May 1, 2008

City Council votes for late hours downtown

By Carol Rosen
Editor

Despite concerns from San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis and Mayor Chuck Reed, the City Council voted Tuesday to allow downtown restaurants and sidewalk cafés to stay open until 2 a.m. on weekends.

During the discussion preceding the vote, several council members pointed out that a vibrant 24-hour city has to offer late hours. Councilmember Judy Chirco, who noted she had been waffling on the issue, suggested the council be “cautiously extravagant.” As for problems with juveniles, she said they go where they won’t be seen and the more people around, the less attractive the area will be for underage kids.

“We need to create a more balanced site. When there are problems, the owners will have to deal with Alcohol and Beverage Control and others. We must take a balanced risk for this challenge,” Chirco said. However, she asked that an evaluation be made before 12 months.

The motion was revised at that point to include an update at six months with an evaluation—for time to see how the program works—in a year.

Earlier Councilmember For-rest Williams suggested, “if it [the plan] doesn’t work, we can always go back.”
But Reed countered that, “if we try this and it doesn’t work, the damage will be done.” His concerns echoed those of Davis, that too few officers from an under-numbered force will spend more overtime and compensatory time because of the longer hours.

"We are talking about closing at midnight for upwardly mo-bile professionals who often don't even go out until 11 o'clock at night," Councilwoman Nancy Pyle said. "I’m just trying to understand what the big problem is. It is not clear to me at all."

Liccardo talked about noise being the big issue, bigger than underage drinkers. “I have heard from downtown residents about the noise,” he said.

Downtown resident Steph-anie Sorenson concurred. "Their behavior is extremely disturbing and distressing to me as a resident," she said. "I have a serious problem with the fact that so many patrons are so young and coming from outside the city and throwing up on my sidewalks and urinating on my building."

And Chief Davis agreed. "The police department is wholeheartedly behind the concept of expanding the vitality of downtown," Davis said. "But we have to deal with the reality of what's taking place downtown."

But the measure passed by a 7-4 vote with Reed and Council-members Pete Constant, Sam Liccardo and Kansan Chu voting against it.

Soft closing
Davis noted that only five of the 13 restaurants and bars that signed up to participate in a pilot program offered soft closing hours at 3 a.m. The program allows establishments to stop serving alcohol at 1:30 but patrons can leave at their leisure instead of all at the same closing times. The council voted to continue the program.

Several owners noted during the public speaking portion that customers really liked the program. “It allows patrons to sober up or find a ride home without being pushed out onto the street,” one owner said. “The customers felt like they wanted to come back.”

Several other agenda topics passed with much back and forth rhetoric, including railed-off sidewalk cafes and allowing street vendors during the day.

Convention center
In an attempt to bring more people to the city, the council has been considering expanding the San Jose McEnery Convention Center to nearly 900,000 square feet. The expansion includes increasing ballroom space to 60,000 square feet and adding meeting space for up to 64,000 square feet.

The council voted on Tuesday to spend nearly $6 million in renovating the convention center. Council members approved $4.25 million for schematic designs and $1.5 million for pre-construction services to replace the center’s heating and cooling.

Total cost of renovation is $250 million of which the city’s redevelopment agency would provide $125 million with the remainder coming from the hotel transient tax, which will be increased to 14 percent from its current level of 10 percent.