News Flash: All-Ages Dance Venue VERA, Doesn’t Have All-Ages Dance License. News Flash: Duh. It’s Exempt
In the wake of the Seattle Times’s editorial-page push to stigmatize teen dances as somehow culpable for the March 25 murders on Capitol Hill, some nanny-staters are reportedly trying to make something out of the fact that VERA—a premiere teen concert venue in town—doesn’t have an All-Ages Dance Ordinance license.
It’s true. VERA doesn’t have an AADO license. That sounds like a big deal, but it isn’t. VERA doesn’t meet the criteria that requires venues to get AADO licenses. For starters, it puts on concerts, not dances. That makes VERA exempt right off the bat. Furthermore, AADO licenses are intended for venues and promoters that need to come in line with code and security requirements. VERA is already in compliance with those standards.
In short, city-funded VERA, a non-profit educational and entertainment venue for teens, was established to serve teens. AADO licenses are meant to make private promoters meet safety standards they might otherwise be overlooking.
The city, having vetted VERA, is awarding the venue $350,000 tomorrow to help the teen Mecca move into its new digs at Seattle Center.
Who are the "nanny-staters" and how are they "trying to make something?" That's pretty vague. Fuck them, by all means. Just saying it's vague.
As a lifelong musician, an ex-concert promoter and a proponent of the arts' enriching effect on life, I would gladly watch these efforts fail.