EASTSIDE : Bar’s Liquor License Request Withdrawn

El Cometa, a bar that had applied for the transfer of its liquor license to its new owner and for permission to open a dance hall, has withdrawn those requests and will no longer sell alcohol, according to police.

The withdrawal came after months of investigations by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollenbeck Vice Division of the establishment at 2907 1/2 E. 1st St., and residents’ opposition to the sale of liquor in their neighborhood.

Phone calls made to El Cometa were unanswered.

The news last week drew praise from neighbors and police who say their streets already have too many liquor stores and bars.

“Let’s hope that’s a lesson that they better stay out of here,” said Yolanda Robles, who lives in Boyle Heights. Robles gathered signatures from neighbors opposing El Cometa’s liquor license transfer and has testified before city zoning hearings against allowing new bars or liquor stores to open in her neighborhood.

For Sgt. Ron Katona, who heads the Vice Division at Hollenbeck, the withdrawal was a small victory in the fight against what many view as an overabundance of liquor establishments on the Eastside.

In the Hollenbeck division, there are 460 businesses operating with Alcohol and Beverage Control licenses. And on one block of First Street between Savannah Street and Evergreen Avenue, there are four bars and one liquor store.

“That’s a terrific (number of liquor establishments) that one place should endure,” Katona said. “There are a host of problems that come with that. It seems like hand in hand with (liquor establishments) is narcotics activity.”

Katona and his officers investigate businesses that apply for new licenses or, as in the case of El Cometa, want an existing license transferred to a new owner. They take into account the number of bars and liquor stores in the area, how close the proposed business is to churches, schools and homes and tally up the crime statistics to present to the police commission, which makes recommendations to the ABC board.

“We try to determine if it’s going to be detrimental to the community,” Katona said.

Many of the older, established businesses, even if they are close to churches and schools, cannot be closed down because their licenses were issued during a period when those factors were not considered, Katona said.

But now, a host of requirements has slowed down the number of new applications.