The Pearl DARTed by COJ / JSO

[froth]

If you dont realize, the Pearl charges $10 if your under 21 to even step foot in the door. The reason for that cost is so they can employee extra security to watch out for underage drinking. And "minors" are not allowed in. You must be atleast 18yrs old. Thats an adult by goverment standards. So if your over 18 you should be able to come and dance your @$$ off. Your just not allowed to partake in drinking alcohol. So to alienate a certain group because i small percentage of them will try and sneak drinks isnt fair. Thats the whole "one bad apple spoils to group". (Or however its said)And the three people that were arrested for drinking under age, the pearl staff turned in two of them for their fake IDs. The other was someone that was sneaking drinks. They were not served by any of the staff members.

The Pearl has a 16ft gate on the patio that exits to the lot on the north side of the property. That night it was locked. Thats why they were warned by the fire marshall. Which is something else. The fire marshall only gave the club a WARNING. Part of that list on the warning was, over capacity(50 people over),outdated service checks on the fire extinguishers and exit sign blocked.(which there are two there because of that.)
Everyone just believes what the news says. These are public records. Go get them and read for youreself.

Its not as easy as fixing these "code violations". They cut the power! All that draft beer will have to be replaced. Lost revenue. The building has a mortgage. How many of you can afford to pay your mortgage without any money coming in and lots of money going out? I bet its not the majority.

The situation was handled entirely wrong. The city should be ashamed.

No drugs
No illegal serving of alcohol
They didnt have permit for a 2004 hotwater heater? (They didnt own the building in 2004!!!!!!)


Its stupid and i'm sick of this.............


Bt

[apvbguy]

this is evolving to an issue that needs to be readdressed,  a drinking age of 21 is absurd, at 18 you can be in the military, you can vote, you can enter into legally binding contracts you can have all the right of an emancipated adult, but you aren't allowed to have a beer? absurd! recently a group of college presidents called for the lowering of the drinking age and I agree with their reasoning, but the MADD types came out of the woodwork to denounce the idea of lowering the drinking age.
It is time for society to take a new look at this and to think about lowering the drinking age

[BridgeTroll]

If you dont realize, the Pearl charges $10 if your under 21 to even step foot in the door. The reason for that cost is so they can employee extra security to watch out for underage drinking. And "minors" are not allowed in. You must be atleast 18yrs old. Thats an adult by goverment standards. So if your over 18 you should be able to come and dance your @$$ off. Your just not allowed to partake in drinking alcohol. So to alienate a certain group because i small percentage of them will try and sneak drinks isnt fair. Thats the whole "one bad apple spoils to group". (Or however its said)And the three people that were arrested for drinking under age, the pearl staff turned in two of them for their fake IDs. The other was someone that was sneaking drinks. They were not served by any of the staff members.

The Pearl has a 16ft gate on the patio that exits to the lot on the north side of the property. That night it was locked. Thats why they were warned by the fire marshall. Which is something else. The fire marshall only gave the club a WARNING. Part of that list on the warning was, over capacity(50 people over),outdated service checks on the fire extinguishers and exit sign blocked.(which there are two there because of that.)
Everyone just believes what the news says. These are public records. Go get them and read for youreself.

Its not as easy as fixing these "code violations". They cut the power! All that draft beer will have to be replaced. Lost revenue. The building has a mortgage. How many of you can afford to pay your mortgage without any money coming in and lots of money going out? I bet its not the majority.

The situation was handled entirely wrong. The city should be ashamed.

No drugs
No illegal serving of alcohol
They didnt have permit for a 2004 hotwater heater? (They didnt own the building in 2004!!!!!!)


Its stupid and i'm sick of this.............


Bt

I agree with everything you are saying... again my choice of words was wrong.  When I said minor I meant "those under the legal age to concume alcohol."  Minor was just easier to say...

I do think ownwers should have a choice to allow 18 and up in their establishment.  I just think they are taking on additional risk.  An owner the must weigh the risk of 18 year olds sneaking alcohol(they will) or alienating kids who just want to dance and have fun.

[fpj]

I do think ownwers should have a choice to allow 18 and up in their establishment.  I just think they are taking on additional risk.  An owner the must weigh the risk of 18 year olds sneaking alcohol(they will) or alienating kids who just want to dance and have fun.

Hence TSI's decision to go 21+ I'd presume.

[froth]

There always a risk that I can be mugged walking down the street but i will take that chance because its my right. If you start letting the small things in life hender you from what you want to do then you will never fully accomplish anything. Stand up for your rights and face the obstacles ahead of you. Dont settle for things because someone else might screw up. I'm not trying to sound like i'm giving a motivational speech but come on. We fought for these rights and i want to keep them.

[froth]

I do think ownwers should have a choice to allow 18 and up in their establishment.  I just think they are taking on additional risk.  An owner the must weigh the risk of 18 year olds sneaking alcohol(they will) or alienating kids who just want to dance and have fun.

Hence TSI's decision to go 21+ I'd presume.

TSI was actually cited for selling alcohol to people under 21. I think they are being more strong armed into becoming 21 and up.

[BridgeTroll]

There always a risk that I can be mugged walking down the street but i will take that chance because its my right. If you start letting the small things in life hender you from what you want to do then you will never fully accomplish anything. Stand up for your rights and face the obstacles ahead of you. Dont settle for things because someone else might screw up. I'm not trying to sound like i'm giving a motivational speech but come on. We fought for these rights and i want to keep them.

I agree with you 100%

[BridgeTroll]

I do think ownwers should have a choice to allow 18 and up in their establishment.  I just think they are taking on additional risk.  An owner the must weigh the risk of 18 year olds sneaking alcohol(they will) or alienating kids who just want to dance and have fun.

Hence TSI's decision to go 21+ I'd presume.

TSI was actually cited for selling alcohol to people under 21. I think they are being more strong armed into becoming 21 and up.

I was unaware that TSI changed their policy.  It is a shame they decided to do so but I completely understand and support it.

As I said before in this and other threads... DART is misusing its powers.  There are better ways to enforce code, fire regs, and under age drinking.

[David]

from urbanjacksonville:

"Ryan Rummel Says: 09/13/2008 7:04 pm
I own TSI nightclub with Jason Grimes and manager Brendon Clark. We were DARTed for legitimate code violations, which has since been repaired. The building code department was thorough and polite in the process of making our repairs. As well, all inspectors made appointments with us and worked with us to make repairs that were needed to reopen.
As for the Pearl, according to the cities permit website, it shows that the pearl has an un-finalized permit from three years ago. Three months ago building code enforcement gave the pearl 60 days to comply with city ordinance. From what I understand no one showed up for the inspection so the dart team came in......."

The rest of his comment is here:   http://www.urbanjacksonville.info/2008/09/12/another-one-bites-the-dust-the-pearl-darted-by-cojjso/ # 50


Here's the citation details from the building inspector's website:
9/5/2008 "Customer states that the inside of building was completely renovated without an architectural permit, illegally renovated the bathrooms, the walls, allows more than the building can allow , it is two buildings combined into one, no electrical permits for electrical work, please address, and possibly no certificate of occupancy. The Pearl is the name of the business."

https://buildinginspections.coj.net/bid_secure/default.aspx

I'm still not clear on the DART process and how they had to be involved with this. Doesn't make sense to me but obviously some of this is beyond the basic understanding of those not familiar with code enforcement, running a club etc.

There's so many different elements to this thread

1. the underage drinking debate!

2. The purpose of DART and their role in enforcing building codes.

3. conspiracy theories that wouldn't surprise me if they were somehow true.

i'm still sticking with my original argument though: when the public hears DART raided some establishment, it projects a negative light on that place.

Trust me, I went through the actual raids back in the 90's when there was massive amounts of illegal drugs everywhere. (Remember the raves @ club 5 and evolutions?) To have that associated with this is ridiclious,  so I'd really like some answers from the city as to why they feel this is the correct way to go about enforcing codes.

[froth]

HMMMM, Ryan went down there to see how to permit his patio. Sounds fishy to me.

[froth]

You forgot to quote him when he said was at code the permitting office looking at their stuff.      

[02roadking]

If your looking for weekend plans you don't count us out. We got through the little mess and are reopening tomorrow.
HOORAY!!!!!!!!!

THe Pearl from Myspace

[David]

You forgot to quote him when he said was at code the permitting office looking at their stuff.      

I put a link in my last post to the rest of his comment on urbjax. Trying to save space! (that's eco-friendly....right?)

[walter]

this is evolving to an issue that needs to be readdressed,  a drinking age of 21 is absurd, at 18 you can be in the military, you can vote, you can enter into legally binding contracts you can have all the right of an emancipated adult, but you aren't allowed to have a beer? absurd! recently a group of college presidents called for the lowering of the drinking age and I agree with their reasoning, but the MADD types came out of the woodwork to denounce the idea of lowering the drinking age.
It is time for society to take a new look at this and to think about lowering the drinking age

exactly.  It was 18 when I was growing up and it changed when I was in college, but we were grandfathered in.  Back then the federal government wanted the drinking age to be 21, so they came up with a devious plan to withhold federal highway funds if the states refused to increase the drinking age.  Not wanting to give up their federal largess all states complied, even Louisiana which originally, from what I can remember, wanted to keep the drinking age 18.  Of course, they eventually caved.  And now its 21, but it wasn't always.  My friends and I turned out ok and we were legal at 18......I guess the current generation is just not as responsible, thus the need for a higher drinking age 

[apvbguy]

exactly.  It was 18 when I was growing up and it changed when I was in college, but we were grandfathered in.  Back then the federal government wanted the drinking age to be 21, so they came up with a devious plan to withhold federal highway funds if the states refused to increase the drinking age.  Not wanting to give up their federal largess all states complied, even Louisiana which originally, from what I can remember, wanted to keep the drinking age 18.  Of course, they eventually caved.  And now its 21, but it wasn't always.  My friends and I turned out ok and we were legal at 18......I guess the current generation is just not as responsible, thus the need for a higher drinking age 

the current generation isn't responsible because we (society) don't force them to be responsible, they say 26 years old today is yesterday's 18 and in some ways it is very true. I have an 18 year old and there really isn't any reason for him to be banned from drinking, going to bars and clubs. sure some will have problems but many
won't and it is a shame that the majority has to suffer because of a bunch of mad moms