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7 x 7 created this great video featuring Dawn Holliday, co-owner of Slim's, Guy Carson, owner of Cafe Du Nord, and Amy Miller of Sonicliving.com speaking about the Alcoholic Beverage Control's recent "crackdowns" on all-ages venues. The clubs' funds are all being depleted from fighting lawsuits, and staff morale is very low since they don't know how long they'll have jobs. Guy Carson has been in the business for twenty years and has never had any ABC violations. His question is, Why now, all of a sudden? His answer is that the folks in Sacramento are simply forcing their worldview onto San Francisco, which is pretty scary.
The frustrating part of the whole situation is that these venues aren't breaking any real laws, just an arbitrary rule set by the ABC that the agency isn't even required to enforce. The rule dictates that a venue needs to sell 50 percent food and 50 percent alcohol. According to the Guardian, ABC spokesman Jim Carr claims that only one unnamed venue is actually being cited specifically for the rule, whereas Café du Nord, Slim's, Swedish American Hall, Great American Music Hall, Rickshaw Stop, Bottom of the Hill, and ten other venues are being held accountable for deviating from their original business plans, in which they had been asked to "predict" the amount of food and alcohol they would sell.
The issue surrounding DNA Lounge vs. ABC is even more ridiculous. Their liquor license is being threatened for "running a disorderly house injurious to the public welfare and morals" after ABC undercover agents attended a couple of queer events. Mark Leno told the Guardian, "The ABC should enforce the law, not make statements relative to morals." Leno also said that if the problem plaguing the all-ages venues is due to technicalities with the specific license, then "let's change the license, not the venues."
Two more venues have also recently seen the wrath of ABC. Revolution Café had to stop selling beer and wine for 20 days after being cited for patrons drinking on the sidewalk adjacent to its front patio, which we're pretty sure the cafe doesn't ordinarily allow. Buckshot's owners were forced to close their doors for a few weeks after their liquor license was pulled, due to technical violations of alcohol and food regulations.
The closing of these clubs would be detrimental not only to San Francisco's culture, but to our economy as well. As the Guardian points out, many of these venues each bring in $5,000 a month in sales tax. Plus, if ABC is allowed to enforce random "rules" at will, who knows what other venues will be threatened next.
Let's all show our support by continuing to attend our favorite all-ages music venues. Keep hounding the San Francisco ABC office, email Sentaor Mark Leno, and stay abreast of the issue via Facebook and Twitter.
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Any suggestions on what to tell the ABC? Only words that come to mind are "fuck you."
Also, the e-mail address you have for Sen. Leno is invalid.
Weird, that's the email address that's on his website. Maybe call his staff. It sounds like he's on top of the issue though.
As far as what to tell the ABC, how about using Leno's quote above: "'The ABC should enforce the law, not make statements relative to morals.' If the problem plaguing the all-ages venues is due to technicalities with the specific license, then 'let's change the license, not the venues.'"
Maybe other commenters will have suggestions?
running a disorderly house injurious to the public welfare and morals
That is some arcane, puritanical, 19th century shit!
Actually, it sounds like SF clubs in the 19th century were probably a lot more fun than they are today.
Here's an interesting email from John Hinman, one of the lawyers representing several of the local clubs against ABC regarding this issue:
http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2009/06/#25
This whole thing is happening because one venue gamed the system to get an all ages permit and the ABC decided to look closer at all of San Francisco. Let the ABC have that victory and leave everyone else alone!
That is totally inaccurate. As you can see from the email from John Hinman this is part of an ongoing process that has been ongoing for years.
None of this started until after the venue got their 18+, if you can read between the lines then you can figure it out if you are smart. There is a lot nobody sees in this process, including kickbacks and bribes that probably weren't paid, pissing someone off at the ABC and starting this whole thing - all because a bad businessperson figured they could make money with 18+ when they couldn't with 21+. Time for someone to get out of the business.
"gamed the system"?!? You are NOT seriously blaming the DNA for this. There is nothing wrong with a venue moving from 21+ to 18+. Provide sources or shut up.
Well jamming a kitchen into a former bathroom (yuck!) just to meet the requirements when it's not in your original business plan seems about as suspect as the millionaire owner asking for donations for his legal fund. Use your head!
Ah, ok, so you're going to continue making ridiculous and irrelevant claims without sources.
Nothing wrong with converting a space into something else either. That kitchen has been running for at least a year and is subject to all relevant health codes and regulations (none of which have been violated, and aren't relevant to any of this, fyi), and the food's actually quite good.
Got any more straw men for me?
yeah...is making an adjustment "to meet requirements" a bad thing?
Revolution Cafe was never strict about keeping people inside, but come on- that place is made for standing around in the sidewalk!
I'm glad to see Leno's helping out with this. That guy seems to have a good head on his shoulders.
They should investigate Bi-Rite for providing alcohol to an entire parksworth of hipsters!
Since the department is appointed by the Governor, has anyone tried petitioning the governor to, you know, remove the jackass behind all this?
I mean it's probably that easy. If the venues would cough up a little information on their employees in terms of things that matter to the MASSIVE STATE BUDGET CRISIS right now, such as the income they provide to the state in terms of taxes related to the artists that perform, the business related income, the taxes that the employees contribute and some other relative stats that all involve money money money money...
and then throw it in a full-page ad in the SF Chronicle, Sacramento's paper and whatever sort of "here's the dirty laundry, Steve Hardy is trying to eliminate 10 million dollars in income for the State of California in a time where we need all the money we can get" propaganda they can muster?
Maybe sonicliving could organize this as they're a 3rd party to this since the venues themselves perhaps would have a conflict of interest with regards to pending litigation?
I know getting businesses to admit their income and tax situations is difficult, but wouldn't it be the most effective way to get this mess to go away? I mean you don't fuck with tax money when the state is fucked. The only person that can stop this is the Governor. You can't out lawyer the state. You can out-talk them and embarrass them and force them to re-visit the actual harm they're doing by enforcing their laws in a poor manner.
Is now the time to shut down businesses, lay off employees (hey, what are we at %10 yet?) and generally reduce the already shrinking tax base? Is that NOT grounds for removal at your job to directly cause harm to a fragile economy? What DO you have to do to get fired from the ABC anyway? I think we need to make that part of it happen. Now.
This is a good point (well, except for advertising in rose stupid rags only the elderly read.)
If the venues would just work together they could fight this off I would think. Arnold is supposed to be pro-business and it would look bad if they called him out on his anti-business stance here.
Great point. I contacted Amy at SonicLiving, and she said they've been looking into the best people to contact in terms of bringing it to the state level.