And this has what to do with living in DC?
The folks at the DC Nightlife Coalition (www.dcnc.org) are at it again, pissing off the Logan Circle folks. I belong to the not so active (compared to other lists) Logan Circle community listserv, and the DCNC have put a few posts that have attacted the ire of some Logan Circle residents on the list. News release titles such as “Anti-Nightlife Fanatics Disconnect With Rest Of City” (DCNC) ain’t gonna win you any friends in the neighborhood.
I remember first hearing about DCNC from my Swing dance group. But the thing is there is not a whole lotta love between bars and swing dancers because a) swing dancers are cheap; b) swing dancers don’t really drink; c) swing dancers will bitch about the floor and being charged for water; d) if you are a bar you are not going to make squat directly off the dancers, maybe off of the people watching the dancers, but not the dancers. A lot of the people in my swing dance calling for Jack Evans’ (Ward 2 Commissioner) head were suburbanites, people who I knew lived in Rockville, Alexandria, in other words not DC. There were two folks of the whole group who lived in the city and one of them made his living off of the nightlife.
I took a look at the DCNC website and saw a call to a January meeting:
Thursday, January 16th 2003
Committee for a Living DC Meeting.
Location: Black Cat, 1811 14th Street NW
Time: 2:00 PM
DCNC officers will be attending this meeting. The agenda will cover the status of a proposed DC statutory amendment to protect music and nightlife, status of the Committee for a Living DC amendments to the liquor license regulations, status of the public hall amendment to the liquor license regulations, plans for reigning in so-called “voluntary” agreements, and publicity efforts to draw media attention to nightlife issues in DC.
Now it is called a living in DC meeting, and I don’t see what aspect of LIVING in DC is addressed. From what I have seen their thing is preserving nighlife culture, fair enough, there should be nightlife. However, I gotta live here. I want to be able to sleep and not get woken up in the middle of the night by club goers getting out at 2AM, or traffic. If I had a car I wouldn’t appreciate having to compete against some suburanite with MD tags, who doesn’t have to pay a commuter tax, for a parking space. The nightlife is great for suburbanites (some of my closest friends are suburbanites) because they can come in, party and then leave. In some ways it is good for the city coffers with sales and revenue. Some businesses are good for residents in that they are places where you can go to unwind, hang with your friends and socialize. But not all businesses. Some businesses are bad neighbors, who blast music during schoolnights when you have to get up the next day to go to work. Yes there are noise regulations, but many a neighbor could tell of times when the police come, noise goes down, later noise goes back up, police may or may not respond, sleep already ruined. And let me say, base, that deep thump, thump, goes through walls and no earplug can lessen it because it is a vibration.
Some clubs and residential areas do not go together. Quick, name some nice neighborhoods you, your parents and your married friends would want to live in? There are neigborhoods that can cater to young people and a young population. What about people who are older and whose going out 1, 2, 3 times a week are behind them? What kind of neighborhoods for them? Why?