Music and…: Five Ways to Think About the Crackdown on SF Venues
March 8, 2010
In the midst of enjoying a series of sold-out, locally-headlined shows during last week’s Noise Pop festivities, there was just enough of a gap between bands, drinks and good times for me to have a real downer of a realization: if the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) has its way, many of the great venues hosting Noise Pop shows would be put out of business. Places like Bottom of the Hill, Cafe Du Nord, Slim’s, and the Great American Music Hall. Chances are pretty good that if you’ve been to see a show recently, you’ve been to a venue under attack by the ABC. If you’re under 21, the places being targeted account for most of your concert-going options in the City. And therein lies much of the problem.
As many local media outlets have covered, for well over a year the ABC has been pursuing enforcement actions against local clubs that offer all ages shows. In several of these cases, the ABC alleges that the clubs have failed to meet conditions that are part of their liquor licenses, conditions that were either forced upon the clubs (that no one could have expected them to meet) or that the clubs never agreed to at all. Unbelievably, at the heart of a number of these enforcement actions is the claim that venues should be making as much money from food sales as they do from alcohol sales if they want to hold all ages shows.
January’s Flux Summit, titled What’s Shaking Down SF Music Venues?, was a welcome sign of increased action by local venues to distribute information about the attack they are facing (video from the summit here). With the stakes so high for some of the City’s best clubs, though, it’s a little disheartening that more people aren’t already aware of what’s going on. And yet, it’s not difficult to understand why many aren’t engaged in issues of regulatory enforcement, entertainment business licensing, and disputes over food-to-alcohol sales ratios. On the surface, these problems aren’t particularly accessible, compelling or sexy. The reality, however, is that the crackdown on SF venues isn’t just about local indie music. Instead, it touches on a number of concerns that should matter to a broad swath of San Franciscans.
In that vein, I offer:
Five Ways to Think About the Crackdown on SF Venues.
1. This isn’t just an indie music issue. It’s a performing arts issue.
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All Ages Venues Update: Charges Against Great American Dropped
September 30, 2009
All Shook Down and NBC Bay Area brought some welcome news yesterday in the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control’s (ABC) outrageous crackdown on all ages SF venues, a conflict that has enveloped some of the City’s best places to see shows. On Monday, an administrative law judge recommended that case against the Great American Music Hall be dropped due to because “the regulation relied upon by the ABC was ambiguous.” Following that decision, the ABC announced that it was dropping the charges against Great American.
As All Shook Down notes:
The ruling falls in line with public opinion that the state agency’s regulations box night clubs into a corner by forcing them to apply for liquor licenses as restaurants when they’re in fact a completely different business, among other issues.
But what about the cases against Slim’s, Bottom of the Hill and the rest? According to NBC Bay Area: “ABC officials said the decision does not affect any other pending cases and it plans to have the regulation clarified by the State Office of Administrative Law.”
Clearly this isn’t over, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.
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The Famous unleash Come Home to Me
August 24, 2009
Local indie/alt-country band The Famous release their second album Come Home to Me this Thursday at Cafe Du Nord. The band describes the new album as a “blast of indie rock fused with hard-edged Americana that continues in the direction established on their debut, while venturing into fuzzed-out garage-blues, New Orleans swamp jazz, and Tex-Mex flavored surf.” For the record release, they’ll be joined onstage by Joe Goldmark (pedal steel) and jazz trombonist Charlie Wilson, both guest musicians on this newest 11-tracker.
TheFamous_Come_Home_To_Me.mp3
The Famous – “Come Home to Me”
In addition to making their new CD available for the first time, The Famous have generously declared that a portion of the proceeds from the Du Nord show will go to a very good cause: the fight against the restrictions felt by local venues via the CA Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC). As we’ve written before, it’s an important fight and a cause definitely worth supporting.
Local bands Billy & Dolly and 20 Minute Loop bookend the show. 8:30pm, $10, 21+.
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The latest on the ABC and local venues: why promises of change aren’t enough
April 29, 2009
A Bay Bridged reader tipped us off to this post over at the Chronicle‘s City Insider blog, the latest in the paper’s coverage of the ongoing conflict between the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and some of the City’s best venues, including Bottom of the Hill, Cafe Du Nord, the Great American Music Hall and the DNA Lounge.
You can find our previous posts about this issue here and here for more background, but here’s a quick recap: the ABC, charged with issuing and enforcing alcohol licenses throughout the state, has been challenging the liquor licenses of a number of historic City music venues, either by attacking technical or otherwise insignificant discrepancies in the licenses, or by imposing new, unreasonable conditions on their continued use. These licenses allow these venues to hold all ages shows, something already in too-short supply in the City.
The last we had heard, State Senator Mark Leno had a “positive meeting” with ABC chief Steve Hardy that resulted in a “commitment to working toward a resolution,” including ideas to draft new legislation to clarify venue licensing requirements or the creation of a new type of license specifically for music venues. All of this, tentatively, sounded like progress. [More...]
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Progress in the ABC/venue conflict?
April 16, 2009
Is a sigh of relief in order? The Chronicle’s Marisa Lagos wrote a follow-up today to her eye-opening piece in Saturday’s paper that examined the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control’s seemingly arbitrary use of its expansive power in challenging the liquor licenses of some of the City’s most established and well-regarded clubs, including Bottom of the Hill, the Great American Music Hall and Cafe Du Nord (and as we learned via a comment on our post, the DNA Lounge as well).
State Sen. Mark Leno and Alcoholic and Beverage Control chief Steve Hardy met on Monday to discuss the ABC’s efforts, and Lagos reports that Hardy “made a commitment to working toward a resolution” with legislators and local business owners:
“It was a positive meeting,” said Leno, D-San Francisco. “(Hardy) came out wanting to work with me … and said he is anything but interested in seeing businesses close.”
Leno said Hardy acknowledged that ABC officials currently have broad leeway in interpreting licensing requirements. The two men discussed writing legislation that would clarify the requirements for these kinds of businesses or possibly create a new type of license.
Read the full article for more details. It’s definitely too early to consider this resolved, but it’s encouraging to see things moving in a positive direction. (Hat tip: @ipickmynose)
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Must-read Chronicle story on the ABC and SF live music
April 13, 2009
Via The OCMD, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote an absolutely astonishing story this weekend about action by the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control targeted at some of the City’s best venues, like Bottom of the Hill, Cafe Du Nord and the Great American Music Hall. This early sentence should get your attention:
Those venues could be forced to close, owners say, if the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, better known as ABC, continues to impose rules that club attorneys argue are legally questionable and often unrelated to booze or safety issues.
It’s not uncommon to hear about a quasi-legal venue getting shut down for operating without a permit or public complaints of excessive noise. It’s simply astonishing, however, to find out that three of the City’s most established, most respected venues have found themselves in the ABC’s sights not because of public complaints, but because of minor ambiguities in documentation, or because they aren’t meeting a particular food sales to alcohol sales ratio:
John Hinman, the attorney representing Cafe Du Nord, said his club was chastised by the ABC for opening to the public at 7 p.m. instead of 5 p.m., the hour owners put on their application form more than 15 years ago.
The owners explained that they open at 5 to feed the bands, Hinman said, but the ABC still challenged their state liquor license. The agency also demanded that the club start selling at least as much food as alcohol, he said, even though that condition was never on the license.
State Sen. Mark Leno should be commended for stepping up to the plate to fight for San Francisco’s live music scene and for recognizing the dangers of the ABC’s expansive and seemingly arbitrary power:
“I believe the ABC has a job to do – of course enforcing the current law and protecting public safety, but also protecting the well-being of businesses,” [Leno] said. “In San Francisco, we’re doing very well at working out our differences locally, and when you have this outside force that has the power to issue and revoke license and put small businesses out of business, I take it very seriously.”
We’ll keep an eye on this story as it develops.
