June 6, 2007
Underage Clubs Restrictions Tabled by Council
One piece of news you might have missed this morning is that Jim Graham's (D-Ward 1) crusade against allowing minor patrons to attend concerts in venues where alcohol is sold has been put off by the D.C. Council. The bill, which was was tabled yesterday after little discussion, has been a frequent topic of ours and our commenters. We even had a few local music luminaries chime in to tell us why Graham's legislation, which grew out of reaction to the accidental fatal shooting of 17-year-old Taleshia Ford at Club 1919, was a bad idea.
It's not too surprising that the bill didn't move forward, considering the outcome of the hearing on the issue made it pretty clear that an outright ban on minors didn't have community support. Graham quickly backpedaled and sent out an email saying he would rethink his proposed restrictions and focus on establishing rules on security at nightclubs that admit minors and perhaps create a new class of liquor licenses for all-ages venues. The bill as currently written would have prevented people under 18 from entering nightclubs that serve alcohol after 11 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on weekends, except in July and August, when the curfew would be midnight every day.
Graham will now have the option to rework the bill into something that might be more palatable, but the Council's action yesterday does make it seem as though underage concerts in D.C. are no longer in any danger.
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thank goodness.
that's good news. DC minors after all invented what is practically a national (if not global, don't know) rule at all-age clubs with the marked hands. Sure a couple of clubs in DC have crime in them, but the majority are whats keeping kids out of trouble. You can either drown out your sorrows with a good time at a concert, or with booze and drugs. God knows if i had to sit at home instead of going to shows when i was young i'd need a new liver by now.
Plenty of other cities have limits on minors in clubs without seeing spikes in crime. Allowing 16-yr-olds in an environment that is saturated with alcohol makes no sense.
I know that a lot of people against the ban were probably blown away by a Fugazi show when they were 14, but good memories don't make good law. Underage shows and clubs should not have alcohol if they want the business of high schoolers.
Another smackdown to Graham. Not that he cares. His legislation was crap. All he cared about was the public image of him "doing something." He's shameless.
People under 18 should NOT be allowed in clubs...period. Most clubs operate legally. You know how to stop underage drinkinging in clubs? Make it so that kids that show fake IDs or under 21 patrons that are caught drinking inside a club get punished somehow. Maybe a fine or points on their driving record??? It's messed up if an underage person is caught drinkign in the club (ie. a person over 21 sneaks them a drink). The club can lose the liquor license...but the underage person has nothing happen to them.