Four jazz venues that serve grub - 1300 On Fillmore, Yoshi's, Rasselas and Sheba Lounge - are asking the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency "for additional loans and to restructure debt to survive." These venues, which have already received public financing during the Fillmore's redevelopment, is asking the city of San Francisco for a total of $2.4 million in new loans.
Here's a tip, 1300 On Fillmore, Yoshi's, and Rasselas: stop playing jazz. It's a dead genre. At best it lives on in smooth form. Yes, we know most of you seduced first-year college students with that black and white Miles Davis poster tacked onto your dorm room wall. Or you took a noted class in jazz back at the alma mater. Or you read some thought-provoking article in the New York Times about jazz's critical place in blah blah wank. But jazz? Is dead.
Really, we listen to Sondheim and Spears, and even we know, save for a the occasional Biscuits & Blues, jazz is not a moneymaker for SF venues. It's just not. And probably won't be.
Hire an event planner/club promoter or four -- hell, even eight will come to less than $2.4 million -- and throw a few decent club nights before you start dipping in the family funds.