Michael Neimeyer, owner of Micky’s in West Hollywood, is pissed off. On Pride Saturday at about 6:40 p.m., code compliance officers issued a citation to Micky’s for having a dancer on the patio area. The $1,000 penalty and a $75 administrative fee will be appealed.
Niemeyer, who has owned Micky’s for over 40 years, was furious with City Hall. He instructed his social media teams to remove the word “Pride” from advertising materials in all publications, stating, “This is not what Pride is about. It’s watered-down.”
Niemeyer wants to remind people what it feels like to have a police baton pressed against your chin. He recalled his memories of the first Pride and the Stonewall uprising.
“Rules are not enforced equally,” said a member of the Micky’s team. “We are allowed to have dancers on the patio during Pride and Halloween; that’s what we were told. Micky’s has never been cited for having dancers on the patio during any other Pride celebration.”
During the day, code compliance was nowhere to be found. I stood in front of BlockParty, next to Micky’s entrance, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. During that time, there were several illegal hot dog vendors in front of my shop. The rails along the street corralled the vendors, and the sidewalk became a hot dog lane where people could not walk. I asked the vendors to move away from the front of the shop. Business owners who get outdoor permits have to go through many steps, including a layout of the outdoor space and approvals from the fire department. Now, there were four hot dog vendors crowding the ‘fire lane,’ and nine total vendors between Micky’s and Flaming Saddles.
My first email at 5:03 p.m. to Danny Rivas, director of code compliance, and City Manager David Wilson showed photos of what was happening and asked for help. About half an hour later, at 5:31 p.m., another email was sent to David and Danny and included Assistant Manager Jackie Rocco. At 5:58 p.m., almost an hour after the first email, I wrote again, “If it takes an hour for a business owner within 300 feet of the festival entrance to get help or attention and none is there, God help us if there is a more serious emergency.” Two minutes later, I broke protocol and texted their personal phones: “Do something!,” along with photos of four carts and the statement, “Your staff on code stinks.”
David Wilson let me know that everyone was in a briefing at the moment and they would send someone out immediately. Jackie Rocco touched base with Danny Rivas during the briefings. At 6:13 p.m., Danny Rivas called and we talked for about five minutes. He explained that the schedule had many code officers on during the night shift from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., and they were light for the day. They all had their briefing and someone would come out to the premises right away.
As code officers were on their way out to deal with the nine hot dog cart vendors, they then issued Micky’s a ticket for having a dancer on the patio. The ticket at 6:40 p.m. suggests to me that the code officer, Edward Espinoza, was more focused on the dancer’s ass than dealing with the illegal hot dog vendors on the street. I can’t imagine that Micky’s was even given a chance to have a discussion.
They came for hot dogs, and they ticketed the buns!
My question is why do we restrict dancers on the patio anytime? There are already overly strict and archaic ABC laws related to dancers and alcohol, why is the City placing more restrictive laws on these sorts of activities in our Boystown/Lavender District (or whatever we call it today)?
Was Hollywood a successful and only one thing: being the most corrupt, messed up municipality in the country, where no one at City Hall makes under $100,000 a year, and yet it’s all laziness, stupidity, and confidence, and just plain absence from doing their jobs. Those illegal hotdog carts are a nuisance. Could it be that they look the other way because the city official is Latino and the hotdog cart vendors are Latino, and there’s some kind of ethnic conspiracy going on? Quite possible. West Hollywood needs to tread very carefully when it sites gay male dancers at gay… Read more »
Officers just follow orders. It’s not because they wanted to issue the citation.
This is hilarious and illustrative of the contradictions and insanity of our current progressive paradigm. Thank you for the entertainment, to all involved
The City of West Hollywood has become a greedy pig that wants to be fed. Any way it can.
This is so enraging. It seems to me that the “code enforcement officer”, one Edward Espinoza, had an ax to grind because he resented that the illegal hot dog vendors were reported to code enforcement & the citation he issued to Micky’s was a tit-for-tat act of revenge. Sounds to me like it may have been a personal vendetta & if so, is not an acceptable mindset for anyone in charge of applying & enforcing the rules & the law. BTW, were the illegal hot dog vendors cited as well? This city is very fortunate to have a thriving business… Read more »
Code Compliance is useless. The excessive noise and exterior speakers blasting music that resonates throughout the surrounding neighborhoods has long been ignored. I do feel bad for this owner as he’s right, the code is not enforced equally…if at all. What code compliance is good at are excuses.
Rivas and his attache “Veto” are nothing short of incompetent security guards that are at West Hollywood to collect a paycheck and pump their pensions.
Commercial Code Enforcement should work under Economic Devolopment insulating the Community from the all too cozy relationship of Rivas supevising Veto. They stick-up for each other and their homophobic code enforcemrnt officers” bad acts. This should be reviewed by the Public Safety Commission.
Danny Rivas is a joke. At least you got a call back; I have been dealing with a clear code violation for years, and the best answer i can get is “this is an ongoing and continuing investigation”. For FOUR YEARS? You can’t determine if a parking lot is being used illegally after a FOUR YEAR and continuing investigation? OK Danny Rivas.
Your experience demonstrates not only the incompetence of the “Code Compliance” in West Hollywood, but I also detect obvious homophobia.
Yeah, they love to “investigate.” What they don’t like to do is enforce the code.
Thank you for speaking the truth! The illegal hot dog carts and makeshift Mexican restaurants, like the one that operated across from the Beverly Center for years, need to be removed. They’re unfairly targeting Mickey’s owner simply because he’s a good-looking, tax-paying, patriotic American. Last year, these illegal hot dog carts were splashing hot grease on Halloween revelers, and they’re constantly creating a mess and causing gridlock outside the Hollywood Bowl. It’s making L.A. look and feel like a shantytown. Nobody wants that, and it’s still illegal. Dancing on a box in BoysTown? Not illegal. If this continues, decent business… Read more »
Unfortunately the State legislature decided that street vendors should be treated as a “protected class” and local municipalities where stripped of their authority to cite them. So the City can’t cite them.
That is very upsetting & hard to believe that illegal food cart vendors are a “protected class”. Because, why” The politicians have allowed a total invasion of the Hollywood Bowl, Universal City Walk, the Chinese Theatre, et al, & it’s a horror show. These cart vendors don’t obey the laws, they don’t pay taxes & many if not most of them don’t have business permits nor is their food stuff, equipment, etc, required to pass a physical inspection, like normal businesses are. This is all a travesty against all that s fair & decent in our country. These venues used… Read more »
The angry guy in the photo is Adam Eramian, the manager of Mickeys, not Michael Niemeyer, who is also good looking but a bit closer to my age.
Good lord, this racism is sooooooooo gross.
Since he has had a business in the city for 40 years, he should know by now the proper way to deal with Code Enforcement’s “Look the other way” policy, is with campaign contributions to the City Council. If a bar breaking the law hasn’t paid out enough, they get fined for something. If hot dog carts are allowed to set up shop on public sidewalks, without evidence of permits, sanitation, legal status, it’s likely because other nearby restaurants didn’t know how campaign contributions work in weho, since Cityhood. I’m glad I could help educate the public.
Danny Rivas is a waste of time. I always send Vyto a message and he’s on it. Sometimes people that work for city hall forget they actually work for the people of West Hollywood and the tax payers of West Hollywood. They are supposed to be accountable to the people who actually live here or who have businesses here. Since covid and remote work it has gotten terrible. So many lazy people.