Posted on 06/24/2006 6:45:36 AM PDT by radar101
RANCHO BERNARDO – Developer Ron Bamberger doesn't deny stepping into a Hooters once or twice. Even though he didn't really like the food, that's not the reason he thinks it's a bad idea for the company to open a restaurant in the area.
“We're in a high-end, award-winning master-planned community, and Hooters is not consistent with the culture,” he said.
Bamberger is president of Boardwalk Development, which among other ventures manages the shopping center on Bernardo Center Drive that houses Vons and other stores.
He said that for the good of the community where he does business, he's spearheading what he calls a grass-roots campaign against Hooters that includes residents and other businesses. Bamberger also is president of the Bernardo Town Center Property Owners Association.
Hooters goes against the family values in the community, he said.
Opponents will soon post signs around Rancho Bernardo that purportedly quote from a Hooters employee handbook: “The essence of the Hooters concept is entertainment through female sex appeal, of which the look is a key part.” The rest of the sign reads, “RB Says No to Hooters.”
Besides signs, residents are collecting signatures and statements outside Vons, Bamberger said. They plan to send the dozens of statements of opposition to San Diego city officials in charge of approving a restaurant's permit to operate, and to the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control that would approve its liquor license.
Hooters is known for waitresses in form-fitting shorts and tops delivering hot wings and burgers. Its name is slang for female breasts.
Fred Glick, president of Hoot Winc LLC, the partnership that owns and operates 24 other Hooters around the country, including one in Oceanside, said he's not worried about the opposition.
“While a small, vocal minority of the population may voice their concerns before we open new locations, those concerns are unfounded and quickly disappear” once residents visit the eatery, Glick said.
He added that Bamberger is mischaracterizing Hooters as a tawdry strip joint. Instead, he said, it's a restaurant that's casual and fun. It sells beer and wine only, Glick said, adding that up to $2 million would be spent to retrofit the abandoned, 6,300-square-foot-building that Hooters is scheduled to lease near Interstate 15 and Rancho Bernardo Road.
Still, more than 100 people packed a recent Rancho Bernardo Planning Board meeting to protest the restaurant. Councilman Brian Maienschein opposes it, too. But both the Planning Board and the Rancho Bernardo Community Council declined to take a position because they also heard from residents or businesses that support it.
The extra media attention generated by Bamberger's efforts may actually drive up business, Glick said, adding, “Now they have a reason to see what the fuss is all about.”
Glick said Bamberger may be opposed to Hooters because it would be next door to Bamberger's development company. Bamberger lost a bid to buy the property for his own expansion efforts, Glick said.
Bamberger said he tried to buy the property three years ago, but that his opposition has “absolutely nothing to do” with that. Hooters simply doesn't fit Rancho Bernardo, he said.
“I would welcome any other business,” Bamberger said.
Elena Gaona: (760) 737-7575; elena.gaona@uniontrib.com
I just want to know one thing...why is it that we can be so critical of Americans who feel that morality is a good thing? Why do they have to "go with the crowd" on things like this to be accepted. American who opens her hands to all kinds, good and bad, should have some common sense regarding this stupid restaurant. If you have to drive a few extra miles, so be it. I am neither rich nor a snob and wouldn't want that place anywhere near where I live, just as I wouldn't want an abortion clinic, porno shops, red light districts, etc. Yes, I do group them all into one catagory, in varying degrees. A young child should not have bare breasted women within eyeshot. Wake up people.
Just had to say it.
If you like hot wings we have a chain here called Zaxby's, if you see one stop and tell them you want their very hottest, but only order the minimum quantity. Unless you are a demon from hell you won't eat them. I mentioned them to a couple of guys I know who THOUGHT they liked really hot wings and they started in laughing. Well, I stopped and picked up five wings and took them back to these two clowns and they each took one tiny bite and suddenly lost their desire for heat.
Whatever the issues that preceeded it, I wish I could be on the jury in this case. The plaintiff would end up owning that restaurant.
Bamberger is just anti-Hooters because he tried to buy the space that hooters wants to go into.
Roger that.
Just pointing out the facts, sir.
And when he gets older, he'll root for the Viagra car?
It is time for men to start acting like men and tell liberal limp wrist to go f* themselves.
Nobody says you have to go. In a free country we each make our own choices.
American who opens her hands to all kinds, good and bad, should have some common sense regarding this stupid restaurant. If you have to drive a few extra miles, so be it. I am neither rich nor a snob and wouldn't want that place anywhere near where I live, just as I wouldn't want an abortion clinic, porno shops, red light districts, etc.
What stops you from leaving? Why not drive a few extra miles yourself and live in the country?
Yes, I do group them all into one catagory, in varying degrees. A young child should not have bare breasted women within eyeshot. Wake up people.
There are no bare breasted women at Hooters.
Me too. So that makes two of us.
no, that means my Dear Husband, not dead husband!
"Yes, beauty should be hidden lest man be tempted. Let's get them burkas..."
That wasn't my point and you knew it. So what club does your daughter dance at?
Now it's true, under free enterprise, there exists the right to set up shop where one wants, however, municipalities typically have regulatory authority over what businesses located in their jurisdictions and what businesses don't
A business doesn't have the right to get it's proposal approved, and the reason that people choose to live in municipalities is because they often want some authority to exist that says, "We're sorry, you're not going to build that junkyard next to our neighborhood of 3,000 sq ft homes"
For example, if they wanted to build a Hooter's along the main drag in our area, I'd be all for it. The neighborhood has been deteriorating for quite a while, and the only reason that it hasn't become a complete ghetto is because there is valuable property on the waterfront, where affluent people live. I am one of those people. If you opened up a Hooter's in one of the shopping centers, it would do a lot of good, as right now, the closest Hooter's requires you to traverse the interstate in order to make a short trip. Never mind people just south of here who live outside the limits.
Hooter's would bring alot of young white people into this area, and many of these people might just find it's still not as bad as they've heard, and they may buy starter homes here, and so, here, a Hooter's could help stem a white flight problem in neighborhoods clearly designed as working-class. However, if you wanted to build the same resturaunt in the neighborhood we lived in before we moved here, I'd be dead set against it. Of course, in this neighborhood, the average household income is over $100,000. It is also the city's most affluent single area, there are no pawn shops, no title loan outfits, the only "bargain" store is an arts and crafts shop. In this kind of neighborhood, Hooter's would serve to the deteriment of the area, as it would bring in a crowd that would normally not be in the area. Namely, rowdy teenagers from the less well-to-do areas of town.
There are no bare breasted women at Hooters.
To hell with them, it's the other half that's going to get really ticked...
This is actually an advantage.
It makes it easy to give directions.
"I have a delivery for Bamberger's development company. Where is it?"
We're right next door to Hooter's"
OH! I know where that is !"
Yeah, THAT's eye candy!
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
Oh, great, there goes breakfast...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
