Residents push protest against liquor licenses while shop owner makes the case for change

By Ruby Couglar

Kathleen McKaveney-Owner Pacific Drapery

Kathleen Mckaveney isn’t a newcomer to North Park. Her father opened his Pacific Drapery shop at the corner of North Park Way and 30th Street in 1977, she took over 14 years ago and bought the building in 2000. McKaveney has six employees who have worked for her family an average of over 16 years. She sees herself as a local manufacturer struggling with the tough economy and San Diego’s proximity to cheap labor. In 2008, she made the difficult decision to scale down operations, move to a smaller space, and lease the building where she spent much of her childhood. She explains, “I’m not going out of business, but I do have to adapt.”
McKaveney, who has school-age children and lives in Mission Hills, says she hasn’t made it over to check out the late-night weekend crowds some residents say are plaguing North Park. However, she says she understands what the neighbors are dealing with. “When Shooterz was open, I had a broken window at least once a year and the owner refused to fix it.”
By contrast, she says she has a good relationship with the owners of True North, which began when they came to her after her showroom flooded when the city inadvertently sealed a storm drain while replacing sidewalks.
“I’m very old-fashioned about the kind of people I will lease to.” She likes what Verant Group has done with the Shooterz space and is pleased that they would be able to make a sizeable investment in her property. “I can’t put $500,000 into updating this old building, but they can.”
As for the residents who would prefer her tenant to be a retailer, she points out that in the year her building has been for lease, she has only been approached by restaurants and bars, many of which she felt lacked professionalism or a strong business model. She is not the only property owner trying to lease space in North Park. Chris Lynds, owner of the former Big Lots building, is currently in negotiations with two possible tenants: a restaurant/bar and restaurant/sports bar.
“I’m trying to weigh ethically and morally what would be good for the neighborhood,” says McKaveney. This is why she finds some residents’ attitudes perplexing, citing the popularity of the Rubber Rose and lack of outrage over check cashing places and medical marijuana dispensaries. Although she says she can empathize with the neighbors’ anxiety, she initially fought a major condominium development in Mission Hills but now feels the change was inevitable and not necessarily bad for her neighborhood.
“If you are someone living in North Park, you should be really excited. We are lucky businesses want to invest in our community,” says McKaveney.
“The street has become a bar,” says Linda Artiaga, owner of multiple North Park rental properties, at an informal meeting of troubled residents held at Kathy and Lucky Morrison’s Ray Street home on Jan. 18. Artiaga accompanied her longtime tenant, Valerie Loy, and came armed with multiple color photos of vomit and trash she attributes to bar patrons. Also in attendance were Dan Tomsky, head of North Park Action Team, resident Marcella Hamlin and North Park Redevelopment Project Area Committee board member Don Leichtling, who pointed out he was there as a concerned “owner/occupant,” not a member of the board.
Brought together by their mutual concern over the owners of True North Tavern’s bid for an additional liquor license in the Pacific Drapery building, the neighbors tried to make sense of the many layers of bureaucracy involved in protesting an alcohol license. There are currently six Type 41 liquor license applications in North Park in addition to the one at the Pacific Drapery Building.
Andra Brown, vice squad sergeant with the San Diego Police Department, explains that after the legal unit of the ABC determines the validity of protest letters, the police department “weighs in” on the venue in question by looking at the reported crime rate and the concentration of licenses in a particular census tract. Currently the tract surrounding the Pacific Drapery building is over-concentrated by a 5 to 1 ratio, but the crime rate is well below acceptable levels. This allows the ABC and vice squad to make exceptions. The crime statistics used by these organizations are based solely on reported crime, which does not generally include incidents of petty property damage and noise complaints — the main issues cited by residents who live close to bars.
The meeting ended with the short-term goals of mobilizing their neighbors, contacting city agencies and engaging local leaders. Possible long-term goals included working towards a residential parking district and developing a Residential Improvement District (RID) to work in conjunction with the North Park Main Street Business Improvement District.