Hayward club may have pocket ace
City Council vote will decide business' future
By Matt O'Brien, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area
Article Last Updated:10/16/2006 06:43:06 AM PDT

HAYWARD — 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 — to pay off some unlucky bets.
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 long-standing 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 when he was 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 tout-

ed 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."

Bousson said the club began with about eight men playing cards in the back of a 1940s pool hall in Hayward. Gambling was officially allowed in Hayward in 1950, and she took over the fledging 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 theater and 12 parlors, 11 of which he said were houses of

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.

"I know Hayward has an image problem. I don't think it's due to the Palace Card Club," said Councilwoman Barbara Halliday. "Are we shutting down our shopping malls because people can't put their credit cards away?"

The issue will be decided at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Hayward City Hall, Council Chambers, 777 B St.

Matt O'Brien