No Alcohol Dancing @ 1062 Granville Street
A fellow who operates or operated a non-alcohol, after hours dance club at 695 Smithe Street wants to open a new one at 1062 Granville Street. It would have a capacity of 300 people.
Vancouver City Council is going to consider the application on February 28th and city staff are advsing that council not approve the application.
Read the city staff report: 1062 Granville Dance Hall
Assuming the police issues in the report can be addressed along with a successful public development permit process, I think Council should approve the application.
After reading the February 11th city staff report regarding this application I think it would be interesting to know why this club is being proposed.
Is it because the operator outgrew his previous location on Smithe Street?
If the operation on Smithe Street was successful and has simply outgrown capacity I can think of worse ways for 300 people to spend their time instead of dancing for a few hours, working off some of the liquor they have consumed occupying some of the 4926 drinking chairs within the area.
Oddly enough I read on page 2 of the report that nightclubs once again have to close at 2A. I thought the police were having so many problems on Granville Street because of the extended drinking hours brought in a few years ago. If Vancouver has gone back to the 2A closing time why are the police still having so many problems we keep hearing about?
I suppose one reason is because of the increased number of clubs in the 3 block Granville entertainment zone. Everyone (including me) thought this was a cool idea originally but clearly its not working out.
Having another venue for all the extra people to go to after 2A, in my view, can only be a good thing. Otherwise they just wander around and hang out causing the problems the police are trying to prevent.
I would think that if the same standards were applied to the no alcohol club as the drinking clubs there would actually be fewer problems, not more.
I’m not sure when the buses stop running in the area but I know there are more routes operating at 5 or 6A than at 2 or 3A.
Having another place to go at 2A to dance off some excess energy is better than wandering through the new eco-friendly neighbourhoods in the area I think.
Unless urinating on the new residential bushes is healthy for the environment?
Dance on Vancouver!
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March 19 2008 UPDATE: Well, after a false start by the owner, the council hearing to decide if this no-alcohol dance club would be allowed to operate finally went ahead last March 13th. The hearing went on for 90 minutes and it was very entertaining. Lots of drama with twists and turns. Although I could not see the owner of the club when he was not at the podium speaking, I could imagine him sitting, listening - hanging on every word, squirming in his seat, anxious to hear what the final outcome would be! Councillors changed their minds during the course of the meeting, just when a councillor seemed on board with the idea he would ask a question that gave the impression he was changing his mind. I think one of the major reasons city council decided to grant this club a licence is because the revenue from the club will help the building owner realize a profit for a building that is a designated Single Room Occupancy Hotel. The owner of the dance club, Jasper Morgan, was an effective speaker for the club but after 90 minutes made some contradictory statements within a 2 minute period, first saying that his club would not make a dent in keeping drunk drivers off the streets, then said it would. He also agreed early on to reduce his requested occupancy limit from 300 people to 200 people. As time went on it was clear Mr Morgan would agree to whatever conditions council wanted so long as they were going to grant him his licence! In the end there are a lot of conditions. More so then for a club that serves liquor. One condition is that there be no outside line up. Mr Morgan said that there is space inside for 70 people, down along the stairwell that leads to the dance floor in the basement. How are they going to prevent people from lining up outside once the line up inside gets too long? Regardless, in a remarkable show of common sense and civility, Vancouver City Council voted across party lines 7 to 3 in favour of granting the licence and I think its a great step. Hopefully Jasper Morgan will make sure the club operates in the respectful manner that he insists it will. You can watch the video of the council licence hearing at the following link: |