Update
Okay here’s the latest, preceded by a short synopsis of how this came to pass:
Saturday night (a week ago) we got visited by the Alcholic Beverage Action Team of the Oakland Police Dept. They have a history of shutting down venues. I think that is one of their main duties. They weren’t even there to visit us. They were looking into the restaurant/bar next door, and we just happened to be next door and having a show, and they entered the building while the bands were finishing loading out. They saw empty beer bottles and our donation jar and cooler.
It took until Tuesday to figure out how serious it was. We’ve had cops come by before, but none have threatened to shut us down before. This dude was doing that, and bandying about the phrase “public nuisance.” So we’re seriously trying to get legal with the city and not get busted.
Right now the situation is:
No alcohol at 21 Grand. No live music shows at 21 Grand. I got the Fire inspector to agree to let us have shows Thursday, Saturday, and Tuesday. He would only allow 49 people. But then no shows. Not until we get a building inspection and a zoning clearance (which involves getting a conditional use permit that costs $1917 – we’ve raised enough money to pay for that).
That is the decree of the Fire Inspector. OPD that issues special events permits are cool with us (so far) and the City Administrator that issues cabaret permits is cool with us. They’re willing to give us regular special events permits for shows as long as we diligently work to get our cabaret permit. We actually would only need to make a few minor corrections to meet fire code for a special event permit for 100 people, but because we’ve done the building out that we’ve done without permits – the Fire Inspector doesn’t want to sign off on something that’s someone else’s department – so now it’s 21 Grand vs. the Building department.
We’re hoping to get some one in the building department to come down and say, this place might not be up to code for a cabaret permit, but it’s okay for a special event. We don’t know if we can do this. We don’t know how soon. I think the guy that can do this is on vacation, and the other guy doesn’t even know where the guy on vacation keeps the informational forms about it or if they’re out of forms.
Basically, every show after Tuesday for the month of December is being cancelled or moved to another venue. I might have to do this for January. I should know more next week.
Even if we get the temporary stay, and can resume doing shows with special events permits, we will eventually need to get the place legal for a cabaret permit, and that might majorly suck in terms of time and expense and possible modifications. We don’t know.
We want to present shows other places while we can’t do them at 21 Grand, and are willing to staff, bring our equipment, clean up, and do the patented 21 Grand cat-herding and door-admission diligence. We are up for trying to get special events permits through using our non-profit status at other places. We also want to, uh, organize benefit shows for ourselves to help us raise the money to pay for all this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Any further questions?
sl