City to consider allowing entertainment at struggling restaurants
DOWNEY – The City Council tonight will consider whether to allow restaurants on Florence Avenue to have live entertainment.
The idea was put on the agenda by Councilman Mario Guerra.
“Our restaurants up there are dying,” he said. “The can have restaurants, but they can’t have entertainment.”
The restaurants in question are between Lakewood and Paramount boulevards.
The land is zoned for office use, but the city’s law allows for small restaurants, with the thought that the establishments would cater to the lunch crowd.
Establishments in other parts of the city are allowed to have entertainment.
Since the restaurants on Florence are near neighborhoods, they aren’t allowed to have live acts that might last late into the night.
The council could turn down the request, rezone all the office properties in the city, or make special zoning for the land along Florence, which is referred to in the planning world as an “overlay.”
According to Internet reviews, as least one restaurant, Palms Steak and Seafood, is already having live music and dance lessons in the evenings.
The manager at Palms was not available Tuesday afternoon.