While many restaurants can offer revelers a festive countdown, a noisemaker and sparkling wine, some posh places abide by a higher standard, enticing diners with sumptuous service and exquisite dishes, all in the name of making a grand entrance into the new year.
As a longtime resident of the San Juan Capistrano neighborhood that bears his family’s name, Stephen Rios has grown accustomed to tawdry tourists and pushy photographers. But over the last few weeks, he’s welcomed a new element that he believes is a much needed response to an unwelcome influx of loitering, vandalism and trespassing: private security, patrolling in golf carts, armed with guns and funded by a private-public partnership.
“I appreciate the private security and the cost that comes with that,” said Rios. “And I am pleased that they are armed. I would not want them to be in a dangerous environment without any sidearm to protect themselves.”