Monday, December 22, 2008
Nightlife School District Tries to Foist Onerous “Good Neighbor Agreement” on Twilight Exit
Posted by Dominic Holden on Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 4:53 PM
After filing to block the Twilight Exit from opening in a new location on 25th Avenue and East Cherry Street, across the street from Garfield and Nova High Schools, the Seattle school district has made a coercive offer to allow the Central District bar to open—but for only 30 hours a week.
The district’s initial objection, filed with the liquor control board on December 11, would have automatically prevented the bar from opening in its new location (the Twilight is currently on East Madison Street). But Ron English, Seattle Schools Deputy General Counsel, contacted bar owner Stephan Mollmann last Thursday, offering a deal: The school district would withdraw its objection if the Twilight signed a restrictive “good neighbor agreement."
The good neighbor agreement said: “Twilight will not serve alcohol in any portion of the establishment prior to 5:00 p.m. on any day, regardless of whether Garfield or Nova are in session. Alcohol service on all days will cease at 10:00 p.m. No sale of alcohol will take place on Sundays. Persons of all ages will be allowed in the dining portion of the facility at all times.”
“That was not acceptable,” says Mollmann. He told the district that no minors would be allowed into the bar, and he planned to open the Twilight from 4:30 p.m. until 1:30 a.m. seven days a week.
When English called back yesterday, Mollmann says, the district had reversed its position—agreeing to the terms set forth by the bar. “He emailed me and said I’ve been getting a lot of emails and calls, and can you please tell these people we’re talking [about an agreement],” says Mollman. The story was covered in the Stranger and on Central District News.
Mollman is currently redrafting the good neighbor agreement to reflect the business plan already in place—“Its the exact same thing we have been doing for nine years,” Mollman says—and today English agreed to sign it.
But this begs the question*: Why is the school district trying block bars from opening? Under the GNAs (a similar one was pushed on the La Louisiana, which closed, in the same location), it would be impossible for most bars to make enough money—closing at 10:00 p.m.—to stay in business. It’s an unfortunate formula for urban decay around many Seattle schools, which are in blighted neighborhoods and would benefit from good neighbors like the Twilight.
“If the Twilight Exit wasn’t an existing bar with a lot of community support, I doubt I’d be able to open it up,” says Mollmann.
English has not returned calls or email to comment.
* See the comments for our fascinating discussion of this misused idiom.
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Oh yeah, I forgot we're living in a theocracy.
I swear, there are a lot fewer hassles getting a drink in the Bible Belt.
Sorry, you fail. "Begging the question" means "The argument engages in circular reasoning" not "This raises the question." For example, lets say we were arguing about the existance of God. I claim God exists and say
1) This holy book says God exists.
2) Everything in this holy book is true.
3) We know everything in this book is true because God wrote the book.
This argument begs the question because the third statement assumes God exists, the very thing I am trying to prove.
Please remember, ending BTQ abuse ends with you.
grammar police on this, but I do hope that the use of "mute point" at 7 was a pun and/or other gag, or I can't help thinking that this discussion is still from from moot.
Oh yeah, and the School District are being a-holes. He should tell them to pound sand in court, and get em to pay legal fees and damages.
Why are you so worried about a bar next to nova and garfield? Why, when I went to Nova high school me and my fellow underage drinkers never had any problems getting any of the neighborhood bums to purchase us alcohol and cigarettes from either of the mini marts in the neighborhood. I'm sure things are no different now, so why in the world would the students of nova and garfield wait around for two hours after their school day ends to try and huff the booze vapors from the twilights (always well manned, in my experience) door?
In conclusion, you have a lot more to be worried about in the 23rd and Cherry neighborhood than the twilight exit.
Cram It,
A not so concerned seattle school district alumnus
You misspelled existence... which sort of undermines your authority regarding linguistic matters.
And these people are teaching Teh Youth Of America?
We're fucking doomed...
Of course the Twilight would not pose a threat to minors by opening at this location-it should be allowed to do so. However, I don't share the same burning need for it, there are plenty of bars in the CD (Meskel and Ras Dashen are on the same street, Thompson's, Waid's, Mesob, and Hidmo are all nearby - why are we not counting those?)
As for good neighbor agreements, these tactics are commonplace, this is the just the first time in recent memory that the bar in question is primarily patronized by white people. GNAs are often used to shut down long-running establishments at the will of new area residents. The pattern is roughly: white people move in, start an online community that claims to be "the community," they're generally scared of black people so they complain and get help from the SPD or the Seattle Neighborhood Group and organize to force law-abiding business to sign the same kind of restrictive GNA's that the Twilight was faced with. Either the business signs something it cannot enforce in the long run and the slightest infraction is used to close it down. Or, if the business refuses to sign, they are labeled as a "bad neighbor," and come under even more scrutiny.
After the owners of Hidmo, a major cultural hub in the CD did not sign such an agreement, they were told directly by SPD, "we are going to try to shut you down." Luckily after some of the condo owners who instigated the shitstorm actually went inside Hidmo, met people and realized it isn't scary, they backed off and since then things have gotten better from what I hear. Hidmo is one of few places that is actually doing something to empower the marginalized youth in the neighborhood, but that's another topic...
But back to the Twilight, I hope they open, and I hope that there is as much outrage on the CD News and SLOG the next time another locally run business is muscled into a GNA. Rumor has it the folks who run the corner store at 28th and Jackson are in the same predicament even though they have no liquor violations... But it's not a hipster or yuppie joint so I doubt they'll get much support from the stranger or the CD news... I was never worried that the Twilight would actually be prohibited from opening-it's got the support of those that the city listens to. Now, will Thompson's be able to survive the paranoid eye of it's neighbors... I sure hope so.
The world is full of quarrels, feuds and wars.
Why introduce a subject-verb disagreement, Mr. Holden? What is wrong with "As were 'intensive purposes,' 'baited breath' and 'could care less'"?
Strangercrombie should have offered the grammar doms among us a chance to school the writers. Treehouse would have cleaned up. Are there no English usage books at the Hugo Library?
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