An Old Story

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By John Doe


OLD PASADENA’S PAWN SHOPS HAV UNEASY RELATIO SOME OF THEIR N

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PUB, PORN AND VE ALWAYS HAD ONSHIPS WITH NEW NEIGHBORS.

T

ake a walk through Old Pasadena. Fifteen years ago, you couldn’t — unless you were willing to risk passing through an assortment of winos, street thugs and establishments for which “seedy” would be too kind a word.

street-cleaning and trash-hauling teams in addition to a corps of extra security and tour guides at no further taxpayer cost. Yet something seems a little bit off in this corporate paradise. While the OPMA boasts that 51 percent of the district’s businesses are sole proprietorships and therefore retaining plenty of the city’s unique flavor, Now you can pass through a succession of streets that there is still a sense that someday soon, too soon, that would make the planners of Disneyland’s Main Street will change. proud. A bright, shiny new Gap store here, a bustling Cheesecake Factory there. Positive results seem to be Maybe when the Container Store sets up shop here later everywhere — no more so than in the numbers beneath in the year. Or when bigger parking garages are built. Or the surface: According to the Old Pasadena Management when the last of the businesses from the truly old Old Association, the district’s sales have grown from $16 Pasadena — Crown City Pawn Shop, Freddie’s 35er pub million in 1988 to $211 million in 2001, an average and Romantics/Le Sex Shoppe, known affectionately increase of 18 percent annually. to their many fans as “the pub, the pawn and the porn” — give in to developers someday and move on. Right The OPMA itself has been key to the area’s successes since now, they are all holding firm, the result of their owners its formation in 2000. Developed as a business district controlling their own buildings. But tensions keep program, the organization is funded by an extra annual brewing even  as  everyone supposedly is getting along tax assessment its business owners approved of, which better than ever. provides the association funding for things like extra 3|8


NO MORE MUCKRAKING “It’s the American Dream,” said Jim Plotkin, one of Old Pasadena’s wealthiest property owners. Those words sound like the finest of platitudes, yet they hide the fierce spirit of competition that has long made him both one of the most beloved and reviled figures in town. That’s why one of the keys to success in Old Pasadena is keeping Plotkin happy. “Yes, there used to be disagreements between most of the owners and those businesses. But not now. Everyone is overcoming differences and working together for a common goal — a greater Old Pasadena. Isn’t that spirit of cooperation the American Dream?” Plotkin said recently. Perhaps for a top dog like Plotkin. In fact, he’s so happy with his end of things that he abruptly canceled an official interview in his office because of his insistence that

there was so little conflict that there was no story to be found. He felt burned by another Pasadena Weekly story from December 1999 that portrayed his bitter battles with these same businesses and sworn determination to prevent the now-present Hooters from ever opening in Old Pasadena. He was so determined to wrest the title of Happiest Place on Earth from Disneyland that he even called his closest associates in an effort to have them stonewall as well.

“ I called the other people you’re trying to reach and no one’s talking! It’s off!” “I called the other people you’re trying to reach and no one’s talking! It’s off!” he yelled, his fingers stabbing the air amid his office’s plush surroundings. “We’re not taking part in your muckraking anymore!”

NO, WE ALL CAN’T GET ALONG But on the other side of the development divide, for the aforementioned troubled businesses, people were willing to talk, especially 35er owner Jennine Terzo, who has often found that life in Old Pasadena can sometimes feel like an American nightmare. “No, everyone does not get along great!” Terzo laughed when told of Plotkin’s recent happiness decree. “If everybody got along great, we’d have our entertain– ment license. He and [Old Pasadena property owner] Danny Mellinkoff wouldn’t step in the way and I don’t think anyone else gets in the way unless those two start the big ‘Let’s hate the 35er kick,’ like they did in the

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past. I just know that anytime we have anything to do in court, those two show up and try to block our efforts.” Those “efforts” primarily center on Terzo’s attempt to get an entertainment license from the city, which would enable her to have bands in her bar’s basement floor — an idea which would make it nearly impossible to create noise at street-level. She’s been pushing for it since 1992, achieving only limited success with a permit that allows her to have bands from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, but not on weekends, when such a permit could draw far more lucrative business.


IT JUST ISN’T RIGHT Those opposing her have invoked city laws that state live-entertainment venues have to be at least 250 feet apart from each other, a rule Terzo claims is broken throughout the rest of Old Pasadena. Then there are the excuses that the city can allow her a permit for playing recorded music, such as the bar jukebox, without consequence, but not a permit for live music. Or perhaps the strangest rule, which allows the city to penalize the 35er for not having a dancing permit when a customer decides to cut loose on their own and dance along to the jukebox. Add to that the accusations that the 35er is responsible

bar that would have all the live-entertainment permits they needed.” Terzo’s attorney, Chris Sutton, offers a fuller picture of the imbalance he and Terzo see in her treatment. A lifelong resident of Pasadena, Sutton speaks proudly of coming of age politically during the Vietnam War as a member of “the infamous Blair High School Class of ‘71” before graduating from Pasadena City College. He recalls long-forgotten Old Pasadena dives like the Loch Ness Monster [now the Old Towne Pub], Alice’s and Chromos [birthplace of the first Doo Dah Parade] and notes that the 35er is the only one out of the six prime Old Pasadena bars to survive the gentrification of the

“ All I can think of about why they’re doing this to me is that when my dad passed away, Mellinkoff said ‘If you ever want to sell it ...’ and I haven’t wanted to. I’ve heard rumors for years that they’d love to buy this space and turn it into their own bar that would have all the live-entertainment permits they needed.” for far more than its share of service calls to police, seems prone to having more bar fights and is perhaps the last non-yuppie, non-college bar in an area that used to be known for rip-roaring drunkenness. But there are extenuating factors on all of these accusations, and Terzo has made well over $100,000 in improvements to the 35er in an attempt to just make her opponents happy. She’s even joined the OPMA in a show of goodwill and become a fixture of its security committee.

late ‘80s and the ‘90s. “The problem for the 35er is that it’s at a prime corner of Colorado [Boulevard] and Fair Oaks [Avenue] and they offer pay phones,” explained Sutton. “If there’s a fight in the street or sidewalk, or a traffic accident nearby, or if people get thrown off a bus for fighting, we’re a convenient pay phone to call the police from. So many of the calls from the 35er that have nothing to do with the bar itself. You’ll see cops having to clear out fights every weekend at McMurphys as they close at 1:30, yet the city never penalizes them. We’re being punished for the problems caused by other bars.”

“Our treatment hasn’t improved, though I was always the person to say hi or smile first. When they stopped responding, I knew that’s how they felt about me and I gave up,” said Terzo. “All I can think of about why they’re doing this to me is that when my dad passed away, Mellinkoff said ‘If you ever want to sell it ...’ and I haven’t wanted to. I’ve heard rumors for years that they’d love to buy this space and turn it into their own 5|8


TOTALLY ORIGINAL Perhaps Terzo can take solace in the fact that after some rocky years in terms of gaining developers’ respect, the Crown City Pawn Shop has settled in for the long haul by learning to play along whenever possible. While the shop is celebrating its 50th anniversary, Mike Robinson and his parents have owned it since 1991. Despite his displeasure with the extra assessments needed to fund projects, he feels the OPMA has made some solid strides in communicating with the “other” businesses here. “Three years ago, people wanted all of us gone — pawn, porn and pub — but I haven’t heard anything in awhile about people wanting us to move,” said Robinson. “Sure, people will say things behind your back, but when you have the mayor, City Council and the OPMA all officially for you, you can’t afford to worry too much. Plus the fact that my mom’s on a couple of their boards, and maybe she thought it would head their criticism off at the pass if she got on a board.”

“ Three years ago, people wanted all of us gone — pawn, porn and pub — but I haven’t heard anything in awhile about people wanting us to move,”

Even more surprisingly, the Le Sex Shoppe — now retitled Romantics — hasn’t suffered much either. Considering its palette of goods includes giant dildos and tapes with titles like “Anal Intruders,” one might expect more difficulty from the family friendly environs of the new Old Pasadena. But Edgar Puerto, supervisor for the West Coast locations of the 70-store national chain, said the key to the store’s peaceful coexistence is a long-term lease. “We do deal with the regular problems that are faced by an adult business, but people seem to embrace us fine out there,” said Puerto. “In the LA Times, it said we lend diversity to the place and are the most original business in Old Pasadena.”

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“ We do deal with the regular problems that are faced by an adult business, but people seem to embrace us fine out there”


THE HARDEST PART One other business that should make Terzo take heart is the arrival and wild success of the Hooters chain.

regulations for land use. As a result, it can’t say yes to every application,” said Bogaard.

Back in the “muckraking” 1999 article, Jim Plotkin vowed repeatedly to ensure the restaurant and its staff of heavenly hotties would never take flight in his neck of the woods. Yet, within a year, thanks largely to the legal efforts of Sutton, who was retained by the restaurant, they were throwing open their doors to a grateful male population and are now preparing to expand into the adjoining business space.

“Yet,” he continued, “Old Pasadena’s charm is founded on unique, locally owned businesses and my hope is there is always a significant number of such businesses in Old Pasadena to enrich and vary the environment.”

“People oppose our concept almost everywhere because of our name, but if cities would do research and find that we’re the third-largest casual dining chain in the country, they suddenly realize we’re no problem,” said Fred Glick, president and chief  operating  officer  of the 16 West Coast Hooters franchises.

For now, Terzo and the 35er staff must play the good soldiers and put up and shut up. Perhaps someday, they will get their dream of running their own business, unfettered by rules that only apply to them. Yet as Tom Petty once wailed on jukeboxes like hers, “The waiting is the hardest part.”

“ The problem comes from uninformed decision makers who have preconceived notions that it’s a strip club when it’s not. The key is to find a local attorney that knows the environment, the city manager and city attorney, learn what the hot points are and then how to educate them.” Ultimately, the battle for the 35er’s right to entertain the public will be waged in the courts — as Sutton filed a lawsuit against the city and David Mercer, the city’s Zoning Hearing Officer. An attempt to win via a “facial attack” that tried to label the city’s zoning laws as unconstitutional failed, but Sutton expects an answer on appeal in coming weeks. For now, however, Mayor Bill Bogaard says his goal is to keep Old Pasadena’s balance of the locally owned businesses and the chains. “Since the 35er case is in litigation, I won’t offer a comment except to say that property owners seeking approval frequently act negatively when their application is denied. The city’s responsibility is to review each application in relation to the city’s established rules and 7|8


“An Old Story” was writen and edited by John Doe. Layout and typography designed by Robert Vidaure. Published and distributed by Rockport.


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