See also: Los Globos Gets A Hip New Reinvention

Less than a year after Sunset Junction went down in flames, Silver Lake's music scene is again the subject of civic tension, as its neighborhood council has threatened to bring down the Los Globos nightclub.

Owner Steven Edelson purchased the venue last summer, and proceeded to overhaul its interior, menu, and musical offerings. According to both him and minutes from a May 7 public safety committee meeting for the council, a handful neighbors living near the club — located at Sunset and Vendome — are complaining about noise and rowdy behavior, and are threatening to take action against the club, including seeking a revocation of its liquor license.

“Los Globos was always an issue but nothing like what is happening now,” complained an attendee named Rose at the meeting. She works near the venue. “We've had too many bars, and too many drinking problems. Too many liquor licenses.”

Since late last year Los Globos has hosted weekend dance parties that go until 6 a.m. — although they stop serving alcohol at 2 a.m. The recent makeover, which includes concerts curated by Echo Park Records and dance parties like the popular A Club Called Rhonda, has brought in a colorful crowd of mostly-20-somethings eager to groove until daybreak.

“There is an enormous amount of noise disturbing residents,” put in a worker named Milo from the nearby Community of Friends homeless housing project (which, by the way, the SLNC also protested). “These are double pane windows and folks are being awakened in the night.”

Others complaints have included issues with street parking (though Los Globos has its own lot), public urination and public sex around the building, and an excessive amount of motorcycles.

Edelson counters that these gripes are anecdotal, and that he has yet to be provided with hard evidence linking the perceived problems directly with the club. For starters, he notes that there at least five other bars and clubs in the area. “It's a witch hunt,” he says.

Meanwhile, neighbors have further also expressed concern that Edelson has applied for a liquor license for the new Westerly Coffee Shop (formerly the La Parilla restaurant), which he and co-owner Sonny Rouel plan to open down the street.

Edelson says a member of the Dillon Street neighborhood watch came into the newly-renovated space and accused him of planning to open a “sex hotel” there.

Westerly Coffee Shop; Credit: Steve Edelson

Westerly Coffee Shop; Credit: Steve Edelson

“I don't know what she was talking about. I showed her around — it looks like a diner,” he says.

At a public meeting held last week to discuss the status of Los Globos, public safety committee member Steve Robinson distributed Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control license protest and complaint forms for both venues, as well as citizens' logs of disruptive activity.

Edelson contends that the bulk of those who attended the meeting actually came out to support Los Globos, though in an email to the committee, member Nadine Trujillo accused Edelson of “loading” the room with supporters and contended that more “stakeholders with issues did not attend due to time factors or fear.”

Trujillo declined to speak substantively about the situation to the Weekly, and other members of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council and the public safety committee could not be reached for comment.

The committee planned to submit the complaint and protest forms today; Edelson has invited them to perform a noise test. He says the heart of the issue isn't about Los Globos and its neighbors but rather the changing face of the Silver Lake community.

“The real problem is learning how to get people to live together and get along. The fact is that Silver Lake is really changing and there are a lot of cultural forces at work. There are people of Latin descent, elderly people and now the hipsters,” he says. “Silver Lake isn't Encino. It's not pink houses, it's about the diversity and going out and meeting all kinds of people.”

See also: Los Globos Gets A Hip New Reinvention

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