City Don’t Do It, Greg. Keep All-Ages Dances Legal.
Once the editorials start piling up (“all-ages dances lead to shootings, outlaw all-ages dances!”), Mayor Nickels is going to seize the law-and-order moment and send an ordinance to council cracking down on teen dance culture.
Don’t take the bait, Greg. (And just to be clear: Electronica dances, like the one at CHAC on Friday night, were legal even before the TDO was repealed.)
But really, the fact is, if teen dances were prohibited, there’d be more opportunities for bad things to happen to teens, not fewer. There were nearly 300 kids at CHAC on Friday night. No fights. No trouble. If teens couldn’t go to a club like that, they’d go somewhere else (oh, like a small private house party). The CHAC event was being staffed by 19 security guards. That’s the kind of place parents should want their kids to be on a Friday night.
Without those kinds of events, we’d see more unregulated situations like the party at 21st and Republican.
Saturday morning’s tragedy at a private home just highlights the need for more (not less) public, and regulated events catering to teens—like the all-ages show at CHAC.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for saying it, Josh. This is exactly what could happen, and what we need to make sure doesn't happen.