Garden Grove Council Considers Cyber Cafe Restrictions

With cyber cafes springing up faster than any other business in Garden Grove, the City Council is expected Tuesday to impose a moratorium on permits for new cafes and place tighter controls on those already open.

If passed, the ordinance would reduce hours, require surveillance cameras and restrict the number of computers to reduce overcrowding.

The crackdown stems from a series of crimes, mostly in parking areas surrounding the cafes. The most serious was Dec. 30, when a 20-year-old man was stabbed to death while standing outside the PC Cafe on Garden Grove Boulevard. A 21-year-old suspected gang member has been charged with murder in that death.

“After the stabbing incident, it dawned on us that we really haven’t taken a hard look at these places,” Mayor Bruce Broadwater said.

Johnny Oh, owner of the PC Cafe, said he can easily comply with most provisions of the proposed ordinance. He installed security cameras and hired a guard after the fatal stabbing. But being forced to close by midnight, as the ordinance would require, will hurt his business, he said.

Oh said he will express his concerns about that and the computer limits at Tuesday’s meeting.

One owner who welcomes new regulations is Diane Vo, co-owner of the Vietnamese Internet Center on Brookhurst Street, which will open next month.

“I can comply with all these regulations,” she said. “This can only be good for everybody’s business. We don’t want gangs any more than anyone else.”

Cyber cafes are generally in storefronts, with rows of computers set up to provide high-speed Internet access to customers who do not have it at home. Almost all charge a $2 hourly fee.

While some customers use the computers for information access or to check their e-mail, the majority of young people who frequent cyber cafes play video games.

The PC Cafe, for example, holds two contests daily that it calls “frag parties.” On a recent afternoon, nearly all of its 58 computers were in use, and every customer was playing video games.

Unfortunately, said City Manager George Tindall, some of these places become hangouts and attract gang members. Police say seven gang-related incidents have occurred at cyber cafes in the last year.

“The problem is, these places were going into operation faster than we could get a handle on them,” Tindall said.

Three years ago, the city had two cyber cafes. Three opened in 2000. But last year, 13 opened and two more have permits to open soon.

La Palma First With Regulations

Many other cities around Orange County have the computer storefronts as well, but the numbers in Garden Grove outstrip them.

The tiny city of La Palma last year became the first in the county to issue regulations for the businesses, but Garden Grove’s would be the most sweeping ordinance to control existing cafes and establish zoning for new ones.

The moratorium would be temporary, Tindall said, until the city studies how cyber cafes can fit into its land-use plans, which may take until the end of the year.

The moratorium would take effect immediately. The new regulations would give existing businesses 90 days to comply.

Under the proposed rules, cyber cafes would be required to close at midnight. Most are now open until 2 a.m., and some until 4 a.m.

The city also would limit the number of computers to one per 20 square feet of floor space. Some cafes are so jammed with computers that they violate fire codes, according to a city report.

Other changes would require each cafe to install police-approved security cameras, eliminate dark lighting and install clear windows. Almost all of them now have dark windows.

Justin Choi, who operates First Visions, an eyeglass store next to the PC Cafe, said he has had to call the police “many times” because of crowd problems in front and in back of the cafe.

“The city needs to do something; the place just gets out of control,” Choi said.

Just a month before the stabbing death, for example, two teenagers were assaulted by four people wielding baseball bats and wrenches just outside the cafe. Police think some of the attackers were members of what is called a “PC Clan,” groups of people who play certain computer games as a team, competing against other teams.

New Cafe to Appeal to Adults

At the Net to Net cyber cafe on Garden Grove Boulevard, 10 attackers assaulted a young customer in November.

Vo said she expects her business to appeal to adults, not young people playing video games.

Quang Nguyen, a co-owner of I.C.E. Internet Cafe on Brookhurst Street, hopes the city will make an exception for him on the opening end of the new hours. The proposed ordinance won’t let the cafes open until 7 a.m., but Nguyen said he does a rush coffee business after opening at 6 a.m.

The moratorium on new cyber cafes would remain in effect pending a zoning study by the Planning Department, which would then recommend permanent regulations.