The O.C. Register is reporting that the Santa Ana City Council is looking to revise a stupid law that only allows dance permits to restaurants that serve food, precluding popular bars like Proof from getting their groove on. Thomas Gordon wrote about this back on February 26.
Doug Irving, the O.C. Register reporter who wrote about the dance permits, quotes Council Member Michele Martinez thusly, “”We do need a night life. If we want to be downtown Orange County, we need to do that, because that’s what a downtown is all about. That attracts people into a downtown.”
The lame Santa Ana City Council has a ways to go before they can say their downtown area is a cool place to hang out. They have previously banned tattoo parlors, massage parlors and hookah bars. Their octogenarian Republican city manager has made the city reflect his own “Coto de Caza” values. And Mayor Miguel Pulido and his council hacks have only been too happy to play along.
Of course the downside of getting crazy is what is happening in Fullerton’s downtown, where the City Council has had to crack down on drunken patrons. Not to mention the weird specter of seeing Santa Ana’s little guys, like Pulido, Jose Solorio, Jose Hernandez, etc. dancing around like crazed Oompah Loompahs!
The City of Santa Ana tried to emulate the Melrose District when they opened the “Artists Village” in the downtown area. But go to Melrose and you will see tattoo parlors, massage parlors and hookah bars. Probably a few nightclubs too. Santa Ana has a ways to go before the city can draw any legitimate comparisons to the Melrose District. Right now the city is more Maywood than Melrose.
The popular downtowns in Orange County include Fullerton and Brea, and Anaheim too. Not Santa Ana. Maybe not ever Santa Ana…which ought to be using the slogan “Orange County’s Downtown – Enter at Your Own Risk!”
Bars and restaraunts that are in violation of the current ordinances and don’t have the necessary permits for dancing but allow it anyway should be denied permits for 1 year so that they can prove that they are capable and willing to comply with the new ordinance.
I think it’s ok if they don’t allow “dirty dancing”! No Freakin please!!!!
Weren’t you slamming Fullerton a few weeks ago because of their downtown?
Make up you mind Pedroza!
#3,
That was no slam. The post was about the fact that Fullerton gets very little tax revenue from its nightlife, but they have to spend a bundle on cops to keep the crowds in some kind of order. They wanted nightlife, so they have it, but it isn’t exactly what they expected.
Meanwhile the SA Council keeps making everything illegal…and then they wonder why they have no nightlife.
In truth, it would be nice for families in Santa Ana to have more to do. Do you realize we have to leave town right now to do much of anything? We don’t have a major theater complex. We don’t have any bowling alleys or arcades. The downtown has very few restaurants open at night – and fewer less that cater to families.
We have to go to Irvine and Tustin most of the time. And to top it all off, Santa Ana has become increasingly dangerous. Who wants to expose their families to carjackings and drive-by shootings? Not me.