D J 1 3 8
06-25-2003, 08:26 AM
So I got out of work around 7:00 and went straight down there. I missed the entire day, which had consisted of depositions of a sort from several club, bar, and record store owners as well as some politicians and some community board leaders. Maybe if someone else witnessed this they could fill me in.
In short, The good news is: The city is ready to change the cabaret laws and they fully admit that all of the problems associated with nightclubs have nothing whatsoever to do with dancing per se.
The bad news is: Almost none of the 100 or so citizens that were there seemed to understand that fact, or the real purpose for holding the hearing in the first place, which was essentially "We (the DCA, the department of consumer affairs) know the law is wrong and it will change, so how do we move forward and address the concerns of community boards and the like."
I'm telling you, most people just didn't GET it. It was really frustrating (and embarassing) to listen to.
Citizens could sign up for 2 minutes on the mic and speak to representatives from the DCA.
The majority of testimonials broke down in to these 3 categories:
1) Club heads/promoters/DJs/dancers declaring something along the lines of "I was born to dance, man, it's what I DO, man" and "dancing is older than language, man, how can you make that illegal, it's insanity, blah blah blah"
2) Club promoters/DJs/photographers etc declaring that NYC has fallen from it's peak as the cultural capital of the world and that clubs generate X amount of dollars for the city.
3) Hoop-skirted swing dancers declaring "you don't understand...I'm a SWING dancer, man, we're not part of the problem! We're not the roudy clubkids you should be harrassing!" (I wanted to SLAP these people)
These are all valid points, mind you, but they had already been accepted as facts by the DCA. Thus, they were a complete waste of time. One of the DCA officials even stoppped the citizens halfway through and said "Look, you're free to say whatever you want, but you're preaching to the choir here. We understand all this. We're holding this forum to ocme up with solutions for the future." Yet, the same 3 complaints continued and continued. Many people seemed to have no clear agenda whatsoever and started going off on tangents about how they write graffiti or whatever. It was silly, to say the least.
Not to toot my own horn, but I do believe I was one of the few people who spoke who had anything constructive to say. The point I made is that there are was already existing laws on the books to address every single concern that people have about nightclubs. There are fire codes. There are certificates of occupancy. There are noise restrictions. There are laws that govern crowds on the street such as loitering, public urination, loud traffic jams, flyer distributors littering the sidewalks, disorderly conduct. etc. All of those issues have NOTHING to do with dancing and DCA has admitted this. Therefore, the police just need to ENFORCE those laws already on the books and hold clubs accountable and leave the dancers out of it entirely. I think this was a valid point. I even pointed out that cops could be generating a lot of money for the city by being out on the streets at night ticketing peolpe for violating all of those laws.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Why every single promoter and DJ in the city didn't attend this hearing is another story and a testament to our lack of organization and willingness to do nothing about the issues that concern us the most. I recognized almost nobody in the audience. This saddens me, but whatever. For the record, I wasn't there earlier in the day and maybe every promoter and DJ WAS there then. I don't know.
I unfortunately have a lot of real work to do today so I may not be able to comment further for awhile. Nevertheless, it seems as though the law will change, but the DCA is still looking for some kind of new licensing system to impose on clubs, which I really don't see the need for.
[ June 25, 2003, 11:15 AM: Message edited by: DJ 138 ]
In short, The good news is: The city is ready to change the cabaret laws and they fully admit that all of the problems associated with nightclubs have nothing whatsoever to do with dancing per se.
The bad news is: Almost none of the 100 or so citizens that were there seemed to understand that fact, or the real purpose for holding the hearing in the first place, which was essentially "We (the DCA, the department of consumer affairs) know the law is wrong and it will change, so how do we move forward and address the concerns of community boards and the like."
I'm telling you, most people just didn't GET it. It was really frustrating (and embarassing) to listen to.
Citizens could sign up for 2 minutes on the mic and speak to representatives from the DCA.
The majority of testimonials broke down in to these 3 categories:
1) Club heads/promoters/DJs/dancers declaring something along the lines of "I was born to dance, man, it's what I DO, man" and "dancing is older than language, man, how can you make that illegal, it's insanity, blah blah blah"
2) Club promoters/DJs/photographers etc declaring that NYC has fallen from it's peak as the cultural capital of the world and that clubs generate X amount of dollars for the city.
3) Hoop-skirted swing dancers declaring "you don't understand...I'm a SWING dancer, man, we're not part of the problem! We're not the roudy clubkids you should be harrassing!" (I wanted to SLAP these people)
These are all valid points, mind you, but they had already been accepted as facts by the DCA. Thus, they were a complete waste of time. One of the DCA officials even stoppped the citizens halfway through and said "Look, you're free to say whatever you want, but you're preaching to the choir here. We understand all this. We're holding this forum to ocme up with solutions for the future." Yet, the same 3 complaints continued and continued. Many people seemed to have no clear agenda whatsoever and started going off on tangents about how they write graffiti or whatever. It was silly, to say the least.
Not to toot my own horn, but I do believe I was one of the few people who spoke who had anything constructive to say. The point I made is that there are was already existing laws on the books to address every single concern that people have about nightclubs. There are fire codes. There are certificates of occupancy. There are noise restrictions. There are laws that govern crowds on the street such as loitering, public urination, loud traffic jams, flyer distributors littering the sidewalks, disorderly conduct. etc. All of those issues have NOTHING to do with dancing and DCA has admitted this. Therefore, the police just need to ENFORCE those laws already on the books and hold clubs accountable and leave the dancers out of it entirely. I think this was a valid point. I even pointed out that cops could be generating a lot of money for the city by being out on the streets at night ticketing peolpe for violating all of those laws.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Why every single promoter and DJ in the city didn't attend this hearing is another story and a testament to our lack of organization and willingness to do nothing about the issues that concern us the most. I recognized almost nobody in the audience. This saddens me, but whatever. For the record, I wasn't there earlier in the day and maybe every promoter and DJ WAS there then. I don't know.
I unfortunately have a lot of real work to do today so I may not be able to comment further for awhile. Nevertheless, it seems as though the law will change, but the DCA is still looking for some kind of new licensing system to impose on clubs, which I really don't see the need for.
[ June 25, 2003, 11:15 AM: Message edited by: DJ 138 ]