Residents bash bar customers

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- Members of the Berhow family say they often wake up at

1:45 a.m. to the sound of people throwing up and loud conversation in

front of their Cabrillo Street home.

The cause, they say: the Pierce Street Annex.

The family, which complained about the 25-year-old, 17th Street bar to

the City Council on Monday, says the hangout is a constant nuisance.

“I’m asking the City Council to revoke their license and help them

move to a new location,” Alicia Berhow said Monday. “There is noise from

10 p.m. to 2 a.m.. We get people [urinating] on our street, throwing up

on our street, we get beer bottles and beer cans. They are a hindrance.

This is just too much.”

Pierce Street Annex owners said they have been trying hard to remedy

the problems their customers sometimes cause.

“It is unreasonable for people to say, ‘Just close up and move

somewhere else,”’ said John Waters, one of the bar’s owners. “This is my

living and, for most of the 35 people who work here, this is it.”

In some ways, he added, the bar is a victim of its own success.

“I’ve been working here for 15 years, and I’ve seen us go in and out

of fashion twice,” Waters said. “Business is good right now, which is

part of the problem because we have more people, but we don’t ever exceed

our capacity, we don’t have a lot of violence, and we’re not a hangout

for any kind of element.”

The bar has added security guards and began closing the back parking

lot when it’s full in an attempt to keep things quiet, Waters said.

Unfortunately, those measures have pushed customers off the property

and a block away onto Cabrillo Street, where they sometimes annoy the

neighbors by opening and closing car doors, turning on their radios or

urinating, Waters said.

In an attempt to fix the problems on Cabrillo Street, the bar is

having its employees park on the street after 10 p.m. on Thursday, Friday

and Saturday nights -- the only days the bar is full -- to keep customers

from parking there.

“Hopefully residents will already be parked by 10 p.m., when our

employees will come in, and this will solve the problem,” Waters said. “I

understand there is a problem. Certain problems are just [unavoidable] in

this business. But we want to make this work, and we’d love to talk with

anyone who has suggestions for making things better. We’re looking for

solutions.”

Councilman Gary Monahan said a plan to close Raymond Avenue to through

traffic at Cabrillo Street could reduce the problem as well. The council

approved the street closure May 21 but will have to give final design

approval before the street can be closed.