DCCC Resolution Supporting Entertainment and Culture May 2009

Resolution Supporting Entertainment and Culture

 

WHEREAS San Francisco’s rich entertainment community, including nightlife, outdoor fairs, music venues, and other events, is essential to the City’s identity and contributes to the City’s economic vitality through jobs, tax revenue, and destination travel; it is therefore critical to empower the San Francisco Entertainment Commission to ensure that such entertainment is provided in a safe and responsible manner that protects participants and surrounding communities;

 

WHEREAS numerous outdoor fairs, bars, nightclubs and alternative cultural institutions in San Francisco have had their operating permits, regulations and fees (issued by the City and/or the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control) substantially altered, thereby threatening their continued existence, particularly in light of San Francisco's poorly conceived permit system that has threatened entertainment venues for more than a decade; such problems including:

  

· Various nightclubs, including the DNA Lounge, Hole in the Wall, and N'Touch, and various live music venues, including Cafe DuNord, Great American Music Hall, and Bottom of the Hill, have been threatened with closure by the ABC based on unreasonable and overly aggressive enforcement of state law;

· Various outdoor events, including Bay to Breakers, How Weird Street Fair, and Dore Alley Street Fair have been threatened by either unreasonable fees or unreasonable permitting/law enforcement obstacles;

· Significant fee increases for 10B officers at street events have threatened the survival of critical community events like the Transgender Pride March, the Dyke March and Pink Saturday, despite massive volunteer efforts that support these events, and the large tax revenue generated from these events;

 

AND WHEREAS in light of problems with violence outside of nightclubs, Mayor Newsom, Supervisor Maxwell, and entertainment advocates spent 14 months designing legislation to empower the Entertainment Commission to suspend nightclub operating licenses if there were circumstances warranting suspensions, but the legislation has stalled, despite Mayor Newsom and Supervisors Maxwell and Dufty’s full confidence that this legislation would foster safety;

 

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the San Francisco Democratic Party reaffirms its support for entertainment in San Francisco and urges the Board of Supervisors to hold a hearing on unreasonable fees and regulatory obstacles for entertainment and culture venues and events, focusing on the issues raised above, and to follow the hearing with appropriate actions to address the situation, including passage of the pending legislation, in its current form, empowering the Entertainment Commission to address violence at entertainment venues by suspending or otherwise taking action against such venues, thereby enabling the Entertainment Commission to fulfill its responsibility of ensuring that entertainment in San Francisco is vibrant and safe for participants and surrounding communities;

 

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the San Francisco Democratic Party supports Senator Mark Leno's efforts to negotiate with and, if necessary, reform the ABC to ensure that the ABC is able to enforce the law effectively and ensure public safety while also promoting, rather than impeding, safe and responsible entertainment.

 

Submitted by Scott Wiener and Debra Walker for consideration at the May 14, 2009, meeting of the Democratic County Central Committee