DAYTONA BEACH — When Seabreeze Boulevard bars and restaurants shut down every night by 2 am, two smoking lounges on the beachside corridor stay open until 4 am, providing an after-bar party place.
The smoking lounges don’t serve alcohol, so the city has allowed them to stay open almost until sunrise. But that ultra-late night privilege is going to be stripped away in three months.
Police Chief Jakari Young has said the lounges are giving too many troublemakers an opportunity to linger in the crime-ridden area, so city commissioners took his advice and passed a measure Wednesday night that mandates smoking lounges close by 2 am
The change goes into effect April 4, and it will allow police to clear out the Seabreeze corridor in one fell swoop after businesses turn out the lights and lock their doors.
The change is welcome news for Sue Odena, who lives in the Seabreeze neighborhood on North Wild Olive Avenue. She told commissioners if she looked tired it was because she had been woken up twice last week by police sirens.
“My first thought was who got killed,” Odena said. “My second thought was what happened now.”
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She’s come to expect the worst in a part of town that’s seen a few murders over the past year.
“My neighbors and I are very, very concerned about our area,” Odena said.
New rules for Daytona smoking lounges
The two smoking lounges most impacted by the change are the Hookah Pub at 502 Seabreeze Blvd. and Follow The Smoke at 631 N. Grandview Ave. They have 90 days now to apply for permits that will force them to live under the same rules as Daytona Beach bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.
Smoking lounges will now be required to get extended hours permits to stay open past midnight. If they’re given the permits, they’ll have to shut down by 2 am every night except during a specified list of holidays and special events including Bike Week, July 4, Labor Day and New Year’s Eve, when they could stay open until 3 am
The smoking lounges will have to install security cameras to record all entrance and exit points used by their patrons. Security camera recordings will have to be retained by smoking lounges for a minimum of 45 days.
Lounges with extended hours permits will also have to have private security or at least one police officer stationed outside.
Their permits could be in jeopardy if they have three or more instances of late-night illegal parking associated with the smoking lounge within a one-year period. Their permits could also be on shaky ground if they had three or more after-midnight calls to law enforcement within a one-year period for problems such as underage drinking and vandalism both at the smoking lounge or in close proximity.
Only City Commissioner Dannette Henry voted against the new requirements for smoking lounges. She said young people like to stay out late, and taking that away from them could spur some of them to choose another city to live and work.
“We can find a happy medium,” Henry said before commissioners voted.
‘Nightlife should not usurp home life’
City Commissioner Ken Strickland owned a Daytona Beach nightclub in years past, and he said he doesn’t personally have a problem with bars and lounges staying open into the wee hours. But the residents he represents in the neighborhoods north of Seabreeze Boulevard do have a very large problem with the crime and chaos that spills onto their streets.
“I have to respect the people in the neighborhood who have suffered with noise and violence,” said Strickland, who voted for the new smoking lounge rules.
He said Daytona Beach is a tourist town, and it’s going to have to figure out more effective ways of handling events and visitors.
“We’re doing a horrible job managing our tourism,” Strickland said.
Mayor Derrick Henry said he’s concerned about Daytona Beach’s reputation, something he feels he needs to protect as the city’s top elected official.
“This is not the reputation I’m trying to create,” Henry said, referring to the party central atmosphere on Seabreeze Boulevard.
He said people have to remember Seabreeze was a residential and daytime business community before it became “an entertainment zone.”
“It was allowed to become that,” the mayor said. “It lost its focus as a community.”
A lot of people still live on both sides of Seabreeze Boulevard, and they’re routinely disrupted by the people who park on their streets and create noise late at night, he said.
“Nightlife should not usurp home life,” Henry said.
Bradford Gonzales lives two blocks north of Seabreeze Boulevard, and he watched from one of his windows last year as police worked a crime scene in front of his house where a husband and wife were murdered.
“Our issue as citizens is to have a safer neighborhood, not whether hookah bars make money,” Gonzales said.
‘Front for an after-hours lounge’
Hookah Pub owner Antwon Gandy said he was “disappointed” with Wednesday night’s vote.
“I think we all probably could have come together and come up with some kind of way to make this work,” Gandy said.
He said he feels like his business has become “the scapegoat for Seabreeze” problems. He said recent beachside murders “had absolutely nothing to do with” his business.
But Young has said crime near the Hookah Pub appears to be directly connected to that smoking lounge. One tragic example is a fight inside the Hookah Pub in November that spilled outside and ended with one man in the fight being fatally shot around 4 am
Young has said the Hookah Pub is “just a front for an after-hours lounge.” At the Dec 7 City Commission meeting he said people are sneaking alcohol into the pub or going back and forth to their cars to drink. He said there’s a cover charge at the business, and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of tobacco sold there.
Gandy said he’s worked with police to try to improve safety at his business, and he’s hired armed security officers. He insisted it’s “one of the safest places” on Seabreeze.
Daytona Beach resident Jerry Wise said he frequented Seabreeze Boulevard 40 years ago, and there were fights then, too.
“It wasn’t a big deal,” he said. “There will always be punks and thugs that start trouble regardless of the time of day. Law enforcement can handle it. They always have.”
You can reach Eileen at Eileen.Zaffiro@news-jrnl.com