The long-standing Secret Yard Hookah Lounge located in Logan Heights has been served a permanent closure notice, with the San Diego City Attorney's Office citing a lengthy record of illegal activity and repeated code violations, as reported by Times of San Diego. The establishment is accused of contributing to an unsafe environment through incidents of violence and drug sales, among other offenses.
Repeated interventions by police, with hundreds of calls over the past years, and the connection to serious crimes like attempted murder by a bouncer and the implication of patrons in a homicide, have painted a bleak picture of the lounge's operations and impact on the community, and these civil penalties, which total $112,500, could increase by over tenfold if the judgment is violated, signaling the severity of the case against the lounge's operations, which involved ignoring warnings about safety and building permit requirements.
Both the Times of San Diego and 10News report that City Attorney Heather Ferbert emphasized the lounge's preference for profit over public safety. Despite numerous warnings and past incidents, the Secret Yard continued to flout the law. According to Ferbert, the business illegally served alcohol and hosted events without the requisite licenses, contributing to noise and disturbances in the neighborhood.
With the lounge now boarded up, its operators have been barred from reopening any similar ventures that would continue those violations within San Diego City limits, and with the stakes of breaching the settlement placed firmly at a hefty $1.2 million in penalties; the message from the city authorities is resoundingly clear—enough is enough, "If you’re running an operation like this where you are degrading the quality of life in a neighborhood, we're coming after you," San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl told 10News.
