For years, the owners of Providence nightclub Diesel has placed ads in The Providence Phoenix, using provocative pictures of women to promote DJs and VIP rooms to attract dance lovers and partygoers.
But since last month, a separate ad for the club has run in the weekly alternative newspaper – this one asking customers for support beyond the cost of admission.
Under a banner headline calling out to “Stop the Madness!” the full-page ad decries the Providence Police Department and Providence City Hall for “trying to close down” the nightclub, which is housed in The Strand Theatre on Washington Street and shares a liquor license and location with Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, the well-known live music venue.
Diesel, Providence’s largest nightclub, has been summoned before the Providence Board of Licenses on March 10 to “show cause” why its liquor license should not be suspended or revoked due to a string of violent incidents in and around the club.
In a letter to board chairman Andrew Annaldo, Providence Police Chief Col. Dean Esserman said efforts to curb violence at Diesel have been unsuccessful. The department has used on-duty officers from three different bureaus to patrol the club. Mounted officers, who were mandated by the board, also have been unable to prevent violence, he wrote.
Esserman’s letter cites several incidents, including alleged gang fights and stabbings. The police are seeking to have Diesel declared a “disorderly house,” and have its license revoked.
The most recent incident listed by the police was a Jan. 6 stabbing of a Diesel patron with a broken beer bottle.
Providence Police Maj. Paul Fitzgerald, said the bulk of the problems associated with Diesel come at closing time, often occurring in surrounding parking lots.
“Despite the police department’s best efforts, despite all kinds of extra manpower, we still are continuing to have violent incidents down there,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re just not going to tolerate it anymore. No city should have to put up with the violence associated with Diesel.”
Lois Maraia, vice president of CJ & J Consulting, the club’s management company, said the club has taken precautions to curb violence and is being targeted as part of an effort to rid Providence of its nightlife. Maraia said the company has installed metal detectors and has paid as much as $90,000 for police details.
Maraia also said violence that happens outside of the club is not necessarily associated with Diesel. Representatives from the club have spoken with the victim in the Jan. 6 stabbing, she said, and he told them his assailant had not been in Diesel that night and that he encountered no problems in the club.
Maraia said she suspects the effort to strip the club of its liquor license is due to its size and stature within Providence’s nightlife. “The police do not want to deal with the industry in general,” she said. “They don’t want the industry there, and they don’t want Diesel there.”
Dan Baudouin, executive director of The Providence Foundation, told PBN last month that the nightclub environment in the city is still one of Providence’s biggest problems in attracting development to the area. Much of the violent crime in the area can be directly traced to closing time at the bars, he said.
“People need to feel safe in order to locate here or make investments here,” Baudouin said.
Moving to make way for new investments is a concept that Richard Lupo is familiar with.
As owner of the city’s largest privately operated music venue, Lupo has shared a space with Diesel since late 2003, when he was forced out of his Westminster Street location for a condominium project by Arnold “Buff” Chace.
While Fitzgerald stressed that the police had no problem with Lupo’s, the club would have to close because it shares a liquor license with Diesel.
Lupo said he feels he has been a victim of gentrification throughout his 30-year career owning clubs in Providence. The areas he has operated in were run-down at the time, but as with the Peerless Building, his club’s former location, they’re now considered prime spots for upscale projects.
If the liquor license for the location were revoked, Lupo said, he would not look to start another club. At his age, he said, he doesn’t want to go through the hassle associated with opening a club.
“I’ve spent many years opening up and moving clubs,” Lupo said. “It takes a couple of years, and it’s really expensive. And you’re so subject to political change … it’s a very delicate thing when you’re dealing with a liquor license.”
