I knew it had been a while since I had blogged here but 4 years? Work & this city will do that to you. The ABC SFPD collusion effort died out thankfully, but in its place is a more dangerous adversary: real estate speculation. You may learn more about real estate speculation’s effects by studying the development history of the city and county of Los Angeles.
San Francisco Board of Supervisors attempts to protect the few live music venues left in San Francisco
Today I attended a public hearing of the San Francisco
Planning Commission. It is not how I usually where I spend my Thursday
lunchtime. However today I was there because the Planning Commission was taking
public comment on legislation proposed by Supervisors London Breed and Scott Wiener to protect live music venues via the planning process for new
construction.
The goal of the legislation is to insert the interests of
the live music venues into the development conversation, and require real
estate developers to work with venues and inform potential buyers that they are
buying property within 300 feet of a music venue. It would also, more importantly, protect
clubs that are up to code and in compliance from being cited as a nuisance.
Better late than never, I suppose. Since I last wrote in
this blog, The Café Du Nord, Club Cocomo, The Sound Factory, the Red Devil
Lounge, and The Attic have all either shut their doors or removed live music/dj
performance from their business plan as a direct result of housing development
and/or noise complaints.
Today’s meeting was well represented by the live music venue
community. There were folks from clubs that are being actively menaced by condo
development, such as Bottom of the Hill and The Independent, and leading lights
of the music industry, such as the RIAA, Another Planet Entertainment, and the
California Music and Culture Association. There were also representatives from
clubs that have already fought battles in the Nightlife Wars, such as the DNA
Lounge & Slims, both forced to close temporarily by the joint efforts of
the SFPD & the ABC.
The former owner of Café Du Nord explained that he sold the
venue after a soul-killing battle with the out-of-town developers building
condominiums nearby. At present Café Du
Nord is promising little more than “impromptu, intimate entertainment acts.”
The representative from the venerable Fillmore noted that
noise complaints from concert venues are handled by the SFPD. She called this a
waste of city resources.
A representative from the Make-Out Room described how the
Make-Out Room was used by a nearby condo developer to “sell the location.” Once
the condos were occupied however, the Make-Out Room had a noise complaint
lodged against them by a new resident in the selfsame condos.
Another speaker, this one representing Another Planet
Entertainment, pointed out the sobering fact that “when we lose venues to
development, they are not being replaced.”
The North of the Panhandle Neighborhood Association rep made the point that if a neighborhood association was
supporting this legislation, it must be good legislation.
Terrance Allan of the California Music and CultureAssociation pointed out that “noise complaints can be defeated by wise
development.”
It is good legislation, in my opinion. I just hope it is not
too late for the Bottom of the Hill, The Independent, and the Elbo Room.
