Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Gambling has been a big part of this area's history, at least since the days
when 19th century landholder Don Guillermo Castro lost most of his 22,000
rural acres - including today's downtown Hayward - gambling. All that
remains today of the city's high-stakes past is the Palace Card Club, a
downtown poker den that some consider a beloved institution and others wish
would disappear. This week, the card room's fate will be placed in the hands
of the Hayward City Council. The council must decide Tuesday night - its
second consecutive hearing on the subject - if it will abide by or amend a
longstanding city law that says the club must close down when its owner,
79-year-old Katherine Bousson, dies. Bousson remains healthy and active, but
she is planning her estate and wants to hand over the business to her three
children. Does the card room, which Bousson has run for many decades,
interfere with the city's hopes for a trendier, family-friendly future? Or
can it fit in comfortably with neighboring downtown businesses, enhancing
the district as a destination for entertainment? "I think there's room in
Hayward for a club like that," said Alameda County Sheriff Charles Plummer,
a Hayward resident who famously "cleaned up" the city's troublesome gambling
and red-light district as city police chief in the late 1970s and early
1980s. Plummer was speaking at a meeting Tuesday during which the council
was supposed to vote on the issue. Instead, Mayor Mike Sweeney used his
prerogative to table the vote for a week. The matter of the Palace Card Club
has raised enough concern, Sweeney explained, that more merchants and
residents should be able to weigh in.
Julie McKillop, owner of Neumanali, an upscale restaurant and wine bar on B
Street, said she has mixed feelings about the presence of a club she called
the "last vestige of a bygone era."

Her restaurant has been touted as one of the flagship examples of downtown's
burgeoning revitalization since it opened in 2004, but McKillop believes
that success depends on the surroundings.

"The current revitalization is very fragile," McKillop said at Tuesday's
meeting. "It's still a daily struggle for most of us."

Gambling was officially allowed in Hayward in 1950, and Bousson took over
the club upon the death of her husband. She fought to keep it in operation
as the city tried to curtail gambling about 25 years ago. Her efforts to
keep it open succeeded, but on condition that the business close when she
sold it or died.

All of the council members except Sweeney have spoken favorably about
allowing Bousson to transfer her permit to her children.

"Hayward's downtown doesn't need to be G-rated and close down at 9 p.m. at
night," said Councilman Kevin Dowling.

The Palace Card Club is open 24 hours every day.

"Entertainment is diverse," said Councilwoman Doris Rodriquez. "There is
room in the downtown, there is room in the city, for a variety of
entertainment."

When about a half-dozen gambling clubs lined Mission Boulevard in the 1970s,
owned by proprietors with nicknames like "Jimmy the Hat," city officials at
the time said they feared it would bring organized crime into downtown.

At the time, Plummer said, there was also a porn theater and 12 massage
parlors, 11 of which he said were houses of prostitution.

Plummer said Bousson's club survived the city's purge of unwanted businesses
because she was "a tough woman. Smart. Cooperative. Not a woman you could
push around, but she was gung-ho."

He required her to bring in all her financial books, and, "We had no
problems with her card club at all," he said.

The last major crime associated with the club happened when a patron was
killed after leaving the club in summer 2005. The case remains unsolved.

City Manager Jesus Armas said he does not believe the club has been of great
concern to the Police Department.