Police want to create a new permitting process for restaurants and clubs that provide entertainment, according to a proposal headed to a City Council committee this week.
Officers also could pursue a moratorium on new dance permits for the downtown core. It isn't clear if the department will deny permits for the 13 bars and clubs that currently have them when they come up for renewals.
"It's planning for the future," Sgt. Craig Gundlach said. "How are we shaping the downtown area and how can we make it into the type of venue that is most beneficial for the entire commu-nity?"
Lt. Ron Cloward, who oversees the department's Downtown Entertainment District unit, said the proposal would allow restaurants to provide some entertainment, such as a band or a DJ, but dancing would not be permitted.
He said nightclubs with dance permits provide alcohol and dancing to large crowds. He said that atmosphere produces problems such as fights and public drunkenness, taxing a Police Department facing a budget crunch.
More clubs need more security
In 1999, downtown Modesto had one nightclub with a dance permit. It now has 13. Since 2003, the department's yearly spending on downtown security has increased tenfold to nearly $500,000.
The department's proposal follows a year in which it reached out to downtown restaurant and bar owners to craft law enforcement plans. Although the two groups have worked together this past year to solve common problems, Cloward said it's become too costly to keep the area safe on weekends.
"That's a lot of nightclubs to saturate one area," Cloward said. "If you keep adding nightclubs, pretty soon you're going to need additional resources down here."
A recent monthly meeting of downtown nightlife business owners and Modesto police turned into a heated debate over plans to deny new permits, with some owners saying the pro- posal would diminish a thriving nightclub scene.
The dispute could be seen by some as a return to an animosity-filled relationship. But owners and police officials said it's a healthy discussion that never existed before and is the catalyst for solving problems with a common interest in mind.
"It was more confrontational years ago," Cloward said. "What we're doing isn't perfect, but we're evolving, growing and improving."
The proposal comes nearly a year after an unruly crowd at a Labor Day weekend downtown dance for high school-aged customers resulted in street violence that overwhelmed Mo- desto police officers, who called nearby law enforcement agencies for help. Police formed a riot line to handle the crowd and arrested 17 people last Sept. 3.
The department's plan comes as the Gallo Center for the Arts prepares for its opening, which will add to the nearly 3,000 people who already flood downtown on weekend nights.
Working together
The two groups have worked fairly well in recent months, with each attending training sessions on how best to handle big crowds, and police agreeing to do a better job of blending in.
"That's been the biggest change this year -- the relationship between police and the businesses," said Chris Ricci, gen-eral manager of Fat Cat Music House & Lounge. "There's a lot of dialogue right now. Just because you disagree with someone doesn't mean you hate them."
Among the actions by busi-nesses and police that have helped to change the atmosphere:
The Downtown Improvement District spent $2,800 to buy black road barricades that blend in with the streets. They replaced orange cones and white barricades used to block traffic on 10th and J streets on Friday and Saturday nights after 10.
"The old barricades used to look like there was construction going on," Ricci said.
Late-night business owners said the new barricades are more inviting to customers but still provide safety benefits to pedestrians and tactical access to police.
Officers compromised by limiting the area they barricaded. They no longer shut 11th Street, which allows people access to another parking garage.
Police designated six curbside parking spots for its patrol cars, so officers can easily get out of their cars to walk around and interact with customers and bar owners.
Business owners complained patrol units parked in the middle of the street in front of the nightclubs were deterring customers.
Police-only parking spots are in effect from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., Thursday through Sunday.
Bars and nightclubs are participating in soft-close procedures to reduce the number of people exiting at the same time. Bouncers and bartenders have started using an identity card system to keep track of repeat violent customers.
These strategies work, but only if all the businesses are participating, said Rudy Baca, who owns Modesto Sports Bar and Grill and the Palladium and Velocity nightclubs.
"We stop serving alcohol at 2 a.m., but we turn on the lights and let them stay here until 3 a.m.," Baca said about the soft-close procedure. "They dance a little bit and get some food. Nobody is being thrown out."
Nightlife business employees and officers have gone through training in the past year to better handle the large crowds.
Cloward said 90 officers who patrol the area attended workshops on ordinances focused on downtown, crowd control and soft-close procedures.
Business owners and their employees attended four-hour workshops on some of the same subjects, along with a kind of verbal judo training, which teaches tactical communication to avoid a violent response.
This working relationship seemed far-fetched when police and business owners began meeting three years ago, said Nancy Young, executive director of the Modesto Downtown Improvement District.
"We would sit down and talk, but we were still fighting when we would leave," Young said. "There's a lot more openness now and attendance (at the meeting) is up."
'Tapped out on resources'
There's no doubt that bars and nightclubs attract large crowds on the weekends.
But fights and public drunkenness have plagued the 12 blocks that make up the downtown entertainment district.
Skirmishes and citations keep 10 to 12 Modesto police officers and two sergeants on patrol through the area on weekend nights. Those officers work strictly overtime, and the department's costs for policing the neighborhood on weekends jumped from $46,960 four years ago to $495,737.
Meanwhile, the department is facing a request to cut 7 percent of its spending in keeping with a drop in sales and property tax revenue.
Also, the department is losing more than $120,000 in revenue the city is now using for maintaining the downtown parking garages.
"We are tapped out on resources," Cloward told the business owners. "We just can't give out any more dance permits."
Baca said the proposal could take downtown Modesto back to what it used to be before revitalization.
"(City officials) want the money to stay here, that's what the entertainment spots are for," Baca said. "Without those nightclubs, bars and restau- rants, it's just going to be a dead town."
Ricci agrees there needs to be a plan for the area's future, but it should not abandon what's already working.
"This proposal could change the entertainment district overnight," said Ricci, who worries it would deter businesses from opening.
Diversification and Gallo
Change, however, is what the department has in mind.
"What this is about is diversifying the entertainment possibilities in the downtown area," Gundlach said.
John Whitehead, owner of Central Stamp and Coin on 10th Street, likely would agree with Gundlach. He said downtown's nightlife has taken a toll on his business in the past couple of years.
Front windows were smashed twice in that time. Alarms frequently go off at his store, set off by loud music emanating from speakers on weekend nights.
"We want to shut up our windows and close things down," Whitehead said, though he has no specific plans to move out of downtown.
It remains to be seen how the Gallo center will affect the safety equation downtown. It opens Sept. 27 and will no doubt increase weekend crowds.
City Councilman Brad Hawn and Assistant Police Chief Mike Harden have suggested that the center's patrons likely will calm the scene by mixing in hundreds or thousands of people seeking weekend entertainment, but from an older demographic.
"There's going to be diversity that takes place down here," Cloward said. "But you have to manage that."
The arts center's two theaters have a capacity of slightly less than 1,700. The 13 restaurants and clubs that have dance permits have a capacity of more than 5,000.
Fred Silva, chairman of the arts center's board of directors, said restaurants and bars will thrive with the diverse crowd.
"I don't think the two groups will conflict," Silva said. "Instead you'll see the two groups will commingle. Downtown will be seen as a destination for the entire city."
The Modesto City Council Safety and Communities Committee meets at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in Room 2005 of Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St.
Bee staff writer Rosalio Ahumada can be reached at rahumada@modbee.com or 578-2394. Bee staff writer Adam Ashton can be reached at aashton@modbee.com or 578-2366.
