BY LAUREN GILL | Everybody cut footloose!
Dance fans are boogieing across the boroughs following the City Council’s Tuesday vote to repeal a Prohibition-era law that banned dancing in establishments — including bars and restaurants — without a special license.
Opponents of the statute said it’s about time the legislation — which many alleged is discriminatory — is abolished, so that they and other beat lovers can get down in peace.
“The authoritarian and racist cabaret law has terrorized New York City culture for almost a century. Today, that comes to an end,” said representatives for the Dance Liberation Network, an activist group that led the repeal effort. “See you on the dance floor.”
Bushwick Councilmember Rafael Espinal introduced a bill to scrap the 1926 law in June, arguing that officials put it in place to shut down black jazz clubs of that era and that the measure has been used as a way to discriminate against minorities ever since.
Opponents also charged the law provided authorities with a way to unfairly target small businesses by conducting surprise raids, which resulted in fines that drained the nightlife establishments’ finances.
Now that the City Council has voted to abolish the law, the bill will go before Mayor Bill de Blasio, who upon signing it, will do away with the legislation for good.
Hizzoner voiced his support for repealing the statute in September, on the condition that nightlife businesses install surveillance cameras and ensure that security personnel is licensed.
Activists who fought to scrap the legislation cheered its imminent abolition, claiming the city’s after-hours industry will grow even more diverse when the cabaret law is no more.
“This long-overdue repeal decriminalizes a fundamental cultural expression, and puts an end to the absurdity of an effective city ban on social dancing,” said representatives for the New York City Artists Coalition, another pro-repeal group. “It is a very positive step toward a vibrant, safer and more inclusive cultural nightlife.”
The law was used frequently by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the 1990s to crack down on nightclubs suspected of promoting or allowing drug use, The New York Times pointed out. Back then, as reported by The Villager, the city notably unsuccessfully tried to prevent Limelight operator Peter Gatien from regaining his cabaret license to keep him from reopening. A judge ruled the city was unfairly discriminating against Gatien.
According to the Times, only 97 out of roughly 25,000 eating and drinking establishments in the city have a cabaret license, which is difficult and costly to obtain.
The repeal will take effect one month after the mayor signs it into law.
A downside of the law’s repeal in nightlife-heavy Downtown Manhattan is that it will lead to a slew of noise complaints by neighboring residents. An argument in favor of the cabaret law was that it restricted dance clubs to areas that are zoned for commercial manufacturing — as in, not heavily residential.
