Why does this World Class City...
 

only have 5 jazz venues on the calendar? http://vancouverjazz.com/webcalendar/

I'd really appreciate any input at all as I'm about to make a presentation to Council to try and have some of the remaining absurd regulations removed. I'm also approaching Gordon Campbell as he runs the Liquor Board. With both Elections and Olympics coming up this may be a good time to try and have some of the current and archaic restrictions removed.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks

1. Fining venues because a performer has a beverage on the stand while 6' away up to 150 patrons/spectators are drinking is absurd.

2. Permitting venues to remain open until 1am or later. Municipal staff have proposed this only to have it voted down by council.

3. Do not harass music venues when malicious reports about noise are repeatedly reported by the same person.

4. Stop entertaining complaints by apartment owners who knowingly rent or buy accommodation in the vicinity of an established Class 1 or Class 2 licensed property and subsequently complain.

5. Do not entertain noise complaints about venues with acoustic music or with an amplified acoustic/standup bass.

6. Do not fine musicians or the establishments where they are playing when said musicians have a refreshment on the stage with them. I have yet to see this happen at The Orpheum.

7. Facilitate the granting of music and dancing permits. There are 50 + dance studios in town but very, very few places for the students to dance to live music.

8. Do not threaten license holders with removal of their license other than as a last resort. Even drunk drivers don't lose their livelihood when exceeding the limit.

9. Remove noise regulations from acoustic venues with a microphone/vocalist. (It isn't possible for them to exceed 70dB)

10. Annul the 2 performer limit - others should be permitted to sit in.

11. I have heard that a few years ago a downtown venue with a classical trio was closed because of noise. Any info welcomed.

11. Establish special venue permits for music students to hone their skills.

12. Revisit the Neighborhood Pub concept. It is a misnomer. It has become the Neighborhood Sports Bar where one has to shout above multiple televisions on multiple channels.

13. Stop responding to 911 calls about noise. Police should be tracking guys with guns.

14. Stop responding to malicious complaints from neighboring establishments who are losing business to a music venue.

15. Failing all else insist on venues having Sound Level Recorders in place. eg
(http://www.cesva.com/prod/?lang=eng&...t&subpag=RS-60). This will allow venues to self monitor.

16. Allow children accompanied by parents to visit venues with live music. (INITIALLY YOU ARE WHAT YOU LISTEN TO). My High School students were barred from going to hear both Oscar Peterson and the MJQ at the Plaza in the 80s. The regulation is still in force. Subsequently at the Hot Jazz Club it wasn't enough that I told the Liquor Board the bar would be closed. They wanted it to be boarded up!!

Examine why the Province (via the Liquor Board) and City are so intolerant of public gathering places featuring Performing Arts.

Once I have written the Petitions, (one for City and one for Province and with VANOC and very wide media distribution) I'll post them here and I would encourage you to RIGHTCLICK the url and SEND TO MAIL RECIPIENT so that they can be disseminated as widely as possible. It is important to recognize that both levels of government will only be responsive to petitions sent by SNAILMAIL.

Vancouver is the least fun city I have ever been to or lived in.

I should clarify that I am referring strictly to how uptight Vancouver is with it's drinking regulations etc.

Depends on what your idea of "fun" is. If it's pretty much confined to sailing, skiing and shopping in high end boutique-type stores, it's a great place to be.

Unfortunately the stuff I'm interested in is pretty thin on the ground, and the powers that be seem endlessly and energetically determined to make it even thinner.

gmilne wrote:
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Allow students accompanied by adults to attend live music performances.
One of the objectives of the Vernon Jazz Club is to promote interest in jazz to youngsters, but they are not allowed to come to the Club. The Vernon Jazz Club has never had a complaint about noise; has never had any drunks, has never had a fight, has never had to evict a patron........why shouldn't reputable establishments be allowed to have young people attend live music concerts?????? We wanted to set aside a separate area for young people, where no alcohol would be served, but weren't even allowed to do that.

As Terry Deane and everyone else knows the liquor laws here are abominable and backward. They are the reason why we have so much aberant behaviour in our wonderful downtown entertainment center on Granville Street. When I was a kid in Montreal and I'm talking about when I was 9 and 10 years old, my dad would take me to hockey games at the old Forum and sometimes he would stop in a local tavern, close to the Forum and have a beer or a drink. I went in with him and had a Coke or Seven Up...there was never a legal problem with that and this was in the 50's....but then, the liquor laws in Quebec have always been more relaxed and to this day there is far less rowdiness and bad behaviour there than in Vancouver and elsewhere in B.C.
Vancouver needs to get into the 21st Century now!

In 1989 when I was back in Wpg for a visit kids could accompany parents/adults into "Cabaret's" ... the dining and entertainment category mix (whatever) allowed that. Is there no such category in BC?

The Cabaret was a dining room, had a dance floor and band and people were there sh&tfaced drinking and dancing like any nightclub, not dining. Not a place I would ever take my kid in again!!! But that kind of place/category would make room for young students to attend performances ???

Just a thought from the peanut gallery here http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo..../ubb/wink.gif

Theater license, but no Cabaret license as required for dancing?

Here's a cut-and-paste of a post I put up on the "Vancouver" Live Journal community back in 2004. Considering all the promises (then) newly-elected mayor Larry Campbell made regarding modernizing Vancouver's antideluvian liquor laws and stulifying live music regs, it's surprising (and depressing) how little has changed in 4-plus years.

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"New Orleans has a lot of problems that Vancouver thankfully doesn't have (gun violence, poverty on a scale unimaginable in Canada)"

Are you serious?

Absolutely.

I'm not saying there's no poverty or gun violence, or that you should be complacent about what you do have, but honestly, what's the annual homicide rate in Vancouver, about 30? That's in a city of 2.2 million people man. A per 100,000 rate of maybe 5 killings.

The New Orleans rate is 70 per 100,000.

Poverty, same thing, no comparison. It's hard being poor anywhere of course, but it really sucks in America.

Here you go.

Wikipedia's "Crime In Canada" entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Canada


the 2007 murder total for the entire country
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I wonder if the Bacon brothers will catch swine flu.

Terry Deane wrote:

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Where do you get your numbers from? My research says that Vancouver had 55 murders in 2008 and there were 88 murders in BC. Those number are from CBC. Did you not notice all the homeless and junkies when you were at Hastings and Main? The population of Vancouver in 2006 was about 600,000. It is 2.2 million if you include Burnaby, New West, Coquitlam, Surrey and Langley. But honestly, does anyone think of Langley as part of Vancouver?

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You can click my links to see where my figures are coming from.

Some of the disparity is doubtless arising from the difference in population between 'metro' or 'greater' Vancouver and Vancouver proper. People manipulate these figures in different ways. The Vancouver Chamber of Commerce types sometimes create errors of omission by taking the Vancouver proper homicide figure (in 2007 it was 18 murders) and saying something like "a city of 2.2 million that recorded only 18 homicides last year" when clearly this is horse hockey. Then there's the 'sky is falling' set who talk about "55 murders in Vancouver" (your figure) as if every single one of those killings had happened in the city proper.

So, just to be clear, the city of Vancouver, with a population of, as you correctly point out, around 600,000, had 18 homicides in 2007. The figures I quoted listing 20 murders so far this year are for the entire metropolitan region of 2.2 million.

People manipulate these figures for different reasons; the Vancouver boosters to make the city seem safer than it actually is, and the cable news gasbags to make it look like dodge City, in the service of tittilating their pornoviolence-addicted audience. As Mark Twain famously said, "there are lies, damned lies, and statistics."



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