night party scene is not going to close, we are just taming it down.

U.S. census figures show the number of renter-occupied buildings shrinking from 5,889 in 1980 to 5,408 in 2000, while the number of owner-occupied homes grew from 3,245 to 4,068. City officials said the trend began before 1980 and has continued to the present.

The homeowners tend to be more conservative. They tend to be less tolerant of the late night activities, Keegan said.

It could be commensurate with the high taxes they pay. If you have a $2 million home you pay $20,000 in property tax. They’re contributing, and they want to know what they’re getting back, he said. They feel more vested. They’re more concerned with whether people are peeing on their lawn, whether their windshield is cracked or their antenna is broken, whether there are beer cans in the gutter. They take an active role.

‘Coming together’
Kelly Kovac-Reedy, co-founder of Neighborhood Watch, said she has seen significant improvement in the late-night picture.

I think it’s all coming together and it’s all working. If you ask me why, I’d say it’s the chief of police. I think he’s a strong leader and he’s fair, she said. It’s clearly not the same downtown since I started on Neighborhood Watch.

She said she met more pro-nightlife residents since she started tours of duty in the downtown and surrounding neighborhoods with a volunteer group that works under the police department.

It’s been educational. Before I started, I would have blamed the downtown for everything, just like everyone else does, she said. But there are a lot of young renters, young adults, who live right there and really have no problem with it.

She recalled one man quietly sipping a glass of wine on his patio while the noise of revelry from a close-by nightspot filled the air.

I asked him if the noise bothered him and he said ‘Naw, I love this area,’ Kovac-Reedy said. It was really eye opening to me.

You also see pizza boxes and red cups and beer bottles, and that has nothing to do with the bars, Kovac-Reedy said. But if they’re concerned about their image I think they should hire extra people like the North End [Bar & Grill in north Hermosa]. They pick up the trash, anybody’s trash.

Kovac-Reedy traced the downtown improvements to the city crackdown.

Since Dragon shut down at 12 o’clock it’s made a huge difference, she said.

She also praised the establishments for not overcrowding during the busy Fourth of July weekend.

I want to acknowledge your efforts for keeping your establishments below your occupancy requirements during this past holiday weekend, she wrote in an email to the Restaurant Association.

I was very pleased to hear from the fire chief that all were in compliance. I hope to not see your restaurant/bar in the weekly e-news sent out by HBNW [Neighborhood Watch] informing residents of the life safety checks in the downtown area that the HBFD and HBPD perform regularly, she wrote.

The email was signed Respectfully, Kelly Kovac-Reedy, co-founder and co-coordinator of the HBNW Program.

I’m not trying to be the meany, I just think these things are important, and I’m going to stand up for it, she said. Neighborhood Watch is really watching this situation.

Or not
The view of downtown progress is not unanimous. Marianne Wibberley, a resident activist who also meets with police and downtown businesses, said the nightspots are not succeeding in quelling the late-night problems.

Talk to people living in homes or businesses near Monterey Boulevard or Pier Avenue and you will hear stories of drunks defecating in front of their homes or businesses, she said.

Five thousand patrons are let out of our drinking establishments on weekend nights at 1 or 2 a.m. If only 5 percent are really drunk and rowdy, that’s still 250 people wandering through our ‘hoods drunk. The numbers are simply against the residents, she said.

Police have also placed the maximum number of downtown revelers higher than 3,000.

Wibberley said the nightspots’ owners seem sincere in their efforts to decrease the negative impacts their patrons have on the neighborhoods. They aren’t stupid. They know the residents’ opinions are important. But they also admit that as hard as they try to tell patrons to use the bathrooms before they leave and to be courteous, it is just hard to control drunks.

Taking aim
Former Councilman Sam Edgerton, who took a strong hand in building the Plaza, expressed unqualified approval of the city crackdown.

I think it’s great. This was going on in my last year in a big way, he said. If someone can’t behave you’ve got to do what’s best. You’re not entitled to stay open until 2 o’clock. It’s a privilege.

Edgerton said the 2 a.m. closing times don’t do anything good for the city.

The Mermaid never had any problems and they were open until 1 in the morning, he said, referring to the old-Hermosa hangout at the western end of the Plaza. Look at a place like Martha’s [a restaurant north of downtown]. It’s not open at night, and it’s probably the wealthiest restaurant in town.

He pointed also to Mediterraneo, a Plaza eatery with a large kitchen that was denied a 2 a.m. closing time and remained busy despite closing at midnight.

The problem is the Plaza and downtown. Everyone knows it, Edgerton said. There are two kinds of people. There are people like me who like to go down to the Plaza and have a couple drinks, and there’s the nocturnal type that likes to party until 4 in the morning, and they have an impact on the neighborhoods. ER