Porky’s attracts kids,
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Brian Barbar/DaHy Nabraakan
Arcade closes after complaints from neighbors
Analysis by Kevin Cowan
Senior Reporter
For the past four months.
Porky’s Family Fun Center, 2021
O St., has been the scene of varied
disturbances, arrests and citations.
At the end of September, Porky’s
closed.
The “Porky’s controversy” in
volves more than enforcement and
violation, the police, the media, the
mayor’s office and the Lincoln
population in general.
It was a business, trying to con
form with the authorities’ requests
just as any law-abiding business
would have. But there was some
thing more than city code confor
maney.
The Porky’s phenomena started
several years ago as a parking prob
lem in the neighborhoods of the
Near South District
Jerry Dabrusky, owner of Ne
braska Coin-Op Distributers,
maintained a video arcade on 23rd
and D streets.
“We were the only commercial
business in that area," he said.
“People would call in and com
plain that the refrigeration unit on
our Tombstone Pizza truck was too
loud” and that parked cars were
clogging the streets. “Well, I run a
business and employ a sizeable
number of people that have to have
a place to park.”
The arcade had toclose its doors
“because of neighborhood pres
sure,” he said.
After the business closed,
Dabrusky continued to feel heat
from city officials. The more the
business tried to conform, he said,
the more visits it received from
police, and health code and hu
mane society officials.
“When someone wants you
gone,” he said, “they use all the
means at their disposal. And when
people keep calling in complaints,
eventually they (the city) just do
something about it.”
Forexample,a $600 health code
violation was issued because Ne
braska Coin -Op didn ’ t ha ve 1 ids on
garbage cans, he said.
“I pointed out the other resi
dences who were also in violation
of that health code,” he said, but it
didn’t do any good.
At the height of the confronta
tion, he said, “there was a cop
outside inspecting parked can for
defective mufflen and tail lights
and all that, just to see what he,
could get us for,” he said, thumbing
a stack of tickets.
Dabrusky said his problems
were the result of efforts made by
City Council member Jo Gutgscll.
Gutgscll was a resident of the Near
South District and president of the
Near South Neighborhood Asso
ciation. Gutgsell, Dabrusky said,
was the person primarily involved
with closing his arcade.
“1 was receiving a lot of com
plaints about them from the resi
dences in the neighborhood,"
Gutgsell said,“and he was in viola
tion” of the codes in question.
“You can find violations of city
code in any building,” Dabrusky
sard. “I mean, if they want to get
you for something, they can.”
Despite the problems with the
first arcade, Dabrusky decided to
open Porky’s Family Fun Center
on June 1.
“The disturbances started two
weeks later,” said Lincoln Police
Chief Dean Leitner.
The disturbances, he said, in
cluded vandalism, larceny and lit
tering.
“Porky’s had little control over
what people do off their premises,”
said Boo Creager, counsel for
Porky’s. “If you put a bar in that
same location, an increase in dis
tyrbanccs would occur as well.”
In July, two youths were in a
pushing match and one pushed the
other through a window.
Gutgscll and Leitner both said
the problem arose from a lack of
security.
“We had an attendant behind
the counter who saw it,” Dabrusky
said, “and he was going over to take
care of it. We also had another
employee 20 feet away” who was
on his way to break up the fight.
“Wc also had two security guards
out in the back lot.” But when
people get together to “have fun,”
he said, “you’re going to have that
kind of problem sometimes.”
“I’ve seen fights at church pic
nics,” Dabrusky said.
Porky’s met with the police and
w i th the May or’s Counc i 1 on Youth
to attempt to find a solution to the
problem. Many solutions were
proposed, but none could make the
“disturbances” stop.
Dabrusky said he had contact
with at least four police officers to
try tosolvetheproblem.Hesaidhe
asked one if the business could do
anything to help the problem, and
the officer “said one word: Close.’
In August, four nearby busi
nesses filed suit against Porky’s.
The businesses, Williamson Old
smobile Honda, 21 st and N streets;
McVicker Auto Trim and Tops,
2043 O St.; Big A Auto Parts, 1955
O St.; and Road and Track Motors
Service, 2045 O St., represented by
Thom Cope, planned to file a dis
trict petition to close.Porky’s.
The petition alleged that
Porky’s created a public nuisance
because it attracted people of all
ages who arc disorderly and dam
age the plaintiff’s property and the
property of their customers.
Creager said Porky’s was “mis
characterized.”
“If you live next door to a feed
' lot that stinks or a grain elevator
whose fans are making noise con
stantly, then it’s a nuisance. If
there’s illegal activity associated
with the business, then it’s a nui
sance. But it’s not the role of soci
ety to punish people who aren’t
breaking the law. You’re supposed
to arrest the people who are violat
ing the law.’’
Since the suit was filed, the
owners have not had any more
trouble. Now, before next
Tuesday’s court date, the two par
See PORKY’S on 12
Photos clockwise from middle: A Lincoln
youth is arrested behind Porkey’s. Porkys
clientele hang out in the back parking lot.
Porky’s Family Fun Center, 2021 O St.
Photos by:
Eric Gregory
Andrea Hoy
