Community Relations and the OB Rassle House

by John M. Williams

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A born and bred San Diego native decided she would like to live by the sea in Ocean Beach. She now lives in an apartment on Niagara between Sunset Cliffs and Cable and is well settled into the semi-village lifestyle of Ocean Beach. Time flowed by without major incident until a wrestler from St. Louis, MO who had gravitated to Santa Cruz, CA with his wife, also a wrestler, relocated to San Diego.

Here they leased space which has access from the alley and opened an evening live presentation venue. Among the offerings are music and comedy, but the main event is wrestling, and OB Rassle House was established.

The 1,200 sf venue is open from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm. It seats 100 for live wrestling, with capacity of 171 patrons for other activities. The venue offers no booze, and DOES NOT allow BYOB [an earlier version of this post erroneously stated it did). You can find OB Rassle House on Facebook (Meta, today, I guess), Twitter or Instagram, and Google.

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To go from so far so good with no problems to the “What-the-Hell?!!” board lighting up with citizen complaints required more than one misstep.

The venue’s draw is live wrestling which is by nature a loud, blood pumping event. The point of the thing is to get people excited. Would it be a wonder if, having just seen Mad Merry wrench off One Armed Ed’s other arm, an excited spectator might rush into the alley and let out a yell? No, it would not be.

The residents of the units which back the alley began to be bothered by people shouting in the alley and by loud noises coming from the venue. In at least one incident, someone urinated on a resident’s car. So, residents made calls as directed and got such satisfaction as they might from their efforts, that is to say little, and things continued to simmer but didn’t boil over.

Then, on an occasion, the Wrestler committed a transgression. He moved the evening’s live activities out of the club, and into the alley, property of the City of San Diego over which he had no authority. The event was MCed using an amplified microphone and the neighbors went wild. Three hours of screaming in your backyard. Bang! [An earlier version of this post mistakenly claimed OB Hardware had a relationship with OB Rassle House. This was inaccurate.]

The residents were in an uproar, SDPD did take some action, and there was at least one face-to-face interaction between the Resident and the Wrestler.

During a phone interview, the Resident acknowledged that she might have become a little over zealous in the encounter with the Wrestler and that she regretted any inappropriate behavior.
And, one evening an SDPD cruiser did roll into the alley, stop, and an officer with a bullhorn announced that those in the alley had 5 minutes to disperse. Having made the announcement, the cruiser immediately departed. Those who heard the announcement shrugged and carried on.

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Fault is not found here. There’s no evil villain or shining hero, no damsel in distress or wicked witch lurking either. A guy’s trying to run a business. Okay. Residents want to relax at night without bullhorns coming through the walls. Of course. SDPD has other stuff to do. Duh.

This reporter does not know who talked to whom or anything that was said, but the Wrestler remarked that he’d learned a lesson from the live outdoor event.

And, the Resident said among her final comments that on nights when the venue doors were closed, there wasn’t a problem. Unfortunately, she pointed out, patrons want to come and go so the door is open quite often, and that is a problem.

Ways Out

Three parties have an interest in this situation. First, the Residents, who have every right to expect quiet during certain hours of the night in their residential space.

Then, there’s the Wrestler who is trying to keep a business vibrant and do what he knows best, entertaining in his own ring.

Last, and least directly engaged in this discord, is OB Hardware, a venerable establishment, opened in 1919, and a living vestige of the village days. The changes in OB life, not to mention the world, brought by 102 years have made the store an anomaly and its continued existence has been in the balance in recent times.

So, in an effort to support the success of OB Rassle House, the rights of residents to the comfort of their homes, and with an eye to the solidification of OB Hardware’s future, the author offers these ideas:

1. The Resident should make sure the Wrestler gets an apology, and she and the other residents should understand that once patrons leave the venue the the Wrestler can’t be held responsible for them.
2. The Wrestler should take every reasonable step to diminish the disruption his business creates in the lives of his nearest neighbors. [An earlier version of this post said there was some formal lease or other type of relationship between OB Hardware and the Rassle House. That was inaccurate.]
3. The Reporter should keep his nose out of it. Haven’t been asked, but do wonder how much trouble and cost might be associated with adding an entry before the
door to the event room.