New Haven Independent

Posted by: Resident of Westville | January 1, 2010 3:02 PM

Our community rallied together and publicly opposed the opening of Soco because of this type of violence. Three year ago, we would hear numerous and frequent fights and gun shots coming from the parking lot and would call the New Haven police multiple times per week. The address of 50 Fitch is well known to this law enforcement.

How the city of New Haven could allow another bar to open is absurd. It is regretful that the opinions of the local community who, committed to improving this neighborhood, was ignored. It is also regretful and a paradox that as our family and friends celebrated our community at midnight, two men were shot less than 50 yards from our home.

Posted by: anon | January 1, 2010 4:13 PM

Are traffic stops down now that the Chief is leaving? Those were catching a lot of illegal guns, but I haven't seen nearly as many lately.

Posted by: next door | January 1, 2010 5:48 PM

i can add that sometime between 9 and 10 pm there was a police car with it's lights flashing parked right in the parking lot close to the bar.
how can anyone can think this was random and has nothing to do with the bar? as the previous poster commented, it has been happening for years. apparently the previous bar that was troublesome had a different owner.
as our neighborhood petitioned to keep a similar business from opening, mr. pena promised that his business would be a restaurant for families and not a "bar" or "night club" and gave empty promises that crime would not happen at his new establishment.
new haven zoning folks, and whoever else is responsible for letting this business open...think about how you are in some part responsible for another person killed...and don't let it happen again!
close this business and prevent others like it from opening.

Posted by: sam | January 2, 2010 7:31 AM

evan jackie james you have a lot of work a head of you. You can save lives .Please work toward that goal.These are your people.

Posted by: sam | January 2, 2010 7:53 AM

where d they bring in the new year in side or out side. You could close it now or wait for the count

Posted by: jawbone | January 2, 2010 2:57 PM

I just went back and re-read the NHI article from Nov. 14, 2008. Mr. Pena promised to hire off-duty police offices for 'special events.' I would imagine that New Years Eve is a special event, just look at the ludicrous handbill. Therefore he should have had off-duties on hand.
Did he live up to his promise made that evening at city hall?

Posted by: Ryan | January 2, 2010 5:30 PM

Carlos Pena is an honest man with good values. The man changed my life with my employment at SoCo. If members of the community sre concerned with violence in they're neigborhood i suggest you move out of New Haven. This trajic incident is like many others in the city that occur frequently and is the responsibilty of the local government to keep us safe. Carlos is not responsible he runs a clean by the book business, that does toy drives for kids raises money for fire fighters, and host family events. The man who was killed was not a regular customer and the two others were never in the bar i was there thats how carlos can say it wasnt related to the bar there was no incident inside. Everyones concerned with hanging a man whos done nothing but change the face of that adress. But go ahead sit in your comfortable westville home and blame others wh actually participate in events to help the community, throw the blame at Carlos and not the criminals you have running ur streets.

Posted by: Bri | January 2, 2010 5:42 PM

Carlos Pena is one of the very best men I know. He does not make empty promises. Although the address 50 Fitch had previously had a terrible reputation, Carlos had a huge hand in the turn around that SoCo's made.
What happened on New Years Eve is extremely unfortunate, and is a product of the neighborhood. Not the bar. If it hadn't happened that night, at SoCo's, then it would have happened somewhere else. This is not the first act of violence New Haven has seen in the past few months. And so, perhaps instead of taking the easy way out, and pointing fingers at the establishment, (which I doubt any of those who have commented have visited,) it's time for New Haven to take a look at it's own community and start making adjustments towards preventing these sort of unfortunate events from occurring again.

Posted by: Streever | January 2, 2010 6:14 PM

next door:
as frustrated as you are, imagine how we feel--people assume you can deny a variance based on previous owners record but the truth is we can not. Every vote is based on zoning ordinance intent, and not on how people feel about the owner/history. In this case, the board gave him strict conditions to insure that he did not operate a bar.

The owner was given conditions which he broke, and as of Dec 23rd he was issued a cease & desist letter. He is liable for $250 in fines per day of illegal operation after recieving the letter. No one took him at his word that he'd operate a "family restaurant"--he was required legally to do so, and having failed to honor the agreement, he has been ordered to cease & desist.

If blood is on anyone's hands it's Mr Pena, for his failure to operate within the law.

Posted by: We told you so | January 2, 2010 7:37 PM

This article's assertion that "some neighbors had opposed a zoning request" is a gross understatement. EVERY neighborhood stakeholder vigorously opposed Mr. Pena's plans to open a bar/nightclub at this location. Local business owners, SCSU officials, neighbors, the management team and our aldermen all spoke out against the exception to allow MR. Pena to open this establishment. The BZA did not heed neighbors warnings and only imposed a few toothless, unenforcible conditions on Mr. Pena's operation. Now we see the consequences of the BZA's decision to ignore our concerns. The BZA and the mayor who appointed them owe us an explanation for this failure and they owe us much better conduct in the future.

Posted by: streever | January 2, 2010 8:27 PM

bri & ryan,
whilst you may have good experiences with him as a person, I can assure you, that there is a public record of him operating improperly. He is not allowed to operate a bar in the City of New Haven, as you acknowledge it is. He promised the City of New Haven & the neighbors to that business that he would not operate a bar. Yet you & his other friend call it a bar & a club interchangeably, as does he.

While Mr Pena may have many great qualities, he most certainly did fail to keep his word. He promised to operate a "family restaurant" per the neighbors request & the zoning ordinance which prohibited a bar at that spot. However, he has operated a bar since opening. Care to explain the contradiction between the promises he made and the actions he then undertook?

You claim he is an honest man. Yet you do not explain why he mislead the city, and violated numerous laws in the process. Can you explain why such an honest man, who keeps his word, would lie to the City & his own neighbors?

Posted by: Most Concernded | January 3, 2010 9:45 AM

... It is my view that Mr. Pena has blood on his hands. He may indeed be a wonderful person and an honorable business man but that night his "penny pinching" instincts got the best of him. He operated a bar in New Haven where the crime, shooting, rowdiness is at fever pitches throughout the bar scene. Shame on Mr. Pena for not ADMITTING the obvious on his lack of judgement. His bar/restaurant will CLOSE and liquour license be taken away. It is only fair since he did not do as he promised. The board of alderman and the city took a huge gamble on him and his establishment against the wishes of the westville community. They both lost.

Posted by: Bri | January 3, 2010 12:45 PM

Streever/Most Concerned:
As one of the bartenders/waitresses at SoCo's, I can assure you that the establishment did more service in food than anything else. On any given evening, one could find college students and their parents sitting at a table enjoying dinner, or some of New Haven's residents and their children playing pool and having dinner. Just because we served liquor, did not make us primarily a bar. Our food delivery service reached out all over the city. We were a venue for baby showers, and held toy drives to benefit the Yale New Haven Children's Hospital. For a while, we held Sunday brunch after church with a live jazz band. That is what SoCo's is all about.
I understand that the community objected to our opening, however, SoCo's absolutely changed the reputation 50 Fitch had previously. To say that the slaying on New Years Eve is a result of our running a business, is an irrational, and dare I say, ignorant opinion. Look at New Haven's track record recently. This is not the first murder the city has seen, in fact, I believe the number between Thanksgiving and New Years hits the double digits. To insist that mindless killing is blood on Carlos' hands is completely ludicrous. It is happening time and time again all over the city. And instead of taking precautions against it, or searching for the true problem, the city continues to blame business owners for problems that are much more deeply rooted. It's time for New Haven to band together as a community, and say enough is enough, and get these criminals off of the streets. How many more of your husbands, brothers, neighbors and children have to die before you're willing to see that this is not a problem that will just go away on its own, and it is not something that business owners, such as Carlos Pena, can prevent alone. And to suggest something like that is cretinous.

Posted by: jawbone | January 3, 2010 3:01 PM

OK, I've been keeping score here at home for about 2 years now. In that time weve seen murders at the following nightspots.
1. Center Street Grille
2. Catwalk on East Street
3. Sinergy on Crown
4. Soco's on Fitch
Have I missed any other murders outside of clubs?

I'd call that a MAJOR problem worth addressing.

This comment obviously doesn't even begin to address the general level of mayhem that doesn't end in death. For instance the bike shop being robbed by a mob that had presumably spilled out from the R-Bar on East St.

Posted by: What's Up | January 3, 2010 4:31 PM

What's up with the aldermen, politicians and community activists who also hang out at that bar especially on the nights after BOA meetings? There have been no complaints out of them--until now!

The bar usually have a mature and sometimes politically active crowd. While this is an unfortunate incident that no neighborhood wants, I don't think it reflects the normal situation at that bar.

Posted by: unprotected | January 3, 2010 5:34 PM

Catwalk should be listed as a double..... or as they say in the ville and fairside: 2X

Posted by: Ben Berkowitz | January 3, 2010 9:15 PM

Ryan,

It is all of our responsibility as a community to keep our community safe. Gov is part of that community but not the only part.

Moving out of New Haven is absolutely not the answer.

Mr Pena needs to shape-up or close-up if there is violence at his place of business. Good person or not he needs to put community before business. Does not seem like he did that in this case if he saved money on officers to sacrifice for safety.

Good people make mistakes. Mr Pena clearly did not hold up to his promise to Gov when he was granted the right to operate.

Posted by: Justin E | January 4, 2010 5:49 AM

Do you people honestly think that if SoCo's had never opened the same thing wouldn't have just happened a quarter of a mile away at the Owl's Nest? Or over by Delaney's?

Posted by: Wondering | January 4, 2010 9:24 AM

Wasn't Keron Robinson shot down outside 50 Fitch in 2007? And weren't the shootings on St. John supposedly related to that? And then wasn't there more violence in Derby related to the St. John St. shootings?

Posted by: Tim | January 4, 2010 10:19 AM

Justin E -

I can understand the point you are trying to make, because yes anything can happen just about anywhere. However, I go to Delaney's often and I can tell you that they dont cater to the same people that SoCo does, you can tell that just by the poster thats in the article.

Posted by: Bri | January 4, 2010 11:14 PM

Tim:
Exactly what type of people are you referring to?

Posted by: Tim | January 5, 2010 8:28 AM

Bri - Club going people, and thats just a guess from looking at the poster, if you hang that up you arent going to get a low key crowd like you might otherwise...I was trying to make the point that if Soco wasn't there this probaly wouldnt have happened at a place like Delaneys.

Posted by: Bri | January 5, 2010 9:57 AM

Tim:
Perhaps you are not familiar with the lingo. "Grown and Sexy" refers to a mature crowd, not a club crowd. It caters to people who are dressed appropriately, act appropriately in such a setting, and are out to have some food-a few drinks and coexist with those around them.
Apparently a few unnamed people couldn't handle such an environment, and don't know how to behave in civilized society, so they kept their trouble outside. This was not something that happened as a result of SoCo's. And had this incident occurred at Delaney's, there would be a very different song being sang.

Posted by: Justin E | January 5, 2010 11:23 PM

Tim: I also go to Delaney's somewhat frequently, as well as New West across the street. Have you ever even been to SoCo's? When I was enrolled at SCSU I was there a few times back when it was just called '50 fitch st', then once or twice when it was 'Jacks or Better', and most recently I was at SoCo's when my band played there. Do you know what kind of crowd I saw? Mostly late 20's to mid 30's aged people having a few drinks and some food. Later in the night some college students(many which I recognized from Delaney's and New West) came in.

I mean c'mon, the flier even says "25 plus" right on it.