Valley Operators Blame New Ordinance : Teen-Age Discos Hurting for Business

Less than a month after teen-age dance clubs fell under the strict controls of a Los Angeles ordinance, club operators are complaining that youths from the San Fernando Valley are being driven beyond the city limits to discos with fewer restrictions.

Business at Hot Trax in Van Nuys has plunged by 40% to 50% in recent weeks, according to owner Douglas Noecker. “I’m losing money at the moment, and the club may not be there if it continues like this,” he said.

Kevin Parr, manager of Phases, a Canoga Park disco for teen-agers, said attendance Friday nights now stands at about 200, down from an estimated 500 in April, when controversy over Phases began building at City Hall. “For the last month or two, I’ve been barely able to pay the bills,” Parr said.

Decline at Reseda Club

The city’s third teen club, Sherman Square Entertainment Center in Reseda, experienced a 15% to 20% attendance drop for its dances, which are usually run once a week on a converted skating rink, general manager Charles Siegmund said.

The new ordinance may not be entirely to blame for lagging business, teen-club owners and critics alike acknowledge. Some drop-off might be because of the Aug. 17 shooting death of a 15-year-old patron outside Hot Trax.

“Parents are aware now that they’re not sending their kids to Sunday school,” said Betty Beaird, coordinator of Parents Concerned About Teen Discos, a Valley-based group that pushed for the stricter controls.

But the new ordinance is taking the lion’s share of the blame from teen-club owners, who protest that they are being unjustly singled out.

They also say that the framers of the ordinance unwittingly have exposed youths to greater dangers and temptations by encouraging them to drive farther or hold their own, unsupervised parties.

Ordinance’s Provisions

The ordinance, approved by the City Council and Mayor Tom Bradley in mid-summer, requires that nightspots close to teen-agers by 10 p.m. on school nights and by 1 a.m. on other nights. It also restricts attendance at teen-age clubs to those from 13 to 21 who are carrying proof of age; youths 13 to 15 must either be accompanied by a parent or guardian or have written permission to attend.

The ordinance also addresses teen-club employees and requires that employees refuse admission to intoxicated youths and report them to parents and police.

Club owners said the ordinance is increasing the number of teen-agers who seek out clubs where they can mix with adults over 21, who can legally be served liquor. They also argue that more teen-agers will purchase bogus identification cards and try to enter adult dance clubs, which permit those over 18 to enter but legally serve liquor only to those over 21.

Parties featuring alcoholic beverages in Valley-area parks and canyons also will become more popular, owners contend.

“By overprotecting the kids, they’re going to drive them away from home,” Phases’ Parr said. “Now a lot of parents don’t know where their kids are going.”

Club operators and police say that many teen-agers are being drawn to discos such as the 321 Club, a Santa Monica disco that admits teens but also serves liquor to adults over 21. The 321 Club has been the scene of fights among patrons and bouncers, and drinking and loitering outside, said Jeffrey W. Holtzman, a consumer affairs attorney for the City of Santa Monica. He said the city has cracked down on the club recently.

Teen-age clubs in Ventura, Pasadena, Long Beach and Orange County are attracting more teen-agers from Los Angeles, especially the Valley, owners say.

“We expect to see an increase from the Valley, especially on weekdays,” said Gene Stiles, owner of Xenon West, a Ventura disco for teen-agers. Stiles said about one-third of his business comes from the Valley area and that several customers recently told him they are driving to Ventura because of the new ordinance. Xenon West does not serve liquor.

Supporters of the ordinance acknowledge that teen-agers are going elsewhere to do their partying and dancing.

“It’s an initial response to the ordinance,” agreed Beaird. “There are always some peripheral problems that come up when you try to fix something.”

Beaird said the solution lies not in relaxing the teen-club ordinance but in stepping up enforcement against adult clubs that are lax in checking IDs.

‘Rather Disheartening’

“It’s rather disheartening to work for a year at getting an ordinance and find that it only applies to a few clubs,” she said.

But Beaird and other supporters of the ordinance doubt that the exodus of teen-agers from the city at night is enough to undermine its value. They said they believe the threat of a legal challenge is an idle one.

Meanwhile, police report that the Los Angeles clubs’ compliance with the new ordinance appears to be satisfactory.

Of the three teen-age clubs, Phases has had by far the greatest number of complaints, primarily, police believe, because it is near a residential area.

Phases has still another fight on its hands--turning its temporary operating permit into a permanent one.

Parr, who plans to buy the club if the permanent permit is granted, acknowledged that police have cited the club for seven violations. Minors were admitted without proper identification and the club was cited for a lack of security personnel, police said.

Police Watching

Each weekend, police patrols check the parking lots where youths congregate near the club, and investigators have made several spot age checks inside the club, said Capt. Bayan Lewis of the West Valley Division.

Lewis said police are dissatisfied with Parr’s supervision of youths around the club, and he believes the ordinance will do little to stop drunkenness and loitering.

Parr says the police attention has bordered on harassment.

“I’ve probably had more police scrutiny than any other club--teen or adult--in Los Angeles,” said Parr, manager of the club since 1981. “I’ve literally had every department in the city out here checking for violations.”

Parr said he and and Noecker of Hot Trax have discussed a legal challenge to the ordinance.

Successful Challenge

In 1976, Noecker and three other club owners successfully fought an obscure section of the city’s dance ordinance that made it a misdemeanor for parents and guardians to allow minors to enter dance clubs, unless only minors were in attendance.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ordered the city not to enforce the provision. Two years later the City Council substituted a regulation requiring licensing of teen clubs before passing the latest, strictest measure.

City officials said they feel they are on firm ground with the new ordinance.

“It’s clearly the law that the state has much more power to control businesses where children are involved,” said Deputy City Atty. Donna Weisz, who helped draft the ordinance.

“If the owners really thought it was unconstitutional, there already would have been a legal challenge,” she said. “They’re just not happy they didn’t get everything they want.”