Whew. Phew. That Was Fast

Hi Chicago!

The Promoter Ordinance that I just mentioned earlier today has been pulled from the table. Thanks to lots of concerned citizens andTONS of letters going to local aldermen. As of right now, the main site, SaveChicagoCulture had this to say:

WE DID IT!!! THE ORDINANCE HAS BEEN PULLED!!!!
I’ll get the details and post them ASAP.
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO RESPONDED SO QUICKLY AND PASSIONATELY ABOUT THIS ORDINANCE, AND PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. WE’VE SAVED CHICAGO’S CULTURE!!!

As of now there's 5,700 comments on the S.C.C. blog. So, yeah. Are they excited or what? Thank's all for now, but remember the ordinance is going back to committee, and may get adressed in another month or so, so keep your eyes peeled. Jim DeRo's got more thoughts about it, check out is just-updated blog post here.

Made aware of concerns in many corners of Chicago's arts communities, Schulter asked DBA for more facts and figures about the alleged "problem venues" and "underground promoters" that the ordinance was designed to curtail. Some of those who attended the meeting said DBA had to admit that it had no hard information and that it has not formally studied the extent of the alleged problem that the law was crafted to address; they had only the anecdotal evidence of the single tragic incident at the E2 Nightclub five years ago.

Ouch. Well, let's hope this can facilitate an open-forum type discussion among the committe and the city's reputable venue owner/operators. Check out Chicago Tonight tonight (WTTW) at 7pm to see a roundtable about this. Huzzah, etc.

-B