Calling Kevin Bacon! We need some Footloose-style shakeups in
our town because … did you know it’s illegal to dance in
Gilroy?
Calling Kevin Bacon! We need some Footloose-style shakeups in our town because … did you know it’s illegal to dance in Gilroy?
That’s right; you need a dance hall permit to get crunkin’. This municipal code ordinance dates to the 1990s, according to downtown advocate and business owner Gary Walton, thanks to fighting and drunken displays at clubs in that era.
“Instead of dealing with the issue at hand, typical for government they said, ‘Let’s regulate this in the hopes it will bump this,” he said in a recent phone interview.
“How do you stop people from expressing themselves?” he asked. “I don’t want to be the dance police.”
Along with a few others, Walton is doing his best to decriminalize the evil trangression. They want to modify, not repeal, the ordinance, so that if dancing is incidental to a public event, rather than its overall purpose, it would be legal. He points out that ostensibly Fifth Street Live could be shut down if music moved people to dance.
I first learned of the dangers of dance at a recent meeting of the Gilroy Downtown Appreciation Group, where Walton raised the scenario of a few people getting up to dance during one of the live music sessions at Sue’s Coffee … and wham! Behind bars for a little spontaneous jiving.
“You can buy pot here, but you can’t dance,” said business owner Brad Jones, getting a big laugh.
The downtown group meets sporadically at Sue’s Coffee. Originating as a Facebook group, it has met in person a handful of times, starting back in May 2009.
Walton and Sue’s Coffee owner Sue Shalit originally formed the group as an “informal merchant brainstorming session,” says Walton, “to flesh out issues and opportunities for downtown.” At the meeting, Shalit spoke of experiencing a sense of alienation from the already-existing Gilroy Downtown Business Association.
“Many merchants aren’t aware of the downtown association,” said Shalit. “The website was broken at the time and there was no flow of information, so I went on Facebook and started this.”
Mayor Al Pinheiro attended the Jan. 27 meeting, saying affably enough, “The more groups we form, the more diluted we end up. I’d love to understand what’s the purpose of this group.”
Garlic City Books co-owners Brad Jones and Cinda Meister chimed in to report how Morgan Hill’s downtown association was driven by property interests and so merchants started their own committee, reporting back to the association. “It’s still tenuous but seems to have worked better,” said Jones.
Eric Howard, president of the DBA, talked of how volunteer efforts spread across a small pool of long-time workers lead to burnout, and he encouraged those present to join forces with the larger group.
“It behooves you to make sure your voice is heard,” said Pinheiro. “There is that organization (the DBA) you should be part of. They had a hell of a time getting board members.”
Everyone present agreed that, at the least, the downtown merchants should get to know each other to form a protective alliance. Howard talked of creating a “merchant mixer.”
But all that is for naught if merchants can’t dance. (By the way, the Rio Nilo club was grandfathered into the ordinance). Walton has researched other cities forbidding dance, and outside of Afghanistan, he was hard-pressed to find any. New York has anti-cabaret laws from the 1920s, he said, but prior to Guiliani, no one cared.
In typical humorous fashion, he pointed out the foolishness of the ordinance as a way of deterring violence: “Have you ever heard someone say, ‘I’m just so mad I’m gonna dance?'”
Speaking of having fun downtown, Brad Jones talked about how Gilroy’s comedy nights at the Gaslighter need to be better attended. The very same acts performing in Morgan Hill the night after their Gilroy performances draw close to 200 people … versus a typical 10 in Gilroy. It’s a full house in Morgan Hill, and apparently they laugh. Why not in Gilroy, too?
The next show is Wednesday, Feb. 24 with three comedians who have collective experience performing at such famous venues as the Laugh Factory, The Comedy Store, Cobbs, Gotham and Caroline’s.
Driving home after the meeting, I realized I had missed my chance to shake a little booty and get arrested. Ah well. There’s always next time.
Erika Mailman is the author of The Witch’s Trinity, an historical novel named a Notable Book by the San Francisco Chronicle. You can reach her through www.erikamailman.com. Visit www.gilroycomedy.com for more info on the Feb. 24 performance.
