The Examiner is reporting today that the Jack in the Box located on the corner of 11th and Geary, which is normally open 24 hours, is being told to close at 2am by the city.
In the early hours of Thanksgiving morning, a fight inside the Jack in the Box later led to a brutal hit and run accident on the corner of 9th and Geary. The victim, 29 year old Albert Bartal, remains in critical condition at San Francisco General.
Late last week, police arrested Eduardo Shaparo Esquivel, a 22-year old South San Francisco man for the crime. He’s being held with felony charges for mayhem, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and assault with great bodily injury. Police are also pursuing charges against Esquivel’s girlfriend for trying to cover up the crime.
Since the incident, residents have complained to the city that the 24 hour Jack in the Box attracts the wrong crowd when nearby bars close at 2am.
“When the bars close at 2am, that’s when people are looking for food, and they end up at that Jack in the Box,” David Lee, president of the Richmond Police Advisory Board told The Examiner. “There is a limited amount of seating there, but there is this large parking lot. That’s where the trouble starts.”
In addition to the complaints, it was revealed that the Jack in the Box does not have the required permit to operate 24 hours.
According to Entertainment Commission Executive Director Jocelyn Kane, local businesses that want to stay open past 2 a.m. need an “extended hours” authorization. Police say the Jack in the Box owner does not have such a permit. Kane said the location has previously operated under the permit.
Earlier this year, the manager at the Jack in the Box worked with the Richmond Police Advisory Board to make security improvements to the property, including improved lighting, adding security guards on Thursday through Saturday nights, and trimming overgrown landscaping.
Nevertheless, the location remains a source of distress to nearby residents and police who respond to regular incident calls from the restaurant.
Richmond Police Advisory Board President David Lee says that neighbors have nothing against the Jack in the Box operating in the neighborhood, but that something needs to be done about the trouble that erupts there.
“The feeling now is that’s the last straw,” Lee said to The Examiner of the run-down. “We’ve given you a chance, and it’s not working.”
Sarah B.
closing one of the only remaining places in the hood to get foor 24/7 is a typically lousy response to a problem by our useless politicians
So this basically means that the “wrong crowd” will be creating trouble somewhere else in the neighborhood. Brilliant.
i would rather have drunk people go there to eat and sober up than to drive immediately after leaving the nearby bars
I am always heartened by the common sense comments on this blog. It’s certainly not representative of the city. Must be a Richmond thing. 🙂
The noise is unbearable in that parking lot!! When I moved to SF 12 years ago my bedroom window faced that parking lot. Around 2am you have people partying in the parking lot, blasting music (like doors wide open, sitting on your car hood/hanging out) yelling and comparing how loud each other’s dropped cars and muffliers are. It’s insane. Our walls of our house would literally shake!! I had to move once my lease was up. I feel sorry for the children who are trying to get a decent night sleep, the noise was ridiculous. There is trash all over and if someone needs a hamburger in order to sober up and drive, maybe they should just get in a cab. I still live in the richmond and love it, but agree with this, as i’m sure the neighbors do too!
better to have the drunks eat up tacos and burgers then to drive home drunk
You know you are in San Francisco when:
Someone refers to the parking lot at the Jack in the Box on 11th and Geary as “large.”
So now they will head to the 24 hour Subway @ 21st & Geary (does this business have the 24 hour permit?)
So was Jack-n-Box told to close at 2 AM because they lacked the permit or because of nefarious activity late at night?
As to living right by the place, this is a trade off of lower rent rates at that location and any other along Geary.
Sad that they have to make such rash decisions after one incident.
Isn’t there a police station about 1 1/2 blocks away?!
Yep…Ben. L has it right. The bad crowd is not going away…they will just go to the Subway down the street, near my place.
This is a good opportunity to nip a problem in the bud before it begins. If the city is serious about cleaning up this type of behavior, they will position a cop car outside of that subway betwene the hours of 2am and 4am with patrollment walking a beat around that Subway. because these troublemakers will definitely go there.
i know this is a lil off topic.. but is that 24 hour subway any good?
Well, it’s like any other Subway, which is to say, relatively healthy food for a reasonable price. I go there all the time.
Can’t say I really feel any sympathy for Jack in the Box. Their food is disgusting.
And determining business hours regulations based on the fact that drunks need a place to sober up after last call seems pretty silly to me. People who are driving should not drink too much in the first place or they should take other means of transport home if they’re too drunk to drive.
I ate at the box yesterday and on second thought, they should just shut that place down entirely lol
I doubt the Jack in the Box was open for the purpose of sobering up. They were open because they had a demand, which happens be mostly inebriated people at that hour.
Besides, eating does not make you any sober. It may make you feel better (it is more a matter of balancing sugars and hydration), but your BAC is not reduced. In fact, high fat foods tend to slow the metabolizing process.
The other restaurants open late are Mr. Pizza (Geary at Commonwealth) and Lucky Penny (Geary at Masonic). It’s likely that the problem crowd will migrate there and not to Subway on 21st Ave.