Patricia Simmons, owner of T’s Internet Café, stands outside the Rivertown building where she hopes to operate her business.
Photo by Justin Lafferty
Photo by Justin Lafferty
Antioch resident Patricia Simmons, owner of T’s Internet Café, has met resistance from the city in her attempt to move her business from A Street to Second Street, a few blocks away from Prospects High School.
In addition to selling Internet time on the café’s 50 computers, the business also runs sweepstakes for free Internet time and cash prizes as a way to draw in more customers and make the environment more fun. While Simmons compares the sweepstakes to games of chance facilitated by fast food restaurants, the city declared earlier this month that the café is classified as a gaming facility. And according to a city ordinance, gaming facilities cannot operate within 1,000 feet of a school.
“(The ordinance) is defined broadly enough that it applies to playing electronic games on a computer,” Antioch Community Development Director Tina Wehrmeister said. “We have to uphold the code, and this is the requirement.”
Residents also complained to the city about some of the people who hung out at the café’s previous locations, loitering and smoking in front of neighboring businesses.
“Part of the reason why the attention has been brought to her business, is because of the calls for service that have increased and complaints that we’ve received from other shoppers or other tenants,” said Wehrmeister.
Because the café has been deemed a gaming institution emphasizing its sweepstakes and cash prizes, the city refused to grant Simmons a use permit for the Second and G streets location, a decision she is appealing.
She also feels the decision is not about the sweepstakes, but how the city perceives her café’s clientele and those who loiter around the business. Her open-door policy and eagerness to help are tenets on which Simmons prides herself. “I have people from all walks of life come into my business,” she said. “There are people that are on drugs, and we don’t judge them and we help them in many different ways. I’m being ridiculed for being the one that’s not judging them.”
After operating on A and 20th streets for roughly six months, Simmons closed down that location after problems with loiterers who were there before she opened the café. Prior to that, the café was located in a shopping center at the corner of A and 18th streets.
Simmons also owns Cot on the Web, an Internet café on Buchanan Road. She sought a more business-friendly location in her attempt to move to the downtown area.
While the ordinance targets mainly arcades, Wehrmeister said the sweepstakes, which are played on the computer, fall into this category. She added that the city is happy to work with Simmons should she choose to move her business to a location farther from a school.
In letter dated Jan. 5, Wehrmeister also informed Simmons that city employees noticed workers putting up partitions inside the building taller than 6 feet – a development that requires a building permit.
Simmons said that she thoroughly educated herself in the city’s building and use permit codes prior to paying for the property, and she believes the work is in accordance with the city code.
Angered by the city’s position, several employees of T’s Internet Café spoke or filled out a comment card at the recent Antioch City Council meeting, pleading with council members that the business is legitimate and serves as a job-searching hub for those without Internet access or a computer.
Kevin Lum, a business owner near Cot on the Web, also testified to the value of the café, calling it an “asset to the community.”
“The Internet café is a great place for individuals, no matter what stem of life they are – whether they are rock bottom broke and homeless to those that are wealthy,” employee Charles Allen said. “It gives them a place to hang out. It gives them a place to decompress.”
The council will review the matter at a later time, possibly in February.
Arbitrary enforcement of codes (none of which are subject to a vote by the people in the first place) that decide which businesses get to operate is an example of the kind of ponderous, onerous, enterprise-choking rules and regulations that drain the life out of entrepreneurs.
In a fragile economy in desperate need of new business owners, Antioch continues to drive them out of the city in droves.
Antioch knucklehead officials, like their counterparts in other cities, are interpreting the rules the way they want to keep out businesses they consider to be"undesirable."
Antioch purports to want to "revive Rivertown", something which, if you have been there lately, you realize is badly needed.
However, in the years since I worked there (and it was only so-so then) things have actually gotten WORSE downtown, rather than better.
Every other shop is shuttered, and those that are not are barely hanging on. There is no sign of thriving, only decay, urban blight, and sighs of resignation amongst the few owners who remain. This pathetic situation it is not just because of the economy. either.
Codes, regulations, and other unnecessary burdens seemed to be enforced haphazardly and are dependent on whether some aspiring snob at city hall decides the business is worthy of his or her blessing.
How else to explain that on G Street alone, there are at least two businesses where, in violation of city health and other codes, people are LIVING in the buildings. Yep, a whole family lives inside one of asian restaurants and another guy has been living in the gift shop for YEARS!
But, God forbid you put up dividers that are over six feet in your building or you have to get our PERMISSION and pay us lots of cash...
I think Patricia's observation that Antioch feels her internet cafe will attract the wrong types is probably accurate, but that thought makes me laugh.
I mean, come on, have you been down around the Amtrak station after dark? Do you really need anything in order to attract unsavory people to Antioch? The whole city is full of them, many of them hanging out in City Hall posing as "government officials."
You'd think Antioch, splashing around for a life preserver in a sea of red ink and facing a Mt Diablo-sized pile of "future obligations" would be welcoming new businesses with open arms and hot coffee and donuts...
But sadly, with the arrogance and inflexibility of typical bureaucrats, they act in highly antithetical ways, as if they are trying to achieve GHOST TOWN status for Rivertown. (It would probably have more visitors then!)
As an Antioch Business Network leader, I speak with business owners every day who are overwhelmed, discouraged, and angry about the amount of needless regulatory interference, expensive "permits" and general disinclination on the part of the City of Antioch to help them in any way that doesn't involve helping drain their wallets.
If I were Patricia, I would tell Antioch to go straight to ... well, to get lost and find a community that actually welcomes business owners, and appreciates having a place where the homeless and disenfranchised can go to get off the streets.
Patricia, you go girl. If you really still want to do business in Antioch, get listed for free on the Antioch Biz Smartguy network, find me, and I will give you free marketing consulting.
"What's in YOUR wallet?... City of Antioch!"