Neighbors: Capitol Hill nightclub a 'disaster,' 'nightmare'
SEATTLE - A nightclub on Capitol Hill is creating concerns for people who live and work in the area. They say the mix of liquor, noise, violence and traffic isn't what they want added to their neighborhood - and it's more than just a nuisance.
"It's just kind of a recipe for disaster," says Tracy Brazg, who lives in a building next to "The Social" club.
Brazg and others are frustrated, but she says the city of Seattle's noise ordinance is difficult to enforce.
"I would say the noise ordinance is constantly being broken by this nightclub, but they're not getting cited and nothing is happening," she says.
Dave Hawley owns a tattoo shop in the same building as The Social on East Olive Way. He says at first he was excited to learn about his new neighbors, but now he has issues with how the club is operated.
"They have been routinely tough to deal with … particularly as a business owner trying to deal with these people in any sort of reasonable way has just been a nightmare," he says.
Hawley says he deals with constant leaks from the nightclub that damage his equipment and wooden floors - and he often picks up cigarette butts or vomit left out front. He says the damage is from nightclub patrons.
Other residents agree the club is taking an emotional toll on those who live and work here.
"I think that as we focus on nightlife as one area to grow and enhance our sort of urban vibrancy, we need to do that in a really thoughtful, intentional way," says Brazg. "And if this keeps on happening around the city and in neighborhoods around the city, people aren't going to want to live in these vibrant urban cores."
The Social is operating under a temporary liquor license. A hearing is scheduled for Monday at the King County Courthouse.
KOMO News tried to contact the owners of the club Sunday but they have not responded to our messages.
"It's just kind of a recipe for disaster," says Tracy Brazg, who lives in a building next to "The Social" club.
Brazg and others are frustrated, but she says the city of Seattle's noise ordinance is difficult to enforce.
"I would say the noise ordinance is constantly being broken by this nightclub, but they're not getting cited and nothing is happening," she says.
Dave Hawley owns a tattoo shop in the same building as The Social on East Olive Way. He says at first he was excited to learn about his new neighbors, but now he has issues with how the club is operated.
"They have been routinely tough to deal with … particularly as a business owner trying to deal with these people in any sort of reasonable way has just been a nightmare," he says.
Hawley says he deals with constant leaks from the nightclub that damage his equipment and wooden floors - and he often picks up cigarette butts or vomit left out front. He says the damage is from nightclub patrons.
Other residents agree the club is taking an emotional toll on those who live and work here.
"I think that as we focus on nightlife as one area to grow and enhance our sort of urban vibrancy, we need to do that in a really thoughtful, intentional way," says Brazg. "And if this keeps on happening around the city and in neighborhoods around the city, people aren't going to want to live in these vibrant urban cores."
The Social is operating under a temporary liquor license. A hearing is scheduled for Monday at the King County Courthouse.
KOMO News tried to contact the owners of the club Sunday but they have not responded to our messages.
When there was a shooting there I knew it was not going to last.
Why are former Social employees wasting valuable time commenting on this article? It's futile. The club is no more.Â
I would go get on Craigslist and find the next bartender,waitstaff,host,dj gig which are a dime a dozen and get on with your lives!Â
If you can't the handle shaky job security aka (working at a club/bar) especially in this city, then maybe seek a more stable income source. I've been a dj in this city for many years and have had clubs shut down on me more times than I can count. A residency could be a year, could be a week, and I've always accepted that as part of the job. Right now Seattle is on the war path to shut down clubs that draw negative attention. All it takes is an incident or two and liquor license goes bye bye! no license=club death. It is what it is. Former employees angrily blaming the residents are just ignorant fools. :) Â Â
This is Capitol Hill, its loud, proud and sometime excessive. Its certainly not perfect but if you want peace and quiet instead of the vibrant urban core, theres a couple neighborhoods that might that kind of lifestyle better, such as Upper Queen Anne or Issaquah, which is close enough to the core without being in it. Not a fan of puke on the street, but I am also not a fan of the pee smell downtown and the solution to that problem is not to shut down the stores that attract the people that attract the panhandlers. Â
@3eco There is noise I am a 20+ hill resident but the social seems to turn a blind eye to how their patrons behave and that has caused shootings to occur and the neighbors rightly hate them.  They seem to feel they are better than others and thus don't have to respond to complaints.
@3ecoI've lived within a block from the location of The Social for just about 10 years now, and have NEVER experienced the same noise and flagrant disrespect for the neighborhood as has been going on since The Social opened. (And that goes for all over Capitol Hill.) To tell me to move out of my home & neighborhood because it's a "vibrant urban core" is short sighted, and disregards the fact that dozens of other clubs & bars exist in the same neighborhood without being such a nuisance.Â
So sick of lowlife degenerates ruining the quality of life for the rest of us. Worthless human debris.
Is this a gay bar considering the location?
@KlondikoActually it's interesting you bring that up. Â When it first opened, it was catering to a gay crowd for the first three months. Â And no one had any noise complaints until they changed their focus and began catering to whoever and renting the space to the highest bidder.Â
@Eric @Klondiko  It's a EDM scene in a gay friendly neighborhood in Seattle. When it opened it attracted a lot of gay men who like dance music. But it's never been promoted as a gay bar. Everyone has been welcome there since day one provided you like house music. A huge mix of people go there. Maybe the gay male community tried to claim it as their own from the beginning, but heteros like dance music too.Â
@lakeview @Klondiko Quote from their initial press release in 2011 which does say it's a LGBT bar:
"We are excited to announce our latest venture: The Social - a three level 12,000 sqft ultra lounge/ restaurant and nightclub. The Social is located on East Olive and will feature three distinct rooms, including four bars and a 3000 sqft restaurant. The entertainment venue is being designed by award winning Capitol Hill firm Pb Elemental (recently named one of the Decades Best by Seattle Magazine). Our focus is to provide a well designed, fun, and high quality venue for the LGBT community. The Social is a joint venture of three Capitol Hill small business owners Alex Garcia (Emerson Salon, Banyan Branch), Shanon Thorson and Laura Olson (Po Dog, Auto Battery, Grim's) . Drawing on their specific talents we will be featuring a gourmet food menu, holding daily events and drawing from national and international DJ talent. The Social is scheduled to open this summer, watch for updates on%s. We are excited to join the expanding scene on East Olive with Tommy Guns, CC Atties."
@Klondiko Nope. You're just being lazy and generalizing.Â
@lakeview It was for a few months actually, but definitely not anymore.
I'm sure there will be a story real soon about a shooting that leaves blood and bullet casings on the sidewalk..stopped going into Seattle about ten years ago..you know what I don't miss it one bit.
See, now if all these nuisance clubs and bars were replaced with pot cafes, Seattle would be a better place.Â
@Tattooed_Angel   HHmmm...
Not surprising - the ownership group pulls from their PB Elemental Architecture background of building ticky tacky boxes, calling them "visionary" and then getting foreclosed on... Â They keep managing people to convince people that they are hip and cool and to not look at the trainwreck of failed projects they've left behind. Â Apparently in both worlds they can draw a pretty picture but know bupkis about management.
Marijuana is Safer, and Saner, than Alcohol (and the sloppy drunks it produces)
Well, the less gifted with an IQ south of 90 need their entertainment too..............
Move to capitol hill and complain about the noise?
@smelly More like: Live in the same neighborhood for a decade, and never had a reason to complain about the noise until now.
Ah yes.. nothing like the 'beautiful' hipsters of Seattle, and their trendy nightclubs. Nothing says sophisticated urban living like "vomit and cigarette butts" outside your trendy nightclubs.  Seriously. What is the obsession in Seattle with drinking?  The weekly mags devote entire issues to where to get drunk.  There are so many bars already, and they are the source of so much of the violence in Seattle... I pity the people that bought condos next to that building, especially if the plans do include creating a 4 story club.  Apartment dwellers can move, condo owners in a saturated market are screwed.  C'mon Seattle... you guys are trying too hard. We get it, you're edgy and urbane, now get over  yourselves.  You don't have to constantly try to prove that you're hipper than Portland and LA (you'll never do that, btw.)  Instead Seattle is a mess of nightclubs that have expensive drinks, embarrassingly dated themes, and the usual puke and urine and falling down drunk 22 year olds, and gangtas who shoot people when the club closes.  Stay classy.Â
@DTÂ Hipsters annoy the hell out of me. As Anthony Bourdain refers to them; "hipster douchebags"
I must be getting old or something, but what exactly is a "hipster"?
@Superman_1967Â It varies from generation to generation. Think, "trendy and faddish" or edgy but not too much so. In my case, it was wearing Chinese Waiter Jackets, black leather wrestling boots and leather pants. And imported cigarettes.
@northwestsurfer @DT Bourdain is the biggest hipster of them all, he should talk LOL
Liqour control board , Jerk the temporary Liqour license, end of story/problem.
What KOMO copy editors??? Virtually every article on this site is rife with typos, misspellings and grammatical errors.
@GOATCUTTERLike using three question marks in a row?
@KOMO_Sapiens @GOATCUTTER He left out a verb in,"What KOMO copy editors???."
In addition, "virtually" was used in placed of the more correcter (sic), "Most..."
@KOMO_Sapiens @GOATCUTTER He is triple baffled !
Gosh, Komo. It looks like the headline is about Neighbors! Maybe reconsider the headline.
Where is John Taffer when you need him?
Neighbours: no shootings in a long time. Komo copy editors obviously operating under some confusion here because of a lack of familiarity with the neighborhood. The ethical thing to do would be to fix the error.
@aem76us What KOMO copy editors??? Virtually every article on this site is rife with typos, misspellings and grammatical errors.
P.S., Don't forget to scroll down and read the comments at the bottom of the article I linked.Â
This fills in some details:
http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2011/04/11/capitol-hill-fooddrink-the-social-makes-olive-way-plans-chieftain-ruffles-teapot-sale
My take though is that from what I have seen is when cities either end up with or choose to create areas over saturated with bars/clubs it always reaches a tipping point. We have a mayor who is cozy with the night spot owners and hipsters. So we get no place to park in an area like Cap Hill and people being expected to live right on top of problem places.Â
Been a while since I lived on Cap Hill. Is this the same building that once housed a bar that catered to garishly dressed women. I got a weird vibe going in there  because they all had these husky voices, like they smoked too much.  And they wore too much make-up. If I wanted a drink in a manly bar, there was this place called, "The Brass Door." Very friendly chaps as I recall.
What is the club motif? Leather Biker bar? Country? Punk Rock? Hip-Hop? Maybe the clientele would be a good indicator of where the troubles lie. Maybe some forms of âentertainmentâ shouldnât be promoted. You think??
@SargeMcCÂ Â Hipster doofus.
@SargeMcCIt's more of a trendy dance scene for getting out of control drunk for 20 somethings. Chicks puking outside is probably about as bad as it's going to get. Would hate to live next door though. :)  Â
KOMO needs to change their headlines so people do not think "Neighbors" nightclub is the club in question. Â So many people read the headline and not the story.
@lakeunion I shall use my superb headline-writing talents for the forces of good!
Area residents declare Capitol Hill nightclub a "disaster," "nightmare"
@lakeunion The club you're confused about is spelled, "Neighbours".
@lakeunion AGREED! I thought the story was about Neighbors also. If I owned Neighbors I would want the headline changed.
Man, I'd hate to live next door to a nightclub too. So I don't.
Just another trashy "club". I truly have learned to despise these sort of operations over the years, they're a breeding ground for problems. Reminds me of one that used to be just across the road from where I work. Thankfully that place went out of business and lo and behold the late night/weekend violence evaporated for the most part. I will never condone the promotion of drunkeness, I have seen far too much excessive drinking in my years of food service. Its peeved me to no end watching people too drunk to walk heading to their cars and driving away. Hopefully they will come down on this place for the sake of the neighborhood.
@Jill @Jumblemuffin I understand the noisey venue may have moved in after you did. If you think a "club" is bad, try living next to a Seattle Housing Authority scattered site house.
" Hawley says he deals with constant leaks from the nightclub that damage his equipment and wooden floors - and he often picks up cigarette butts or vomit left out front. He says the damage is from nightclub patrons." If they're serving people enough alcohol to PUKE out front, they NEED to be shut down for being ignorant.......not just overserving.