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The nightlife fight

January 27, 2007 8:57 am
|      9 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle politics | WS culture/arts

As computer-glued homebodies, we haven’t followed the simmering fight over the Seattle “nightlife premises ordinance.” But perhaps we should. One WSB reader  forwarded us an urgent e-mail from a club in another part of town and suggests several WS establishments have a lot at stake in this too; check the e-mail out (after the jump), take action if you are interested, and please let us know if there’s another point of view on this to spotlight as well:

Howdy folks.  I know you all signed up for the “Tractor Spam” to get calendar updates, and we try not to impose too much on your inbox.  But….. it seems as though nefarious deeds are afoot.  If you enjoy the Tractor, the Sunset or Conor Byrne.   If you enjoy all the other clubs in town.  If you think there is nothing better then seeing your favorite band live, or better yet seeing some band you never heard of and loving them.  If live music is important to you, then PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read on and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take a minute and write to your city counsel.  The worse thing you could do is nothing….

Seattle’s nightclubs and music venues are in jeopardy,  and you need to act if you want to save live music in Seattle .

Friends, patrons and fans of live music and nightlife in general need to write your city council members to oppose the Nightlife Premises License Ordinance, which if passed, will help to kill nightlife and live music in Seattle as we know it.  You need to act now as the ordinance is steadily working its way to a vote on the council floor.

In its essence, the proposed law denies nightclub owners the certainty of holding licenses for any period of time. It imposes unreasonable and unenforceable rules, under which rules licenses can be summarily revoked by the CITY for the most minor infractions. And regardless if the club owners follow the rules, the city can shutdown an established club if a new wealthy/powerful condo owner moves in the neighborhood and deems the existing club unfit for a neighborhood and a nuisance. This scenario proves a concern as new condos are being raised everyday in Seattle.  You can read the Stranger’s take on it here  http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=44395. The people really pushing for this new law are the Seattle Police, who want more power over what you see and where you hang out.

Neighborhood groups  lead by The Mayor’s lobbyist have mobilized an email campaign to help  pass this ordinance through immediately . We need YOU to stop this proposed law and groups that want to take away your right to see live music  by emailing the council today.  EVERY email counts, as few as 20 emails to the Council have effected legislation.

Write your council members below , let them know you would support sane legislation that deals with nightlife issues but that the Mayor’s Nightlife Premises License Ordinance is part of a botched process that ignored input from neighborhood groups and nightclub owners, and didn’t even allow for input from the music business and music fans. We need a new process, a real process, that comes up with sane, workable solutions.

Jan Drago jan.drago@seattle.gov;
Richard Conlin Richard.Conlin@seattle.gov
Richard McIver richard.mciver@seattle.gov
Peter Steinbrueck peter.steinbrueck@seattle.gov
Nick Licata Nick.Licata@Seattle.gov
David Della (David.Della@Seattle.gov
Tom Rasmussen (tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov
Jean Godden Jean.Godden@Seattle.gov
Sally Clark sally.clark@seattle.gov

To read Seattle Nightlife and Music Association’s talking points of the proposed law:
http://www.seattlenma.org/downloads/SNMA_Talking_Points.pdf

To read Seattle Nightlife and Music Association’s Analysis of the proposed law:
http://seattlenma.org/downloads/SNMA_Ordinance_Analysis.pdf

To read the entire Nightlife Premises License Ordinance:
http://www.seattlenma.org/downloads/nightlife_premises_ordinan

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9 Replies to "The nightlife fight"

  • West 5 Dave January 27, 2007 (9:13 am)

    The proposed ordinance is already at Council for consideration. It’s residing on Council President Licata’s desk for consideration and assignment to the Public Safety committee (which Licata also chairs). If you do have comments, send them to Licata as he’s in the most poweful position to revise this onerous, unfair ordinance. West Seattle was not represented on the Mayor’s Nightlife Task Force (that wrote the proposed ordinance) nor were neighborhood restaurants (like my business) that will be adversely affected by the proposed ordinance. The Mayor’s office is pushing hard to get this Ordinance passed “as-is”. We really need the Council to act sensibly on the issue and either revise the language in the ordinance or kill it outright.

  • Eric January 27, 2007 (9:31 am)

    Just another day in hizzoner’s utopia.

  • Jiggers January 27, 2007 (9:44 am)

    Its just absoloutely insane. The poeple in office are inept. First strip clubs now nightclubs? Why are these people in OFFICE!!!

  • Christopher Boffoli January 27, 2007 (10:13 am)

    I love listening to live music at a number of Seattle venues. But I cannot imagine living near one because the music (especially the pounding bass) routinely spills out of the venue and can be heard and felt in the surrounding blocks. An added element is the modern American ego-centric, anti-social behavior of some patrons who cannot keep it down when they come out of these venues (potentially lit) at the end of the night.

    It is a bit unfair to spin opposition to the City’s plan as “music lovers against those nasty rich condo developers.” It is also not much of a stretch to guess that the police are more concerned with the rise in noise complaints as opposed to any inherent need to keep down that “demon rock and roll music.”

    Seattle is a growing city and we’re going to have to get used to the issues that arise from having greater population density. We need to not jump to conculsions and assume conspiracies but instead have a little patience to consider all sides.

  • Jiggers January 27, 2007 (11:41 am)

    Lets shut the city down by 9pm no bars with loud music no stripclubs no nightlife period!! end of story. Lets be the first city to shut them all down now before its too late.

  • Keith January 27, 2007 (10:29 pm)

    It is a bit unfair to spin opposition to the City’s plan as “music lovers against those nasty rich condo developers.”

    What’s unfair is the rich condo developers coming into areas where noise and nightlife already exist and use the nightlife as a “vibrant urban experience” selling point. But they build such cheap and poorly designed buldings that noise suddenly becomes an issue where it wasn’t before. And the nightlife that was used as a selling point becomes a target for unreasonable over-regulation.

    I’d rather see stricter design and building codes in Seattle than furthering the nanny-fication of our city and society.

  • dq January 28, 2007 (12:00 pm)

    Cheers to Keith!

  • Christopher Boffoli January 28, 2007 (3:22 pm)

    There is more to a vibrant urban experience than pounding bass until 3am and drunken people flooding out of clubs.

  • Keith January 28, 2007 (5:38 pm)

    There certainly is it more to it, but nightlife is an accepted, acceptable and I’d say essential part of the urban experience.

    What the nightclub owners are asking for (with support from nightlife patrons like me) is the opportunity to work with the Mayor and city to develop something everyone can live with. That hasn’t happened with the ordinance in its current form.

    Instead of throwing a big wet blanket of overwrought regulations onto every single establishment that might offer entertainment or alcohol, what we need is better enforcement of existing rules where problems actually exist or occur. (And the better building codes I mentioned earlier.)

    You don’t hear bass thundering out of West 5 at 3 am — or any West Seattle watering hole that I’m aware of — but you can bet that these unreasonable and ill-advised regulations will have an adverse affect on all of them.

    Look at all the new townhomes being built right on busy, business-oriented California Avenue. Is it fair for someone to move in to one of those units sitting right on the street, just a few blocks from many established bars and restaurants, and get bent out of shape about any night noise that may or may not be related to those nearby businesses?

    Or should they really be upset with themselves for not giving more careful consideration to their neighborhood as it exists… or to the construction/design standards of their new home… or to their own sensitivity to noise that occasionally occurs in any urban neighborhood? Find the antisocial, egocentric person in this picture.

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