The Seattle City Council unanimously passed legislation Tuesday aimed at curtailing gun violence, disturbances and nuisance behavior that for at least the past decade have been centered on unregulated venues that typically operate after bars close down on Friday and Saturday nights.
Several council members acknowledged that residents and business owners — especially those in Sodo, the Chinatown International District and Rainier Beach, where most of the city’s after-hours establishments are located — have made it clear they are fed up with the shootings and want city government to take action.
Former Councilmember Tanya Woo began working on an ordinance last year in the aftermath of the fatal August shooting of a 22-year-old man inside what was characterized as an illegal nightclub operating under the guise of a private hookah lounge in the Sodo neighborhood.
After Woo lost her election bid for one of two citywide seats in November, the ordinance was taken up by Councilmember Bob Kettle, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, and drafted in collaboration with the Seattle city attorney’s office.
Woo attended Tuesday’s council meeting with other friends of Donnie Chin, a community activist who was gunned down in July 2015 near a hookah lounge in the Chinatown International District.
“Donnie was not just a protector of our neighborhood but a true pillar of our community. He lost his life safeguarding the very space we now seek to regulate,” Woo said during the public comment period. “His death and the deaths of many others indicate the dangerous consequences of these unregulated, after-hours clubs.”
Woo was the only member of the public to address the ordinance Tuesday and no one stepped forward to oppose it since its introduction last month.
A dozen people have been killed in the past 12 years at or near after-hours clubs, said council President Sara Nelson, and police have responded to 35 shootings connected to certain after-hours locations since 2020, collecting more than 800 shell casings.
Most recently, Ozie Whitfield, 23, and security guard Julius Rodriguez, 29, were fatally shot outside the Capri Hookah Lounge on Rainier Avenue South on March 30.
Councilmember Mark Solomon, who represents South Seattle, referenced the double homicide Tuesday and said the owner voluntarily decided to shutter the business for good after interim Seattle police Chief Shon Barnes designated the business a chronic nuisance property earlier this month.
“I am tired of adding another name to this list of people who have died at these establishments,” Solomon said. “So let’s take this action so we can say, ‘No more.’”
Tim Robinson, a spokesperson for the city attorney’s office, confirmed that Capri owner Ashenafi Masabo indicated in a phone call to the office last week that he did not intend to reopen. Masabo did not immediately respond to voice and text messages on Tuesday.
Narrowly tailored
The ordinance, which passed 6-0 Tuesday with three members absent, is narrowly tailored to target unregulated and unpermitted businesses operating between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. “for the purposes of socializing and either smoking or dancing.” The new regulations won’t apply to bars, restaurants, nightclubs, theaters, all-ages dance venues or strip clubs that are already required to get licenses and meet minimum security requirements.
The problem the ordinance is aimed at addressing is focused on unlicensed, after-hours alcohol sales, with operators claiming to be private clubs or hookah lounges, usually charging nominal fees for patrons to become members.
The “private club” loophole means they can deny entry to police and state Liquor and Cannabis Board officers, even as Seattle police have documented dozens of shootings and other violent crimes associated with the clubs. The establishments either host irregular events that are publicized on Instagram and other social media sites or open in the early morning hours, attracting large groups of young people who want to keep partying after bars close at 2 a.m.
Seattle has a complicated history over the past 17 years of first trying to require special licenses for nightclubs and later attempting to regulate hookah lounges.
Though the city requires nightclubs with liquor licenses to abide by the noise ordinance and file written safety plans — including procedures to handle violent incidents and call Seattle police — pushback from the nightlife industry over additional regulations contributed to the ouster of former Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr in 2009.
Nearly a decade ago, then-Mayor Ed Murray began a push to shut down the city’s hookah lounges after Chin was killed. Faced with backlash, particularly from the city’s East African communities, Murray paused enforcement indefinitely and ordered a racial-equity analysis.
But the city couldn’t come up with a regulatory license, and the lounges have continued to operate in a regulatory gray zone as private clubs as a way to circumvent the state’s indoor smoking ban.
“We know that these unregulated, unpermitted nightclub establishments … operate in a gray area, under the guise of legitimacy,” said Councilmember Rob Saka. People in neighborhoods like Sodo and Pioneer Square are “fed up with gun violence, fed up with the senseless shootings and killings,” he said.
How the ordinance will work
Under the ordinance, both after-hours venues open to the public and private clubs would be required to have extended-hours permission as part of a valid liquor license from the Liquor and Cannabis Board. That means operators would be required to meet all the same conditions as owners of nightclubs and bars that serve liquor until 2 a.m., including a review of operators’ criminal history and permission to stay open past that time.
Neighbours Nightclub and Lounge on Capitol Hill and Monkey Loft in Sodo are examples of legitimate nightclubs that stop alcohol sales at 2 a.m. but allow patrons to keep dancing for two or three hours longer on Fridays and Saturdays.
Operators of after-hours venues would be required to have at least two trained security officers on-site and to take steps — whether through pat-downs or metal detectors — to prevent people from bringing weapons inside. They will need to install surveillance cameras at entrances and exits and prepare a written safety plan. They will also have to allow police and other city and state enforcement staff access to all public areas during business hours.
That provision will allow Liquor and Cannabis Board officers to seize any liquor not locked away after 2 a.m. The city’s Department of Finance and Administrative Services is responsible for enforcing the ordinance, with $1,000 fines for first-time violations and $5,000 fines for each subsequent violation, which operators can contest
Additionally, the ordinance authorizes the city attorney’s office to seek legal relief, such as temporary restraining orders or civil injunctions against noncompliant operators.
Two amendments were added to the ordinance Tuesday, directing the Department of Finance and Administrative Services to come up with an implementation plan by June 1 and submit annual reports to the council’s Public Safety Committee on the effectiveness of enforcement actions against the after-hours clubs.
The implementation plan is meant to include consideration of language access and ensure that written safety plans are filed with the department director and police chief, said Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck, who introduced the amendments. And by providing annual reports, the council will have data on how the ordinance impacts violent crime outcomes, she said.
“It is my sincere hope this legislation mitigates gun violence because there has been far too much death in our communities,” Rinck said.