Dec 24, 2004  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.  | COMMENTS     

The chief of staff for gay D.C. Councilmember David Catania (I-At-Large) has been one of the leaders in a fight to prevent a new gay bar from opening three blocks north of Dupont Circle.

Linda Bumbalo, who has worked for Catania since he won election to the Council in 1997, signed up in August as part of a group of six Dupont Circle area residents that have filed a protest against the proposed liquor license for the Fab Lounge.

“I’m doing this as a private citizen,” said Bumbalo, in a Dec. 17 telephone interview with the Blade. “I live across the street. I don’t recall ever discussing this with David.”

Five days later, on Dec. 22, Bumbalo sent a two-sentence letter to the head of the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, Charles Burger, informing him she was withdrawing her name as a protester against the Fab Lounge’s liquor license application. Bumbalo provided a copy of the letter to the Blade. The letter gave no explanation for her withdrawal.

Bumbalo did not return a call by press time seeking comment on why she withdrew her protest. Ross Webber, a spokesperson for Catania, said Catania did not ask Bumbalo to pull her name from the list of protesters.

“She removed herself from the protest because she doesn’t want it to be a distraction,” Webber said. “It was not at David’s behest.”

Before withdrawing from the license protest, Bumbalo said her opposition to the Fab Lounge was based on her concern that too many bars and restaurants are opening in the vicinity of Connecticut and Florida Avenues, N.W., where businesses and residents are in close proximity, and that the bars and restaurants are creating parking, noise, and trash related problems.

She said her opposition to the Fab Lounge had nothing to do with its status as a gay establishment.

Webber said Catania is not involved in the dispute and has taken no position on whether the Fab Lounge should be allowed to open. Catania did not return a call by press time.

District businessman Frez Teame has applied for a license to operate the lounge as a tavern at 1805 Connecticut Ave., N.W., in a second floor space above the Royal Palace nightclub. The Royal Palace features nude female dancers and caters to a heterosexual clientele.

The Fab Lounge has no connection with the Royal Palace other than its status as a tenant.

Bumbalo has supported past attempts to force the Royal Palace to close on grounds that it generates neighborhood problems such as parking, crime and littering. Some have said a strip club is inappropriate for the neighborhood, even though the city’s zoning law allows such a club to operate in the area.

The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board has continued to renew the Royal Palace’s liquor license.

Last month, the Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission and the Dupont Circle Citizens Association dropped their opposition to the Fab Lounge license after negotiating an agreement requiring the lounge would close one hour earlier than required by D.C. law.

Most civic activists in the area thought the agreement would clear the way for the Fab Lounge to open.

Gay bar near a school cited
But Bumbalo earlier this month surprised Teame and his attorney, Andrew Kline, when she disclosed that a small, private school for youths with learning disabilities is operating in a high-rise office building within 400 feet of the lounge.

A clause in the city’s liquor law prohibits establishments serving alcoholic beverages from operating within 400 feet of schools unless another establishment with the same category of liquor license is already operating within that 400-foot zone.

The law allows the Royal Palace to continue to operate since it opened with a nightclub license before the 48-student High Road School moved to a second floor space at 2001 S Street, N.W., an office building that also serves as home to a small supermarket.

Bumbalo and the other five citizens involved in the license protest petitioned the ABC Board to turn down the Fab Lounge license application because the lounge is applying for a tavern license and there are no other taverns within 400 feet of the school.

Kline, the Fab Lounge attorney, said he will argue before the ABC Board that the law creating the 400-foot restriction was intended to apply to free-standing ...