TheAgitator.com
People With Too Much Power
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2003Law school chum Sarah sends this piece on the licensing of theaters (theaters?) from the Chicago Tribune:
Several small, non-profit Chicago theaters still are reeling from a surprise Nov. 21 crackdown by the City of Chicago’s Department of Revenue on venues without the required Public Place of Amusement (PPA) licenses. And at least one of the city’s theaters consequently has given up its home for good……The long-standing city requirement that all venues offering live entertainment for an admission fee have a PPA license appears clear. “Like any other business, theaters cannot operate unless they have the necessary license,” said Bea Reyna-Hickey, the city’s revenue director. “We’re charged with enforcing the municipal code for the safety and welfare of the public.”
Yet some tiny theaters–such as Profiles–have operated for a decade or more without one.
The application process for a PPA typically takes at least 60 days, with a mandatory 30 days for neighborhood comment. For a hand-to-mouth arts group, that’s an eternity. “Storefront theater in Chicago will be gone as we know it if the city doesn’t stop this crazy stuff,” said Daryl W. Cox, of Profiles Theatre. “The process takes forever.”
Timeline Theatre was forced to close its hit production of “The Lion in Winter” three weeks early. “There has been a theater in this space for 45 years,” said P.J. Powers, Timeline’s artistic director. “We were never contacted by anyone. The first time we heard from the city, it was to close us down.”
Reyna-Hickey said the inspectors merely were working their “complaint-related queues” on Nov. 21. “We will do everything we can to work with these theaters,” she said, “but the public would not want to be in any location that’s not up to code.”
If some of these theaters have been in opeartion for 10+ years without a license, it seems to me that the public is pretty darned hunky-dory with watching a play in a theater “not up to code.”
I think business licenses SUCK, but on the other hand, why didn’t they fill out an application BEFORE they started. Sometimes rules SUCK, but you need to follow them while they are in power. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t not try to get them negated.
What’s code? Is it classic paper approval BS?
Sure the public is hunky dory now but when the floor gives way in a crowded theater due to improper strucural engineering, then what? Sure the public is hunky dory now but when someone screams fire and the front exits are locked because people snuck in without paying in years past and people are trampled to death in the back all because Timmy toked up in the back of the balcony, then what?
Unfortuneately, code has become a bad four letter word weilded as a revenue producer by municipalities with the merits of the concept often tossed aside.
In Chicago, this is pretty much par for the course. EVERYTHING must have a license of some sort, and Mayor Daley’s gang has been very active in finding violations and issuing fines. The city needs revenue, after all.
For example, any car registered in the city is supposed to have a Chicago city sticker. They cost $75 a year, and get you nothing. A couple of months ago, the City Clerk got permission from the City Council (by a 44-0 vote) to go into private garages and parking lots to look for cars without stickers and write ‘em tickets.
The Trib article that reports the new initiative (cached at http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:4vkKQv_rp_wJ:www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-031112council,1,5077242.story%3Fcoll%3Dchi-news-hed+chicago+city+sticker+car&hl=en&ie=UTF-8) also casually mentions that they are proposing raising the sticker fee to $90 for SUVs, and will also likely tack on a tax of .25% on restaurant bills. That will be in addition to the 8.75% sales tax we already pay.
It’s crazy.
If no one is amused, do they still need a license ?
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