For the last six weeks, neighbours have complained of being kept awake by pounding electronic music coming from a commercial space at 3261 Mission St., just south of 29th Street. The source? An illegal nightclub club that advertises parties from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. on an account with over 14,500 Instagram followers.
“You could hear it blasting through the building with all my windows closed and me watching TV,” said one neighbour, who, like others, wanted to remain anonymous because of fear of retaliation. “And I’m like, ‘What the hell is this?’”
Another neighbour ran a white noise machine to drown out the music — which, she said, lasted until 5 a.m. on Jan. 5. It failed to help, and she could still feel the bass reverberate.
“I thought I was crazy,” she said. “I was, like, ‘Is anyone else hearing this?’ It’s incredibly loud.” Others commiserated on Nextdoor, speculating about its origin.
By day, the lower level of the space is home to Aurora, a family-owned Mexican restaurant with hours from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. On the second floor, the restaurant offers what it describes as “a versatile rental space perfect for hosting a variety of events.”
A person who answered the restaurant’s phone on Jan. 7 told Mission Local the issue had been resolved with the San Francisco city attorney’s office before declining to speak further. But that does not seem to be the case.
After hours, the space transforms into what appeared to San Francisco police to be an “illegal nightclub,” according to a letter sent by the city attorney’s office to the property owner on Jan. 6. The promoter advertising the parties, Paulo Ferreira, frequently posts photos of party-goers, DJs, and raves with hashtags like “#sf,” “#houseparty,” and “#beer.”
It remains unclear whether the building owner, Shirley Conway, was aware of the activity at her property prior to this notice. Promoters of the event have yet to respond to Mission Local’s requests for comment.
On Jan. 6, the property owner was asked by the city attorney’s office to investigate the complaints and take “all appropriate legal action against any tenants or occupants of the property who may be using the property for illegal activity.” The city has given Conway until Jan. 9 to respond.
When police first responded to noise complaints at the address on Nov. 30, the ground-floor restaurant was empty. Upstairs, however, was “a bar (with what appeared to be alcohol), a DJ blasting music, disco lights, and what appeared to be two gambling machines,” according to the city attorney’s office. At 12:39 a.m., the city attorney’s office wrote that there was a small group of people gathered, the Jan. 6 letter to the property owner said.
This operation violated several local laws. The location has no liquor license from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. It has neither an after-hours permit nor an entertainment permit for live music from the city.
Nonetheless, events were promoted throughout December and the beginning of January with what one neighbour described as “brazen advertising.”
Instagram posts reviewed by the city advertised that the club was open with a full bar from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. on Dec. 22, 26, and 29. Neon lettering on one post dubbed the festivities the “afters of all afters.”
On Dec. 28, Entertainment Commission inspectors spoke to a bartender and saw alcohol being served in the club at around 11 p.m.
On Dec. 30, $30 tickets were advertised for an event at the club that would run from 2 a.m. until “its empty.” On New Year’s Eve, posts said the club would be open from 1 a.m. to 8 a.m.
“We are open 24hrs, so you just need to have the right phone number,” another Instagram story reads. Prior posts to the promoter’s account advertise similar after-hours parties in different locations around the city with promotional clips of people dancing, lit by strobe lights.
As the parties persisted, neighbours continued to complain.
On Dec. 18, a neighbour named Danny, who has lived one street down from the property for the last 25 years, wrote to the city’s Entertainment Commission, describing music and amplified voices louder than anything he had heard from a Mission business before. Another neighbor notified District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen’s office.
In an email sent on Jan. 1, Kaitlyn Azevedo, the deputy director of the San Francisco Entertainment Commission, told Danny that an inspector found the front of the business “completely dark and quiet” at 2:15 a.m. on New Year’s Day. Danny said he heard loud music “all night till 7:00 in the morning.”
Azevedo has since informed Danny that an inspector had visited the property at 2:30 a.m. on Jan. 5, and was denied entry into the business. She noted that her staff are “not authorized to shut a business down.”
“With this current ‘progress,’ I don’t see a path forward for any resolution if all hands are tied,” Danny responded.
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