WESTMINSTER : Residents Picket Planned Topless Bar

About 300 residents, including entire families, on Thursday picketed the site on Garden Grove Boulevard where a topless bar is under construction.

“We feel this is wrong for our neighborhood,” said David Nelson, who was carrying his blanket-wrapped 5-month-old boy, while his wife, Kathy, took care of their 2-year-old daughter.

“This will contribute to more crime in our neighborhood,” Nelson said.

The protest was organized by the Traditional Values Coalition of Westminster, which is opposing plans of the Santa Fe Realty Corp. to convert a closed nightclub near a neighborhood into a bar that would feature women in bikini bottoms.

In February, the City Council denied Santa Fe Realty a building permit to construct the bar. But the company sued in federal court and contended that its First Amendment rights were denied.

U.S. District Judge Laughlin E. Waters granted the company a temporary permit to begin construction. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Jan. 17.

“The opposition against this thing is just mind-boggling,” said Mayor Charles V. Smith, who joined the protesters Thursday. “The people have the right to enjoy their homes without their neighborhood being degraded.”

Councilwoman Charmayne S. Bohman, who also joined the protest, said: “I think it (bar) does not belong here. The community doesn’t want it.”

Bob Martin, who will manage the bar if it opens, said the council is “feeding false information to the people.”

“We won’t have a nude bar, just topless girls,” Martin said.

He said that he had complied with city parking, landscaping and zoning regulations, but has been denied a building permit because the council does not want an adult business in the city.

“I feel it’s all political, “ he said. “There will be another election in two years.”

But residents said that they are determined to stop the bar from opening and will continue their protest.

“We want to stop it in its tracks,” said Katie Mulherin, 69, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 25 years. “Even if we don’t win, we’ll put up a good fight.”

Another demonstrator, Rhiannon Soverns, 17, said: “This is full of profanity. We are in a good neighborhood and we don’t want to bring this in here.”