Wait a minute. The city granted them a permit, they violated it, they sued the city and the city decides NOT to shut them down. Can anyone explain that stupidity?

Why don't people do the right thing?
There are rules. The Club violated the rules.
SHUT THEM DOWN! Gun fights in Pleasanton are unacceptable.
Period!

The reason they haven't been shut down, and the reason the club owner is suing, is because it's ALL about race. It's a minority-attended club, and those "bad white people" in Pleasanton are all racists. That's the real story, but most people are deathly afraid to say it.

@Don: how can you say this is all about race? It says clearly in the article there have been numerous fights, trashing of the shopping center, reckless car usage in the parking lot, and, oh, someone was shot. That is not a race thing, that is a breaking the law and providing a criminal element to Pleasanton thing. Can't stand it when folks bust out the race card when there is nothing to suggest such a thing. Laws are being broken and the club owners clearly aren't doing anything to help stop the violence. If the owners can't keep control of their patrons then this place needs to shut down. Period.

(Don) you're a tool. It's not about race at all. It's about being "ghetto". This is Pleasanton and the residents don't want the ghetto trash to ruin it. Plain and simple.

Don is right. Because of the race of the patrons the club is not being shut down. Pleasanton tried to shut it down and the leftist judge overruled the City. Because of the race of the patrons, Pleasanton must handle every action involving Club New with kid gloves. If these had been "non-protected-class" patrons, the club would have been shut down after the second incident. What is going on is just plain dangerous to all nearby. This is the culture that the patrons bring with them, and from which the club profits. Pray for wisdom for our city in handling this mess.

Actually, I believe that the city turning a blind eye to the rowdy places where white and Hispanic people hang out and now coming down hard on a place where African Americans are going is a big problem.

El Balazo on Hopyard and I-680 was a big trouble spot for months with fights, etc. but the city took no action. Mostly caucasian and Hispanic people frequented the place. Union Jack Pub was a big trouble spot for over a decade, but the city took no action for years. Mostly caucasian people were there.

At 4555 Hopyard Road there used to be the Marque Club. Back in 2001/2002, the city suggested them to change their music format from Hip Hop to Top 40, and that toward closing time, they play 'slow' music. Anyway, they ended up closing down. The problem was that when the nightclub closed, a huge flow of people came out into the parking lot. That was 10 years ago.

However, it looks like in this situation, the city put in writing a bunch of illegal conditions (Has anyone with the city ever worked in a real company with an HR department? Apparently not) as well as many written communications with this business, including looking like the city monitored Facebook.com and emailing it to the business indicating that African-Americans were planning to come to the club. The lawsuit on p. 5 indicates one of the planners sent this to them threatening them with automatic suspension of their permit.

Also, the lawsuit says that when six police officers were at the nightclub, they did nothing to break up any fight or apprehend assailants. Instead, they arrested patrons who were yelling at them to do their job. They then taunted the security staff with "well you better be looking for a new job 'cause now we can shut this place down."

Here is the chronology of the Marque Club on Hopyard. There were no discriminatory, illegal, outrageous conditions imposed by the city 10 years ago (Brian Swift, former Planning Director, and the 2002 Planning Commission would never in a million years put conditions like mandating what songs to play on a business), no Civil Rights lawsuits, and due process):

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Gunshots were fired at the Marque July 14, 2002 and two suspects were arrested and two handguns were confiscated (incident 02-4449). The city report signed by Brian Swift and Deborah McKeehan that went to the City Council January 21, 2003 for the revocation of the Marque Club permit was a 32 page very detailed chronology of what happened by date for the last 8 years. Chief Neal put together a 5 page report by day of 220 incidents and meetings.

That is due process. What is described in the latest lawsuit is not due process. It is a mess.

Howard - I don't think you can compare a few rowdy drunken rednecks and Hispanics with a huge mob and gunfights.

I agree that if the city mentions music format or race in their communications/permit - they're screwing up and opening up to a ghetto lottery lawsuit.

But we property owners in Pleasanton don't deserve a dangerous thug club catering to out of town troublemakers who are destroying property and causing us to incur costs for extra police.

What's the attraction to coming to Pleasanton for these out of town patrons anyway? Do they enjoy the fact they're sticking it to "the man" and ghetto-fying one small section of our otherwise nice town at night?

Howard, other than race baiting and conspiracy theories, what's your stake in this issue? You work for John Burris?
Poor enforcement in the past under different (more permissive) administrations, is not an excuse for condoning illegal behavior now.