Sully’s Closing Doors After Liquor Violations
Sully’s Pub has agreed to surrender its liquor license for 45 days for a series of violations. City regulators say Sully’s Pub violated its liquor license by serving on a Sunday when it wasn’t selling food, and by serving after 1 a.m. without a 2 a.m. license. They also say the bar’s policies, practices and inadequate staffing has led to crime on the premises, including repeated drug activity.
Sully’s owner Richard Waulters and a city official signed a settlement last week, which still must be approved by the City Council. It’s on the agenda for next week’s regulatory services committee meeting. The bar, at 2519 Central Ave., has until Jan. 31 to give up its liquor license, and, in return, the city will drop all remaining fees and citations. Neither Waulters nor city staff was able to be reached immediately for comment. Dan Haugen
(12/31) Update: Sully’s has agreed to give up its liquor license as of Jan. 31, 2007, and will close its doors. The leaseholder, Majdi Wadi, has agreed to release the bar owner from his lease obligation, which would have been through March 2007.
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Filed under: Audubon Park, Central Avenue, City Hall, Crime, Food and Drink
Further update on Sully’s:
Sully’s has agreed to give up its liquor license as of Jan. 31, 2007, and will close its doors. The leaseholder, Majdi Wadi, has agreed to release the bar owner from his lease obligation, which would have been through March 2007.
This is victory for Northeast, and not a minor one.
Now we just have to worry about where the riff-raff will move to….
Here is a quote from Waulters, the owner of Sully’s from a December 20 Northeaster story:
“I’ve watched this neighborhood go down so much in just three years. It’s so bad now. They’re moving over here from North Minneapolis and they’re working every corner.”
This is a giant misconception that needs to be addressd. I have heard many people comment that the problem is from “those people” moving over here from North Minneapolis. This is very thinly-veiled racism.
As Waulters himself admits, most of his customers live within walking distance of Sully’s. The problem lies with his, mostly white, customers, not some “street urchins” who just moved in from across the river.
To ignore the influence of criminals from the northside on northeast generally and Sully’s specifically is to blind oneself to fact. The mutants themselves confess to coming here because it is (was?) easier to hustle in our quarter.
I invite all skeptics to come out and walk a few patrols with the NECP, or strike up a conversation with officers of the 2nd Precinct, or discuss the issue with the City’s Problem Properties Unit.
Certainly, many of the troublemakers that doomed Sully’s live withing walking distance. That’s part of the problem, and why the neighborhood is so happy it is closing.
Lowry and Central is the largest (highest traffic) commercial corner in NE and is supposed to bring people from outside of the immeadiate area. Now there is a big hole in the ground from the bsharp fire, a vacancy in the aardvark space, a vacancy in the bakery across the street, and soon to be a vacancy in the sully’s space. So who is going to show up?
So what if the criminals that degrade our degrade-able businesses and corners come from another part of town?
If it were fact that there are many criminals who reside across the river from northeast, what would it matter in how the issue of crime is addressed? It seems to be a way that some try to absolve our community of responsibility for a crime issue.
The Mall of America, The University of Minnesota, Downtown Minneapolis and maybe even bryn Mawr(sp?) have many crime issues that result from imported hooligans residing elsewhere and anyone involved there could argue that-
“The mutants themselves confess to coming here because it is (was?) easier to hustle in our quarter.”
People like to throw out all kinds of accusations in the process of making excuses. I’m opposed to excuses, and in favor of knowledge.
In addition to the native eastside criminals and the northside criminals, we also suffer from south central criminals, as evidenced by tagging activity.
Where they come from matters for many reasons. The ratio of criminals fresh from other areas gives us an idea of patterns that can help adjust our actions.
If we’re getting a larger fraction of “imported” crime, it is useful to learn why they left their old haunts and why they picked our area over others.
If the we’re getting a wave of criminals from an area known for more violence than we’re used to, it is then wise to work harder to stop that wave sooner.
As an illustrative counter-example, we’re not getting so many St. Anthony thugs, and I expect our criminals are not going to Falcon Heights to do their dirty deeds. What can we learn from those far less-troubled places?
I spoke with management of Sully’s prior to closing, they claimed that the revenue losses from the smoking ban put them at a serious disadvantage…and as typical, once business revenues suffer, things spiral downward from there.