An Unusual Weekend on The Strip

An unlikely scenario occurred on the Broadway Strip in North Beach this past weekend: it was exceedingly uneventful for the Central Police Station.

This uncommon weekend only held one reported incident according to police officer Mark Alvarez. On Friday night between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. there was a radio broadcast of a large fight involving many people in front of Cable Car Pizza. However, the fight had dissolved by the time the police arrived; Saturday posed no problems at all on Broadway.

“I would say about 48 out of 52 weekends are problematic year-round on Broadway,” Alvarez said.

The Entertainment Commission usually gives some sort of attention to North Beach each meeting, if not just the Broadway Strip in regards to reviewing, reporting or approving certain after-hours adult businesses that line the street.

Merchants and residents alike also noticed the violence that erupts on the weekends. Kathleen Dooley a former storefront owner in North Beach is involved with a new group of Broadway merchants who are aiming to clean-up the violence.

“It will not be an easy task,” said Dooley. “The Entertainment Commission, with so many members being paid promoters for the industry, tends to look the other way when it comes to out-of-control clubs. The battle on Broadway is between the strip club owners—one company owns all the strip clubs but one—and the clubs that promote hip-hop events which are attracting a very violent crowd.”

According to Alvarez, the Strip itself requires a lot of police resources because of the amount of people from the North, South and East not just San Francisco.

“You get several thousand people together you’re going to have a problem, especially if you mix liquor and testosterone,” Alvarez said. “We have a lot of fist fights involving young males. Young people don’t understand the potency of the alcohol; they end up unconscious and have to be taken away in ambulances.”

According to Alvarez there is a zero tolerance policy. The police are often investigating nightclubs on the Strip for overcrowding, which can lead to fatal disasters involving such things as fire codes.

Most recently, police closed down Heaven Mini Theater, an adult entertainment club, which was operating without a permit.

“It was an unregulated strip club,” Alvarez. “We enforce the permit rules stringently. They just happened to slip through the cracks.”