Associated Press – May 19, 2007:
Thousands of demonstrators shimmied down Broadway in the rain Saturday in an extravagant, ecstatic protest against the city’s 80-year-old cabaret laws, which ban dancing in eating and drinking establishments that lack special licenses.
New York’s restrictive dance laws have been on the books since 1926, at the height of the Jazz Age, when they were passed in part to stop interracial public dancing while enforcing a Prohibition-era definition of “public lewdness.”
To this day in New York’s five boroughs, it is illegal to get up and move your body to a rhythm in any locale where three or more people congregate and food or drink is served — unless the business obtains a dance license.
I immediately thought of that movie Hairspray when I read this
1. Or a gay multiracial version of Footloose.
I wish OUR lawmakers would PLEASE look at the laws, and FIX the old ones…
CLEAN up the messes..
#1, how about
FAME !!!
I’m going to live for ever,…
They don’t want to fix this law. Giuliani enforced it when he was mayor. The police would use this law as a means to close bars and clubs that they considered undesirable. They would also close a bar if they saw one person smoking a joint.
I was in a bar in the East Village (called Nation) when the police kicked everyone out and padlocked the door. An undercover policeman had seen someone dancing. In other words, the owner didn’t pay off the cops that month.
This looks like something Washington should jump on set NY on the straight and narrow!!!!
I’m no party animal. But, I do live in NYC and dave’s account is the first I’ve heard of this being enforced. Normally our cops have more important things to do … like shooting unarmed civilians.
However, this does make a point for one of my ideas from long ago. All laws should be passed with expiration dates. If they’re good, they’ll be renewed; if not, good riddance. I’d set an upper limit for the expiration date at something like 25 or 50 years.
I bet that’s a Christian law.
Many bars will just pay the fine if a undercover cop sees people dancing. So the patrons may not even know what’s happening.
I’ve been in bars when the bouncer will go around and tell people to stop if they are dancing.
#9 – No. Christians would never use the law to enforce their narrow views onto others. /end sarcasm
Why would New York try to stop interracial dancing after they fought the civil war to free the slaves. Unless they were/are actually just as racist as the South and had some other reason to fight that war. Hmmm…..
#12, of course most yankees were not in favor of the abolition movement… all those newly freed blacks who moved up north would be competing for the same jobs for most likely less money, and price the whites out of work. Hmm… I’m sure the smart ones among us can see some parallels with our situation today.
I think people who want to dance at any age should be able to its a free country I enjoy dancing myself why not get payed for sumthing u r good at ? The should lower the legal dancing age to 16