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News Article
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Eastside bars, neighbors head for mediation
By Timothy Roberts
The owners of two Eastside bars, the Cielo Vista neighborhood and city officials are all expected to begin meeting early next year to try to mediate concerns over noise, parking and actions attributed to bar patrons.
On Tuesday, the El Paso City Council voted unanimously to start mediation among the neighbors and the owners of the Three Legged Monkey and the Wet bar in Hawkins Plaza at 1550 Hawkins Blvd.
The city owns the property where the bars are located, and the council had been expected to alter leases to restrict parking and limit expansion of the bars.
But city Rep. Emma Acosta suggested instead that the matter be put before a professional, independent mediator from out of town. That idea carried the day, winning the votes of every council member except for Rachel Quintana, who had stepped out of the room.
“This is a solution to avoid litigation,” Acosta said. “The bar owners and the neighbors are happy to have a place at the table.”
Indeed, Three Legged Monkey owner Michael Armstrong said he was looking forward to meeting with the neighbors.
“We’ve searched for ways to be a better neighbor,” Armstrong. “We’ve given a lot of suggestions, but they have always been shot down.”
But the new approach did not appease nearby homeowners.
“They were going to take some definitive steps,” said Leticia Chavez, who lives three blocks from the bars. “Now they want to go to mediation.”
Added neighbor Leticia Santos: “I wanted something done today.”
For more than a year, the bars have been the source of many complaints from neighbors in the Cielo Vista neighborhood. Neighbors complain of loud noise, fighting and sex in the streets. Armstrong says the complaints are exaggerated and in some cases, fabricated. But neighbors insist it’s all true.
“I drove home one night and there was a couple having sex right in the middle of the street,” said Santos. “I told them if they couldn’t afford a motel room, I would give them money for one — just to get them to go away. We want to be respected. I don’t want my grandchildren to have to see that.”
Armstrong attributes the complaints to just five neighbors, whom he described as “911 abusers.”
He said he recognizes that there is a parking problem, but his requests to use space at a nearby golf course and at other businesses have been denied. He notes that the city has spent millions on improvements to two entertainment districts elsewhere in the city — Cincinnati Street and Union Plaza — but it can’t seem to arrange a little parking for his Eastside customers.
“All we want is to restructure the parking,” he said.
There are also complaints that his bar isn’t classy enough, criticism that Armstrong said misses the point.
“We are a bar for the average El Pasoan,” he said. “We’re not New York or Las Vegas.”
He’s hopeful that the mediation may bring an end to what he says has been a nightmare.
He’s spent about $60,000 on legal fees, and his revenue has declined by more than 25 percent, he said. And he wasn’t able to obtain the rights to a closed circuit showing of the Dallas Cowboys because of complaints about his liquor license.
Neighbor Mark Benitez said the next move will give the neighborhood a chance to speak directly with the people who can change things.
“Mediation will give us a venue to state our position and to be heard by the bar owners,” he said.
Acosta said she expects that the city will be able to find a mediator and begin the process by early January.
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