Panel’s Decision Angers Club’s Backers

A meeting about plans to turn a Hollywood nightclub into a fire station ended in a near-melee Thursday when scores of angry opponents lost the argument and booed some of the city’s most powerful officials.

After a series of speakers urged the City Hall committee to save the popular and historic Florentine Gardens, the officials voted against them with little discussion. As protesters yelled “Shame! Shame!” sergeants-at-arms tried to clear the room, and the protest moved to the streets.

Deputy Fire Chief Dennis Keane said he could appreciate the feelings of those who love the club. “But we’re looking for a place that can protect the citizens of Los Angeles,” he said.

The Fire Department favors building a station on the Hollywood Boulevard site to replace an aging building on Bronson Avenue. Officials say the old station is too small. The Florentine Gardens site is the “right size” in the right location, Keane said.

Florentine Gardens, which resembles a Moorish palace, opened in 1938 and became the toast of Hollywood’s golden age. Al Jolson sang there. Marilyn Monroe held her first wedding reception there, and dozens of other stars passed through its doors.

Today, the building is a hip-hop club and draws a diverse crowd on weekends.

Protesters had arrived at City Hall in buses, wearing red stickers demanding that Florentine Gardens be saved.

After hearing their arguments, the committee overseeing the expenditure of the city’s fire bond funds, including Chief Legislative Analyst Ron Deaton and City Administrative Officer Bill Fujioka, voted unanimously in favor of a fire station.

“All this testimony, you guys didn’t even listen,” said Bryan Pulido, who added that he passed many happy hours at the club as a young man. “That’s discrimination.... Talk about showing disrespect.”

Then the crowd, accompanied by a man dressed as Charlie Chaplin -- complete with giant black shoes -- and another man dressed as Sylvester Stallone, filed out of the building and onto the sidewalks.

Chanting “Si, se puede” (yes, we can), the group marched around City Hall -- and ran into a simulated protest being filmed for a television show.

A production crew from “Cold Case” was filming a scene on Spring Street in which actors held picket signs. The actors stopped to let the real protesters go about their business.

The fire station proposal now goes to the city’s Board of Public Works and then to the City Council.

Club owner Kenneth MacKenzie and his lawyer vowed to continue to fight, and said they may sue the city to prevent it from taking the building through eminent domain.

“This is not the end,” said protester Alicia Mejia. “This is the beginning of a big fight.”