Seattle Licensing - NON-EXISTANT

[Josh Atkins]

So I just did some serious reading about Seattle's live entertainment
licensing and the funny thing is IT DOESNT EXIST. This is a big deal
in my opinion since it seems S.R-B. and the council haven't even done
their homework.

It was proposed by the Mayor in 2006 and faced considerable backlash
from the entertainment businesses. The proposal included $300 yearly
fee, a 9 member board representing the community, and applied to ALL
bars and restaurants that were open after 10pm. In my opinion these
are far better and clearer suggestions than what is being proposed to
Baltimore.

The City Council in Seattle then took the suggestion, deleted the
licensing idea, and suggested a number of improvements to the city's
enforcement of existing laws (i.e. police patrolling at night watching
for noise / nuisance violations).

The Mayor then VETOED the City Council's proposal saying it was a
waste because it wasn't strict enough. He then did a complete 180 in
October of last year and looked at Austin, TX. He created a music
commission and a 12-year plan to help bring more musicians and
entertainers to Seattle. In this initiative he REPEALED THE 5%
ADMISSIONS TAX!

FYI: all this info was gathered from the http://www.seattlenma.org/
website links to news articles.

WTF,
Josh

--
Joshua Atkins
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Johns Hopkins University
Wyman Park Building 157
3400 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
(410) 516-6150

[Keri Anne Griffith]

Rock. Way to go with the research, Josh!!

How do we point this out to S R-B & the rest of the Council???

Keri

Sent from my iPhone

[Geoff Graham]

Josh,

Way to beat the council at their own game!
We definitely need to bring this up tonight. No question. Josh are you planning to attend the meeting? If so I think you should try and raise these points as you did the research.

If not, anyone else want to try and bring this issue up?

-Geoff

[Josh Atkins]

I am on the speaking list from the last meeting. I will definitely be
at the meeting tonight and I will speak about Seattle in the most
diplomatic way possible if they call me this time.

Maybe others who know about different cities (San Fran, etc.) could
speak about differences there as well since it appears the council
really is clueless.

Josh

[Aaron Stevenson]

Pretty sharp, indeed. "Nice", to coin a phrase. Still, the CC may feel that Baltimore faces unique challenges in its nightlife administration. I sincerely hope that both comparisons to other cities and proposed amendments are effective, though I'd think alternative options might still be considered.

 

Aaron

[Richard]

Great work! Were you able to ask about this last night?

On Apr 16, 2:10 pm, Josh Atkins <joshatk...@gmail.com> wrote:
> So I just did some serious reading about Seattle's live entertainment
> licensing and the funny thing is IT DOESNT EXIST.  This is a big deal
> in my opinion since it seems S.R-B. and the council haven't even done
> their homework.
>
> It was proposed by the Mayor in 2006 and faced considerable backlash
> from the entertainment businesses.  The proposal included $300 yearly
> fee, a 9 member board representing the community, and applied to ALL
> bars and restaurants that were open after 10pm.  In my opinion these
> are far better and clearer suggestions than what is being proposed to
> Baltimore.
>
> The City Council in Seattle then took the suggestion, deleted the
> licensing idea, and suggested a number of improvements to the city's
> enforcement of existing laws (i.e. police patrolling at night watching
> for noise / nuisance violations).
>
> The Mayor then VETOED the City Council's proposal saying it was a
> waste because it wasn't strict enough.  He then did a complete 180 in
> October of last year and looked at Austin, TX.  He created a music
> commission and a 12-year plan to help bring more musicians and
> entertainers to Seattle.  In this initiative he REPEALED THE 5%
> ADMISSIONS TAX!
>

> FYI: all this info was gathered from thehttp://www.seattlenma.org/