ALKI: Summer brings chaos to Alki Beach and this year it didn't even wait till May. It began officially in the early morning hours of April 23, when two pedestrians along the 2900 block of Alki Beach Drive Southwest were mugged at gunpoint. Later on that bright, balmy Sunday, a group of hiphop-loving young people performed that party fad, inspired by rapper E-40, called "ghost-riding the whip," in which the driver climbs out of his own moving car to dance to his stereo's music. The festivities clogged traffic. Then on April 27 a motorcyclist took a turn too fast and veered into the bike path along Alki Beach Drive, killing a skateboarder and himself. Lt. Steve Paulsen, operations commander for the Seattle Police Southwest Precinct, says his department will be shifting more patrols out to the area during evening hours, as a response to the growing nightclub presence along the beach. CENTRAL DISTRICT: With the Washington State Liquor Control Board seemingly on the brink of pulling its liquor license, Deano's Cafe & Lounge at 2030 East Madison Street needs a makeover. Badly. Even co-owner Darnell Parker concedes that "Deano's" is synonymous with criminal depravity—drug dealing, prostitution, and all the drive-by shootings that come with it. To exorcise the old demons, he's giving the club a new name: Deano's is now "Club Chocolate City." Parker says that he wants to attract more white customers to mix with the club's typically black clientele, and he says that the whites he's met have responded favorably to the name. Parker also believes that a more racially mixed crowd will help improve his turbulent relationship with the largely white homeowners in Madison Park. "I want to get along instead of getting it on," says Parker. "This business means as much to me as your house does to you." But Mayor Greg Nickels's office worked with police to compile a damning case against the renewal of Deano's liquor license, and the liquor board appears to agree: The board did not renew the license when it lapsed at the end of March and Parker is currently operating under a temporary license as he awaits a hearing that would decide his club's fate. "It could be a few months," says Parker. "It will give me an opportunity to prove that Chocolate City is not shitty."–TF