The owners of the Hole in the Wall said sewer work the city has been conducting near their property has been at fault since 2015, pushing raw sewage into the bar and forcing closures.
SAN DIEGO – Tucked away on Lytton Street in Point Loma, The Hole in the Wall has been drawing large crowds for decades. It’s a staple in San Diego, but a plumbing problem could soon send that status down the drain.
Karen Sherman, along with her son, owns and operates The Hole, as it is known to regulars. A spokesman for the city of San Diego confirms that the city reworked and relocated a portion of the main sewer line on the block as part of a capital improvement project. That came with new plumbing for the bar itself.
“It failed twice,” Sherman said. “Initially when they installed it in 2015 and it had to be redone and seven years later in March 2022 it failed again.”
She explained that the fuse is “unprocessed sewage that you drain back into [the] bar, so people are stepping into raw sewage.”
Sherman says she filed three claims with the city about the work, one in 2015 and one in 2022.
CBS 8 got a copy of the latest.
According to the document, Sherman’s initial claim was for approximately $9,600 in lost revenue from expanded construction since the project began.
Then she says it failed; The city asked for a plumber to investigate and confirm the problem. The city fixed the issue, but Sherman says they still denied their claim.
In 2022, Sherman filed another lawsuit, saying the system failed again. She says the city has also denied that claim. Sherman claims the bar spent nearly $60,000, including $36,000 in emergency plumbing work they paid to keep the bar running.
“We did this to make it work, but for it to work fully we need to redo all the drains inside,” Sherman said. “[That] the city did with an independent contractor, and we asked the city to come back and do that work.”
CBS 8 reached out to the city’s communications department, Mayor Todd Gloria’s office, and Councilman Jennifer Campbell’s office, which covers the area where The Hole is located.
We haven’t heard from Gloria’s office.
Campbell’s office referred us to the City of San Diego’s Risk Management Department, the same department that a city spokesman said they would be contacting to get us information.
The spokesman said the city had no reports of “… warranty, latent and patent defects” related to the project and no one had contacted public works to make a bid for “… any sewage problem along Lytton Street or any lateral concerns for The Hole in the Wall Bar…”
The spokesman said the city had investigated the allegation and shared those findings with the claimant.
In sharing that response with Sherman, CBS 8 said her next step will be to recruit an attorney to see what her options are, including a possible lawsuit.
Meanwhile, she says the cost of port-a-potties to take the stress off the plumbers is adding to the bill for the whole mess.
“This is a corner store, not a chain,” Sherman said. “It’s here because we love the bar and the place.”
A few takeaways we learned during our coverage:
- Just because you submit an application to your city, municipality or other authority does not mean that the right department will find out about it and can take care of your request. Make sure you contact us directly.
- As a business owner, find out what you are responsible for.
- For example, we have generally learned that you are responsible for maintaining the sewer connections that connect to the city’s sewer lines. These side pieces can extend beyond your actual property.
At CBS 8, we’re always working for you and our community in San Diego. If you want us to investigate something, Please share your idea here or email us at workingforyou@cbs8.com.
WORKING FOR YOU: Why did it take the city of San Diego 4 years to replace a light pole near schools? (January 2023).
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