RACINE - Tina Elmergreen says she wants to bring salsa dancing to Racine.

Some of her potential neighbors, however, say Downtown Sixth Street already has enough bars. Adding a large night-club would only invite trouble, they say.

That is the essential difference - a gulf as wide as the Rio Grande - between the proposed Tinita, 500 Sixth St., and its opposition.

Elmergreen's plan is to have Tinita open Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, with live music on Fridays and a disc jockey the other two nights. The $10 cover charge on Fridays would include a lesson in salsa dancing.

She found her way to the proposed spot, 500 Sixth St., because the owners of Sticky Rice Thai Restaurant, 522 Sixth St., are friends of hers.

"I got to know the building next door," the Milwaukee resident said. Tinita would occupy the first floor of the three-story, corner building with a capacity of about 200 people.

As part of its Latino cultural emphasis, Tinita would offer a cocktail from each Spanish-speaking country.

"Racine has nothing like this here," Elmergreen said. "And we would have these wonderful cultures exposed to people that might not know these cultures.

"The Latinos are all about happy times. They teach their children how to dance from the moment they can stand. They cannot have a party without dancing."

The national salsa dancing movement is strong, Elmergreen said.

"In Milwaukee, there are people who only go out when they know they can salsa dance."

Some don't even drink alcohol, she maintained. "They treat it as a workout. They will not even leave the dance floor till they leave, and they drink water."

Elmergreen, a promoter of Latino musical acts who works with Summerfest, evidently has the connections to book good musicians. She is also involved in Milwaukee's Latin Christian Music Fest which has its own radio show.

Opposition

The would-be Tinita owner's biggest obstacle at the moment appears to be the fear that has risen among some potential neighbors. That resistance could prevent her from getting her needed liquor license. Without it, she said, she would move Tinita to an alternative location.

Tuesday the Racine Public Safety and Licensing Committee deferred action on her liquor license application.

Thom Bowen, co-owner of 312 Sixth St., on Tuesday spoke against granting that license. Later, Bowen explained his opposition.

"I think right now, at this stage of development that Sixth Street is in, there are plenty of bars in this area," he said. "Around my building I find beer bottles and vomit … I think we have enough nightclub-type bars."

Bowen also said he was "very, very concerned" about Elmergreen's promise to the committee to have two security people at the door, with metal-detecting wands.

"I would prefer to see a business on Sixth Street that did not need metal detectors for security," Bowen said.

Mike Walton, a co-owner of Henry & Wanda's, which is directly across Sixth Street from the proposed Tinita, echoed Bowen's opinion. "Our primary concern is that what has been proposed is a Latin or Latino band cultural center … those are words," he said. "But the reality is that Ms. Elmergreen is a band promoter. It is not anything more or less than a large nightclub."

Another concern is having up to 200 people occupying parking spaces along the street, Walton added - although Tinita would use the lot between it and 522 Sixth St.

As for the security measures, Walton said, "That makes it worse. What does she know that we don't? … What is on her mind before you ever open a place that you want to wand people before you let them in?"

Opponents have also noted that Elmergreen has a series of past court cases. According to the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access Web site, the most serious of those seems to have been a tax warrant the Wisconsin Department of Revenue filed in 2004 for delinquent income taxes.

Elmergreen said: "My husband filed for divorce, and we owned a jewelry store." Because of the business' legal structure, that led to problems.

The taxes were taken care of two years ago and she has a receipt for the certified letter to prove it, she said.

As to other past court cases, she said, "In any business you're going to end up in conflicts."

"It's just another problem for me to solve. … I'm not afraid to speak to anyone about any of those things."

Support

Not every nearby business owner opposes Tinita. Morakot Khampane, one of the Sticky Rice owners, has known Elmergreen for more than 10 years and is comfortable with her plan.

"She's a promoter who deals with a lot of very talented Latino artists," Khampane said. "She's really good at this kind of stuff."

He called Elmergreen a "super-nice person" who does a lot of nonprofit and volunteer work.

"Compared to what's on (Sixth Street) right now, this is a high-end club," Khampane said. "If she can pull it off, I think it'll be great for the street.

"It's not a rough kind of club. People who go there have money … they're really mainstream. She wants to bring a New York or Chicago or international vibe to Racine.

"She knows what she's doing, because she has put a lot of festivals together. If you know what you're doing, it's no problem. If it was just some young kids opening a club, that's different."

Elmergreen sounds sincere in promising a trouble-free nightclub. "Literally, I have never had any issues at all," she said.

The kind of place she's proposing "does not attract the troublemakers, because it's dancing."