When Santa Ana’s gay bar, Velvet Lounge, was granted a C.U.P. (Conditional Use Permit) by the City of Santa Ana’s Planning Agency, they got most of what they asked for – except that they were forbidden from engaging in “adult entertainment.” Well, judging from the pictures on their website, it looks like they might be violating their C.U.P. – regularly. Take a look for yourself – the pictures below tell the story better than I can:
Imagine how quickly the Santa Ana Planning Agency would shut down a Mexican restaurant engaging in these activities in violation of their C.U.P.s?
Another question comes to mind – is Barney Frank style male prostitution happening at the Velvet Lounge?
And we also found a video on YouTube that openly promotes marijuana smoking – at Santa Ana’s Yost Theater. I am all for legalizing marijuana, as it is proven that the drug war serves only to enrich drug lords, but marijuana is still illegal – and after watching this video I have to wonder how much pot is being smoked at the Yost?
Here is the video:
Adult entertainment and pot smoking. Is this what the people of Santa Ana want to see out of our Downtown area?
LOL, sometimes I just forget what a prude you are.
And Dan C as well, Dan C as well.
“LOL, sometimes I just forget what a prude you are’….. Hmmmmm
And I forget what a moron mongoloid you are, Nelson!
Homos can do that but I straight man would be arrested by Pulido and his SAPD Chief Walters for public indecency.
That is my point you idiot.
O’ no!.. no!
We can’t hate these nice sexually disoriented homos!
They have right to get marry too!
The reversed discrimination leftism and bolshevism is everywhere!
To me the point is that the Velvet Lounge appears to be violating their C.U.P. That means what they are doing may be illegal and they should either correct their practices or be shut down.
I don’t expect Vern to understand any of this given his past history of breaking the law and his current fascination with the lawbreakers who are the Occupy movement.
The other issue I referenced is the double-standard that exists in this city – Latino businesses get shut down quickly if they do anything even remotely in violation of their C.U.P.s, while businesses like the Velvet Lounge, and others in our Downtown area, openly flaunt the rules and get away with it.
Admin, were you not promoting gay’ism and pot’ism not to long ago?
I support gay marriage and as I referenced in my post I am opposed to the drug war and do support Judge Jim Gray’s efforts to decriminalize drugs including marijuana. That said, what is going on at the Velvet Lounge is an apparent violation of their C.U.P. That is the issue I have a problem with. Beyond that I could care less what these folks do in their personal time.
As for the pot issue, I don’t think it is responsible for the folks at the Yost, and for their entertainers, to promote smoking marijuana, particularly since teens can go to the Yost. It is illegal, save for medical marijuana use. If the laws ever change, then it will be a different matter.
The bottom line, as I wrote, is that it is readily apparent that some of the newer businesses in our Downtown are flaunting our laws – and the questions to ponder are 1) Is this the direction we want our Downtown to go in? and 2) Why do Latino owned businesses get treated differently by our city, while these other businesses, who DO NOT cater to our local residents, appear to get away with breaking the rules?
“That said, what is going on at the Velvet Lounge is an apparent violation of their C.U.P. That is the issue I have a problem with. Beyond that I could care less what these folks do in their personal time.”…… Hmmmm
Oxymoron as usually.
“violation of their C.U.P.”? Obviously you are tiptoeing around the real issue.
I do not care what they do publicly or privately either as long as I can do same thing.
No one will enforce against homos anything and that is a danger to our liberty.
That is only reason I am against homo agenda!
But I do not expect you to understand that.
I have asked the City Council and our City Manager to investigate this. You should as well.
Who supports these Gays ? Why SA Does. The Gays can even do anything they want to in their own Lounge.. Stay Classy SA..
Mr. Cook I don’t believe this issue has anything to do with gay’s. It is simply a question of the law and whether the establishment is following the rules put in place when the CUP was granted.
Good news Robert. I heard back from our City Manager. They are investigating this…
“They are investigating this”….. Hmmmm
Noting will happen.
And if something will happen the homos will storm council chambers screening discrimination against sexual disorientation.
Based thereon the council will apologize profusely.
When the City Manager, who is also our Chief of Police, tells me he is investigating something, I believe him. The Velvet Lounge better clean up their act…
Good to see SA is improving it’s Image by having this Gay Lounge and Pot Heads at the Yost. No wonder Familyies stay away from SA..
“When the City Manager, who is also our Chief of Police, tells me he is investigating something, I believe him.”
So sad, so sad. To hear those words coming from someone I used to think of as a rebel.
What the heck are you talking about? Do you really think it is more useful to be a raggedy Occupier? I have a good rapport with Walters and our City Council. This is how you get things done in town. And clearly we need to do something about the double standard applied to Latino owned businesses in Santa Ana. None of them would get away with violating their C.U.P.s – and now neither will the Velvet Lounge.
One more thing – it is one thing to be a rebel. It is another to violate our city ordinances. Have you no clue?
when at a bar and after a few drinks straight people do the same thing that these pictures are illustrating.
Mr. Briseno this is not a gay or straight issue, it is a legal issue. It appears that they may be violating their CUP by having adult entertainiment. That it is a gay bar is irrelevant.
“That it is a gay bar is irrelevant.”….. Hmmmmm
You would think so!
The fact is that gays do enjoy special treatment from liberal governments when it gets to public display of sexuality.
As a European I can handle much more sexual openness but in Europe it is cross the board. Meaning that there is heterosexual Red Light district too.
Irrelevant…. about gay or straight…..this is a RED LIGHT DISTRICT. and regrettable the Downtown Inc is promoting this kind of so call NEW Businees.
Thanks Michell Martinez, you want entertainment for young people this is your work well done.
You can’t pin this on Michele. All the Council Members voted to allow these C.U.P.s But it should be noted that Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez was worried that the Velvet Lounge was going to be engaging in adult entertainment. It looks like she was prescient.
I believe “gabacha’s” point is………….The council besides Councilwoman Alvarez is reluctant to eliminate the PBID, which through Downtown Inc., is encouraging and promoting this business, the Yost crowd that promotes illegal pot and other similar venues while discougaging the existing Hispanic family business district.
This reluctance is on top of not protecting the city’s downtown property owners from a unconstitutional tax. Something they swore to do when they took office.
It is simple other arguments are irrelevant.
“Irrelevant…. about gay or straight…..this is a RED LIGHT DISTRICT.”…… Hmmmmm
There is nothing wrong with the RED LIGHT DISTRICT. Santa Ana should have one. I have openly promoted it in my 2004, 2006 and 2008 mayoral race.
It will be irrelevant when I see some chick there too.
As is, it is Momo’s Sodoma y Gomorra.
Actually not long ago a bar in downtown had strippers show up out of nowhere and give lap dances to patrons.
It was a straight bar.
Those boobs on that drag queen are fake and if you’ve ever actually been to a gay bar you would know that this is normal. You would probably have a heart attack if you went to hamburger mary’s.
“You would probably have a heart attack if you went to hamburger mary’s”……. Hmmmmm
Obviously you do not understand my point, Carlos!
My point is that I do not like homo sex preferential treatment.
I am for equal opportunity….. do you understand that?
What happened to that straight bar?…. Huh?
Shut down?….. homo bar would be still open because we can’t discriminate against homos only against straight.
Hey.. Your right.. It’s not a Homosexual Issue. But Homo’s have to go party somewhere .. Why not in SA? There’s no accountability in that City. Just look at all of the illegal Street Vendors who are selling knockoff merchandise, Gardeners, Babysitters, House cleaners, not paying taxes.. The overcrowding in the housing? Oh.. I forgot the Gangs. But a survey claims it’s a safe City. Safe as Irvine they say.. But where would you live given those surveys? Yup.. I thought so. A Homosexual Lounge is buy far this Cities greatest problem. It’s Ciyt Pfficals are always playing the blame game.. The Mayor & City Manager/ Police Chief are ripping all they can to fatten their benefits and pensions.. Look and see what ridiculous pay and benefits they all are getting as the city goes down the drain. If it wasn’t for the Federal grants, SA would of folded years ago. That’s why they welcome the illegals.. The children free education and all other programs are tossed around like it’s free $$. The waste of food and our $$ is not accounted for. Remember the SAUSD promise that if we fed the kids their grades would show improvement? Well? Lets see it? No improvement last time I checked. Noticed how they didn’t show us the result after? This is whT I’m saying. They ask for $$ then no one noes where it went or if we got what was promised!
what gets me about this article is the fact that this person went to a lot of trouble to wright this article in the first place. you said that the photo’s tell the story better than you can? take a closer look at the photos and the angle in which they are taken. photo’s lie, if these photos were three denominational this article would not have been written. in the first photo a guy is being tipped in his shorts which are bicycle shorts and it’s on his hip, but from the angle it was taken it looks like his front, but it’s not it is definitely his hip. if you enlarge the photo you will see that. the second photo there just taking a photo together. the third photo are two men that look like there dancing together letting loose and expressing themselves, it’s an in between shot, meaning it was taken in between motion. who is to say that the guy bent over didn’t trip or fall and the other guy was helping him up when the photo was snapped. think about it. the fourth photo all though racy it’s clear it’s a fake breast plate and a Halloween costume, and the last photo, is someone who just got sprinkled with confetti by someone standing over them who looks like there getting ready to step over the person who is lying down. btw the confetti in the photo is made of mylar which when thrown or dropped floats and takes a few seconds to hit the ground, again another in between shot. there is nothing wrong here there just photo’s they tell many stories, you need to think of what happened before the photos were taken and what happened after. your just trying to make people think is wrong so you can get a business shut down, and if being a gay bar is not one of the issues here then why do you keep bringing up the fact that it is a gay bar, if you have ever been there you will find that it is an everybody bar not just a gay bar they don’t discriminate like you have done with this useless article.
you should be ashamed of your self for being so negative, closed and narrow minded, you come across as extremely ignorant. you need to educate yourself before you start to pass judgment on something you know nothing about.
I didn’t take those photos. They were on the Velvet Lounge website.
i know that, which proves my point. you were not there so you don’t know what your talking about regarding yours and the city’s accusations. there are many sides to a story. you passed judgement without being there when these photos were taken so you don’t know what was actually going on in that bar. there just photos
I see. Well that’s for the planning agency, code enforcement and the SAPD to decide. It’s in their hands now.
exactly, it’s in there hands not yours, so you should not have stuck your nose in where it dose not belong. all you have done is pushed buttons and possibly caused the loss of a lot of jobs. you have embarrassed yourself and the SA community with your negativity. it’s very sad when an adult has nothing better to do than tear something apart without thinking of what will happen to others. i wonder what skeletons are in your closet? in other words he who is without sin cast the first stone.
This has nothing to do with moral turpitude. This is about violating city code. The Velvet Lounge should be more careful about what pictures they post – particularly now that the Planning Agency and Code Enforcement are keeping an eye on them.
There has been a double standard here in town for too long. Latino businesses get rousted while these others get away with whatever they want. We are making sure that doesn’t happen anymore. All our businesses should be treated the same way and they should all be expected to follow the terms of their Conditional Use Permits.
“All our businesses should be treated the same way and they should all be expected to follow the terms of their Conditional Use Permits”……. Amen!