33 Businesses Declared ‘Off Limits’ : Motel Protests Military’s Black Mark

Several years have passed since the Navy first pinned a Scarlet Letter on the Dolphin Motel, a Loma Portal area establishment that features “fresh-water hot tubs with giant-size mirrors,” X-rated movies in all the rooms and special rates for those wishing to stay three hours or less.

It was probably the prostitution raid in 1985 that ultimately prompted Navy officials to declare the motel off limits to all military personnel. The word went out from the Silver Strand to Camp Pendleton that any sailor or Marine found on the premises faced certain and swift discipline.

The operators of the Dolphin have borne the indignity quietly for the past three years, but now they believe the time has come to remove the motel’s black mark. Management, they say, has been reorganized, the prostitutes have long since been banished and the motel’s business is conducted with the utmost discretion.

“We have nothing to hide here--nothing,” said the Dolphin’s owner, who spoke on the condition his name not be used. “In fact, anyone can come down here and see that there’s nothing wrong.”

Bad for Business

The owner has written a letter to the Navy that he said he intends to send sometime this week in an attempt to get his motel taken off its official “Off Limits” list. The Dolphin’s place on the list, along with 32 other taboo establishments in San Diego County, has been bad for business, the owner said.

“We don’t like it because of the stigma that’s attached to it. . . . Why the Navy has us on the damn thing is beyond me,” the owner said.

His pique was shared by the handful of proprietors who agreed to discuss their places on the list. A number of the 33 businesses put on the list last spring by the Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board have moved or have closed. Most contacted by The Times declined to discuss the matter.

The Navy declined to discuss specific cases, or even to provide a copy of the most recent list, preferring instead to keep the issue low-key by publicizing the list periodically in small-circulation military-base newspapers throughout the county. The list names a number of adult bookstores, gay bathhouses and “head shops” apparently suspected of selling drug paraphernalia.

The businesses generally are singled out because of illegal activity or because sailors or Marines have complained about problems they encountered there, said Chief Petty Officer Craig Heubler, a spokesman for the San Diego Naval Base and a representative on the local Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board. The board is made up of 30 to 40 representatives from all of the Navy and Marine Corps bases in San Diego County. It meets periodically to evaluate complaints about local businesses in their dealings with military personnel.

The complaints can range from minor disputes with local merchants to police reports of muggings or other trouble at an entertainment establishment, Heubler said. The problems with legitimate business people generally are worked out, he said.

But sometimes--for example, with head shops--no solution is found and they are placed off limits, Heubler said.

“Many of the items for sale relate to drugs,” Heubler said. “Primarily the Navy policy is zero tolerance concerning drugs.” The shops are sent notification that they will be put off limits, and are given a chance to come before the board to respond, but most owners don’t bother to show up, he said.

‘Their Problem, Not Mine’

One who did was Vic McCully, owner of Synthetic Trips on University Avenue. “They say I sell drug paraphernalia and I don’t, because it’s illegal,” McCully said. “This was years ago, and I’ve never tried to rectify it because I don’t care. That’s their problem, not mine.”

When he first got a letter from the Navy about the matter five or six years ago, McCully said, he went to a meeting held by Navy officials, but decided not to press the matter. “They just mailed out letters to a whole bunch of stores in San Diego that they thought were selling drug paraphernalia,” he said.

“They said they had a meeting planned and you could attend if you wanted to. They didn’t even ask, they just decided this was what they were going to do and they did . . . . You couldn’t talk to them. They already had their mind made up.”

McCully said his store sells gift items, including tobacco products, T-shirts, posters, rolling papers and water pipes, but not marijuana pipes or bongs.

McCully, in business since 1968, said he is not concerned about being on the list and had, in fact, forgotten about it. “It matters less to me,” he said. “If I was right across the street from the naval base, maybe it would.”

Proximity to a number of major military bases, including the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, the Naval Training Center and the Naval Ocean Systems Center is a consideration, however, at the Dolphin Motel, whose location near downtown and the bay puts it in competition with dozens of hotels and motels, none of which is on the list. The owner of the Dolphin said he received a letter from the Navy informing him the motel’s adult movies and three-hour rates were objectionable.

But many of the hotels, some “right next-door to Navy bases,” show adult movies, too, the owner complained. “What right do they have to put someone on there who’s operating perfectly legally? It sounds like discrimination.”

“What is the big objection to hourly rates?” the owner asked. “We have fishermen that come in here, they just want to take a shower. We have people from the airport that come in here. They want to just clean up.”

“We’re perfectly legal,” he said. “If there’s anything illegal going on, they would shut us down.” There have been no problems in recent years with sailors or Marines getting into fights or getting hurt on the premises, he added.

Even so, the owner said: “We have no intentions of discontinuing the adult movies. If that’s what they say was the reason, then we’ll always be on (the list).”

Similar Shops Abound

While not commenting specifically on the Dolphin Motel case, Heubler said the Navy does not rule an establishment off limits simply because it is a sex-oriented business. In fact, dozens of adult bookstores and sex paraphernalia shops cater to the large military clientele in San Diego, and only a few are off limits.

The problem at the few can be that “somebody gets rolled in the back room or there are other little things that go on in these stores,” Heubler said. “If they stay out of trouble and nobody’s complaining about them,” they will not be put off limits.

For example, the popular F Street Bookstore, which sells adult books and sexual items, is off limits, while the nearby Gaslamp Books, which sells similar items and offers peep shows, is not on the list and is frequented by military personnel. Attempts to discuss the matter with employees or owners of the F Street Bookstore were unsuccessful.

Cal Sturgis, manager of Gaslamp Books, says he keeps his shop off the list by closely monitoring the people who come in. Shops run into problems, he said, when “management doesn’t concern itself with how the operation is run in the trenches.”

“We have no fights here,” Sturgis said. “I screen people as they come in the door. If they want to go into the arcade, they have to buy $2 worth of tokens. This keeps the street people out.” He said he also set rules allowing only one person at a time in booths to view movies and no couples in closed booths.

While the Navy accepts heterosexual sex businesses, it shows little tolerance toward homosexual establishments. Last spring, after a storm of local protest about gay bathhouses and the possible spread of AIDS, the Navy for the first time put all the bathhouses on the list. Many have gone out of business, but a few remain.

Vulcan Steam and Sauna on Cedar Street is still in operation, but its proprietors are bitter about the Navy decision. “It’s absolutely inappropriate that they put us on those lists,” said a manager, who asked to be identified only as Frank. “There’s never been a sailor shortchanged or attacked in here. They got rid of us because they don’t like what we represent.”

He said senior Navy officers, local politicians and others “who have always viewed homosexuality as an abomination and a moral degradation” used the AIDS issue to attack homosexuality.

“It’s really because they’re on a roll,” Frank said. “People are scared, and they want something done about AIDS. This is a cheap shot.”

Whether military personnel frequent the bathhouses or any of the other off-limits establishments is impossible to tell, the owners said, unless the men or women come in in uniform.

Enforcement of the list depends largely on the honor system, according to Heubler. Military police do not regularly make the rounds of the establishments to look for errant sailors, he said. But if a member of the military gets into trouble while on off-limits turf, his or her commanding officer will mete out some type of administrative punishment, although such cases are not common.

As for those business owners who are unhappy about being placed on the list, they are free to come back before the board to plead their cases, Heubler said.