A crowd of over 125 people—musicians, club and bar owners, residents, music fans and business representatives—gathered at Kermit Ruffins’ Treme Speakeasy at noon today to try to address what’s been perceived as an aggressive crackdown on live music clubs. Siberia, the Circle Bar and now Mimi’s in the Marigny (which won Best Small Music Club in last year’s Best of The Beat Awards) have all experienced problems with permits and harassment from police regarding live music. Mimi’s has presented music for at least 10 years but its owner, Mimi Dykes, recently shut down live music herself because she was scared she was not in compliance with the law. Mimi’s is not in a zone that permits live music.

Attendees passionately expressed disapproval of the way the city has handled enforcement of the permits and zoning for businesses that present live music.

The ability to present music first means the place of business must be zoned to present live music (which also in the city ordinance also includes DJs). If the zoning is not appropriate, the business must obtain a “mayoralty permit” and a zoning variance in order to present music and thus be legal.

In fact there are only a couple of areas in the city that are zoned for live music. A moratorium on new live music permits in the French Quarter was put into place about 20 years ago. If one wants to present live music, there has to be a mayoralty permit application and a zoning variance request, which costs business and property owners substantial amounts of money. And there’s no guarantee that permits will be granted.

A live music presenter can be grandfathered in if they can prove there’s been live music in the venue for at least five years. Or if a venue shuts down and reopens, the new operator must be open within six months of the last time the old operator paid taxes in order to qualify to be grandfathered in.

This was ostensibly the problem with Donna’s on North Rampart when it re-opened. Original business owner Donna Poniatowski had shut down the business for over six months prior to new operators re-opening the business.  The new operator did manage to obtain the proper permits. Residents in the area, however, who were responsible for getting the new Donna’s permits for live music revoked, said that the new operator’s music was too loud and that it disrupted their neighborhood. The new Donna’s live music permit was revoked.

Tensions ran high when Scott Hutcheson, the Advisor to the Mayor on the Cultural Economy, discussed the reasoning behind the permitting process and why it was being enforced.  “Our job is government is to permit, protect and enforce,” said Hutcheson. “We want to work with you and hear what you need so that we can take the correct action. We’ve put together a streamlined guide that helps businesses know how to get a permit and how to make sure that they are in compliance.” The guide has not yet been released to the public, but can obtained by emailing the Cultural Economy Office.

An angry member of the audience yelled out “What are you protecting us against, our culture?” Another audience member said: “You are enforcing laws that don’t have anything to do with reality right now. If you’re going to go after making sure that musicians or clubs or street vendors are in compliance, City Hall needs to scale up its efforts so that these people can have a due process before they are shut down. Don’t penalize people for laws that were made in 1952 that aren’t relevant any more.”

Another audience member said: ”You promote the culture in the world in order to beef up our economy, yet you are punishing culture bearers. Get your house in order first. You represent us.  Give us a proposal on how you can get us into compliance.”

Several attendees mentioned that there was enforcement of existing laws was just too aggressive, and was being instituted before a procedure was set up to help get businesses legal. There was also a suggestion that there be an “artists’ council” set up to advise Hutcheson’s office on what needed to be done to be sensitive to music clubs; Hutcheson asserted that there have been several meetings that have taken place to assess community needs (apparently audience members were not aware of these meetings).

Hutcheson also agreed that a moratorium on enforcement needs to be devised to give live music presenters the opportunity to get legal.

Late this afternoon, Mayor Landrieu released this statement regarding live music permits:

“To be clear, no one from the City asked Mimi’s in the Marigny to stop live entertainment.

“I’ve instructed the City’s enforcement agencies to enforce the law fairly and to take a customer-friendly approach.  This means that we offer assistance in securing the appropriate permits to businesses that have been offering live music for years.  In most cases, the City does not need to immediately issue summonses or administrative subpoenas, if a business owner agrees to work actively to secure the required permits.

“To learn how to come into compliance with City law, cultural businesses can contact my Office of Cultural Economy.

“We are a city of music, and we are a city of neighborhoods.  We will work to strike a balance so that they can exist together.”

Cultural businesses can contact the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Economy at 504-658-0907 or by emailing Alison Gavrell at [email protected]. They will email you a copy of the new guidebook on permitting for cultural businesses.