“The precedent in that case was that there had to be some mechanism-a special permit process, if you will, regulating hours during which business can be done,” Homann said.
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Homann based his challenge on a case in which the state Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a City of Los Angeles law requiring that adult movie arcades close at 2 a.m. to 11 a.m., Trax was ordered to stop the late-night dances.īut Ingram filed a legal challenge to that ordinance, and in May, Superior Court Judge Mack Lovett issued a permanent injunction striking down the law, ruling that it was too vaguely written to be fairly enforced, particularly since dancing had commonly been allowed at bars citywide after 6 a.m., the legal starting time for serving liquor. When it was discovered that the City of San Diego had long ago passed a law forbidding clubs with dance licenses to do business from 2 a.m. Ingram won Round One of the legal battle. Plus, when you look at other cities in the state, you see the law clearly is on our side. Even I was amazed by the response to after-hours dancing-I never imagined people who live outside the downtown area would line up for anything in the Gaslamp at 3 a.m., or that I would literally have to throw out big crowds of people at 6 a.m. “But we’ll be back in business after hours. “I see the council meeting on Monday as a mere formality-there’s no way they will go against the police,” Ingram said. And many of the dancers are ready to join the fray-more than 1,500 signatures on petitions opposing the proposal were gathered at Trax in less than a week and delivered to the council. Ingram has vowed to challenge the new law, setting the stage for a protracted legal battle over the right to dance until dawn in San Diego. “The whole situation seems very narrow-minded and small-town.” “Pending court cases, San Diego now will have the distinction of being the only major city in California that rolls up its sidewalks at 2 a.m.,” said Tom Homann, Ingram’s attorney, noting that San Francisco and Los Angeles allow after-hours dancing. The proposal already has the unanimous approval of the council Public Services and Safety Committee and is expected by Ingram and city officials alike to easily pass the council.Īfter Monday, Trax’s lights likely will go out and its dance party will be over at 2 a.m., at least for a time. This morning, the City Council will consider an ordinance drafted by Councilman Ed Struiksma that would specifically require clubs with dance licenses to close from 2 to 6 a.m. And they expressed the fear that problems would result in other city neighborhoods if other clubs were to begin promoting dancing after hours. They quickly added the after-hours hot spot to the hit list of Gaslamp businesses-like card rooms and adult bookstores-that they say attract crime and other unsavory activities and the kind of people they have worked so hard to eliminate from the revitalized area.
To Ingram, the vibrant scene represents not only a financial bonanza, but a fascinating social microcosm-a unique meeting of the wide range of minds and life styles in San Diego’s burgeoning urban center.īut city officials and police see a distinctly different picture at Trax. On weekends, Trax regularly is packed to its capacity of 300 people after hours, and block-long lines outside the club are common, even at 4 a.m. Gays and straights, teen-age punkers and fashionably attired yuppies dance side by side till the wee hours of the morning-if they have the luck and patience to get inside. But with an infusion of revelers from the bars and nightclubs that close just when Trax is starting to rock, the makeup of the crowd changes. Before 2, Trax’s clientele is young (minimum age for admission is 18, and no liquor is served) and predominantly gay. Ingram’s after-hours innovation was an instant sensation. Last spring, Bruce Ingram, owner of Trax, a new disco in the Gaslamp Quarter, introduced a social attraction common to most major cities but new to San Diego-a four-hour dance starting at 2 a.m.