Barnett's Club in line to lose liquor license

[MadtownPacker]

Great, all Barnett needed and terrible for GB because it will reflect the whole city. I hope players overlook this but in light of this whole club mess it doesnt look good.

[RashanGary]

This is bad news. The swastica and racial slurs are further evidence of racism and make it that much more likely that Barnett gets his licence back. At this point, he probably wants to just get out of town. I don't blame him.

[Fosco33]

This is bad news. The swastica and racial slurs are further evidence of racism and make it that much more likely that Barnett gets his licence back. At this point, he probably wants to just get out of town. I don't blame him.

Who are these dumbasses - probably Bears fans.... I can't see anyone in GB trying to drive Barnett and potential future talent out with this childish shit.

[RashanGary]

Some people don't care about the Packers. Some people just don't like black people and I think the uneducated hickville of wisconsin probably has more ignorant racists than most places.

[Fosco33]

Some people don't care about the Packers. Some people just don't like black people and I think the uneducated hickville of wisconsin probably has more ignorant racists than most places.

I won't ignore that uneducated people have racist tendencies. I've spent time in the south - they don't 'hide' their hate there but openly display it with the rebel flag.

If I were Barnett, I'd just install a bunch of cameras around the lot and catch the moron's face/car and see if they have Illinois tags

[RashanGary]

Yeah..It's not just Wisconsin, but it's really annoying to see this shit happen.

[4and12to12and4]

I'm glad to see so many posters here are in Barnett's corner. The city council should have worked out an abatement deal with Barnett to begin with. How could they have not seen all this coming. Have they ever even heard of foresight????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????

Now 8 of them are going to eat crow. But, too little too late, this will be long remembered by many a FA in the coming years!!

[woodbuck27]

Nick Barnett vs. the city of Green Bay

Barnett’s battle with the city of Green Bay has become national news, and the reports make city officials look like a bunch of buffoons, at best, or racists, at worst.

A Cliff’s Notes version to recap: Barnett opened the FiveSix Ultra Lounge in Green Bay’s historic — and sometimes troubled — Broadway district. Recently, Barnett lost his liquor license because of a litany of troubles at, and outside, his establishment.

Then, earlier in the week, another troubled downtown Green Bay club, HipCats, had its liquor license renewed. The laundry list of police calls to HipCats dwarfs the calls to FiveSix, though FiveSix is the only club of the two to have complaints from neighbors.

On the surface, the city’s decision doesn’t make sense. Is it making an example of Barnett? Is the city somehow scared of a minority-owned business drawing a largely minority clientele?

The big thing a lot of outsiders are failing to note is that FiveSix was licensed to be a restaurant, first, and nightclub. Instead, FiveSix basically is just a nightclub.

That Barnett misled the city about his intentions with FiveSix is wrong. But the fact that a marquee member of the Green Bay Packers would want to build a business in an area that has been a revolving door of opening and closing businesses should be reason enough for the city — as

[woodbuck27]

Opinion ~~

BARNETT'S BAR DEBACLE
WILL NOT EASILY BE FORGOTTEN

By Mike Woods / postcrescent.com

Packers linebacker and club owner Nick Barnett gets a first-hand taste of racism this week. Where do you start?

While the racial slur and swastikas spray painted on the wall of his FiveSix club in downtown Green Bay were disgusting enough, they still paled in comparison to the actions of local government officials earlier in the week. While Barnett's club was frequently visited by local police because of poor customer behavior and was denied renewal of his liquor license because of it, another club with an even longer rap sheet was allowed to keep its liquor license under an approved abatement plan. How is this fair? You're right, it isn't. And when an African-American is the owner of FiveSix, there is a perception that says something else is at work.

Then came the jaywalking citation issued to Barnett (I must be the luckiest guy around, for I've somehow gotten away with this crime no less than 6,472 times). Yeah, something else definitely is going on here. Yet this is not just a poor reflection on Green Bay, but all of us. Perception rules the day here, and we've now graduated from being viewed as community with Lambeau Field as its centerpiece surrounded by dairy farms and snow, whose residents wear foam wedges of cheese on their heads, to a racist community as well.

That's just freaking fantastic. I honestly feel sorry for Barnett. First, he was one of the rare Packers players who actually invested in this community. I mean, how many of these guys even buy homes here? Barnett bought a run-down theater, refurbished it, and tried to do things right. And this is his thanks? He will be able to recover from the financial hit this will bring, but the emotional scars may never go away.

You've got to ask yourself, how long will it be before another African-American member of the Packers thinks it's a good idea to invest his money and soul in the Greater Fox Cities? And for those of you who make the Packers a focal point of your life, what do you think this is going to do for the future enticement of free agents? Or to keep players like Barnett around? The Packers already have to fight the reality of being a small town and the perception it snows here 10 months a year. And now this.

This issue will die down here soon enough — unless Jeff Foxworthy decides to make us a part of his act — but certainly the shelf life in NFL locker rooms will last much longer. This whole situation has been sad and embarrassing. We're better than this. At least I thought so.

[Harlan Huckleby]

The swastica and racial slurs are further evidence of racism and make it that much more likely that Barnett gets his licence back.

My first reaction when I read this story was that someone who supports Barnett made the graffiti.

[woodbuck27]

The swastica and racial slurs are further evidence of racism and make it that much more likely that Barnett gets his licence back.

My first reaction when I read this story was that someone who supports Barnett made the graffiti.

Ahh. . . there's that dark side surfacing HH. Yet, certainly the FBI has to be involved.

[Harlan Huckleby]

OK, Woody, I admit it - I did it. My intentions were good, Barnett has not gotten a fair shake by the G.B. fans. Please, just leave the police and FBI out of it.

[woodbuck27]

Posted June 30, 2006

Barnett’s jaywalking warning adds to controversy with city

By Kelly McBride
kmcbride@greenbaypressgazette.com

The FiveSix Ultra Lounge nightclub may get another chance after Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt on Thursday called for the City Council to rescind a previous decision regarding the club’s liquor license.

The move comes amid mounting controversy surrounding FiveSix and its owner, Green Bay Packers linebacker Nick Barnett.

At its June 6 meeting, the council voted to deny liquor license renewal for FiveSix, which has had numerous police calls and complaints from neighbors.

But accusations of unfair treatment and even racism have surfaced, particularly after a city committee on Monday recommended that Hip Cats — a similarly troubled location — be able to keep its license under an approved abatement plan.

The controversy grew earlier this week when Barnett received a written warning for jaywalking after a television interview at his club. Two members of the local media who were with Barnett didn’t receive one.

Although Schmitt evaded questions connecting the two events at the Thursday news conference, national media attention surrounding the story had some speculating that the city was engaging in damage control.

“Oh sure,” said Alderman and council President Chad Fradette, commenting on the connection. “It’s making the city look stupid.”

Fradette, along with Aldermen Chris Wery, Celestine Jeffreys and Thomas Weber, voted against denying license renewal during the council’s June 6 meeting. But as new information has surfaced regarding FiveSix — and with the mayor’s call for rescinding the decision Thursday — some other aldermen said they might change their minds.

“I definitely have decided to back Nick on his second chance,” said Alderman Jerry Wiezbiskie, adding that he’s also fully supportive of Schmitt.

Alderman Thomas De Wane said he’d be happy to give Barnett a second chance — if he sees that steps are being taken toward improvement for the club.

Fradette thinks the council will have enough votes to rescind the decision and allow license renewal under a mutually agreed-upon abatement plan. The mayor’s public statement Thursday — which Fradette characterized as “not quite an order, but it’s more than a request” — should change some minds, Fradette said.

The mayor could have vetoed the council’s decision within five days, his office said. But at that point, Schmitt didn’t have all the facts about the process, he said.

“I think there’s a lot of information that came through between then and now. … Quite honestly, that’s the first time I had an experience with a quasi-judicial hearing,” Schmitt said. “I thought the remedy was much quicker. I thought we could work it through the normal channels.”

The jaywalking warning was issued by Dave Schmitz — the same city police officer who testified about FiveSix at the June 6 council meeting.

During that meeting, Schmitz talked about a variety of incidents at FiveSix, ranging from a New Year’s Day parking lot shooting to loitering, underage drinkers and weapons being allowed inside. He also accused Barnett of using his cell phone to take a photo of an individual who testified at the May 31 Protection and Welfare Committee meeting.

“It could affect it, if there’s more to this story than is being fleshed out,” Fradette said about further action on FiveSix. “It seems like there’s more to this from Officer Schmitz and Nick Barnett.”

Fradette said he doesn’t think the jaywalking warning was racially motivated.

City Police Chief Craig Van Schyndle also dismissed racism speculation Thursday, saying that the warning shouldn’t have been issued but that it wasn’t racially motivated. The warning has since been wiped from Barnett’s record.

Just a handful of written warnings and citations were issued for jaywalking in the past year, Van Schyndle said. The reporter and photographer with Barnett didn’t receive a written warning because it was Schmitz’s first contact with them, he added. But since Barnett owns the club, he knew jaywalking was an issue.

Schmitz has been reassigned and will no longer be involved in policing FiveSix, Van Schyndle said.

Barnett, who is black, declined comment on possible racism during Thursday’s press conference.

Some city officials are concerned that perception becomes reality in such cases.

“I’m worried about the perception of the city. I am,” Schmitt said Thursday. “I was getting phone calls about this that weren’t true.”

The council could move to consider rescinding its action and look at an abatement plan for FiveSix at its Wednesday meeting. Someone from that body would have to make a motion to do so.

As for Barnett, he expressed the desire to move forward Thursday. Many of the club’s problems are being fixed, he said.

“I’ve been over there and I’ve been in communication with the neighbors over there,” he said. “… I’m satisfied that we are headed in the direction we are right now.”


This will blow over. woodbuck27

[Harlan Huckleby]

this jaywalking thing sounds like a hoax.

[MJZiggy]

I wonder if the city council has finally figured out that if they don't renew this license in a city of PackerBackers, they don't get reelected.