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The Skewed Review Editor's Reminder: The views expressed
here are those of Matthew James Jacobson, and not of any
other person, place or thing. This is commentary on local
news and was not influenced by any person from the St.
George City Council, GoGo 37, KTIM, Dixie Sun, or any
other party that suspicious people may think are involved.
Matty's views are his own and is not monetarily or
otherwise compensated in any way, shape or form for
articles that may favor certain local businesses. Matty
can be reached via email here. Please include "The Skewed
Review" in the subject line to avoid having messages
automatically deleted. Amen.
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It's never fun to attend a funeral, but at least one southern Utah business is trying to make it worth your while.
GoGo 37 is (or rather, was) a St. George art gallery and concert venue. They were known for three things: Bringing awesome bands to St. George's downtown area, feature work from local artists, and running the risk of being shut down at any event because of an antiquated (and frankly, baseless) ordinance that prohibits people from dancing.
If you happen to be from anywhere other than Utah, this might sound like some ridiculous movie plot. Wait a minute, there was that one flick--actually filmed in Utah--that dealt with that exact same topic.
One can't help but wonder if St. George, Utah, was the inspiration.
It was just about two years ago when two local entrepreneurs opened GoGo 37 to the chagrin of the St. George City Council. Our City Council, which is a team of Good Ol' Boys if ever I've seen one, is elected by our senior citizens. That's really no different from any other part of the country, actually. Senior citizens are the demographic that vote the most, so it pretty much goes without saying that all the old folks get whatever the hell they want in this town.
And something they don't want is fun. Well, at least nothing fun for a college-aged student to do.
The City Council awards less than 10 dance permits per year (yes, you have to have a permit to dance in St. George). And, believe it or not, the majority of those dance permits go to golf courses.
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Because nothing makes you want to dance more than a good round of golf. By the way, there's no permit needed for those pants (although there should be). |
If this confuses you, then you're not alone. Why on earth would a city council want there to be dancing exclusively at golf courses? Here's the sad thing, though. College-aged students make up a very large portion of the St. George population. They just don't really vote.
And now, because of that, GoGo 37 is closing its doors.
You may ask: Why? Well, here's my personal observation. Whether or not it was intentional, the City Council awarded GoGo 37 with a business license for live music, but denied them a permit to dance. So that meant that anyone who came to groove was endangering the venue.
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| GoGo 37 Facebook Page
Yup. They pretty much had to tattoo the wall to prevent getting shut down,
which is something that happened on several occasions actually. Just because
patrons danced. Eat your heart out, Kevin Bacon.
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At a venue where dancing is not permitted, it can be very grueling getting people inside the doors. When you go to listen to live music, you want to dance! But thanks to these folks, GoGo 37 was never given the opportunity to allow their patrons to do what music makes people want to do.
Pictured above: Eight murderers?
GoGo 37 will host its final bash, which is eloquently titled "The Death of GoGo 37."
So, congratulations, St. George City Council, mayor, city manager, and all other Good Ol' Boys! You've successfully driven out a local business. In the meantime, why don't we all go amuse ourselves on the quarter-of-a-million-dollar carousel that was approved for downtown St. George by none other than the City Council?
Good call. Hopefully this will be a wake up call to my fellow young citizens. We need to stop letting the retired crowd dictate what our options are when it comes to recreation.
GoGo37 isn't dead because of bad laws, it has died because nobody uses the downtown, and getting people to show up for anything anymore is rough.
ReplyDeleteFact of the matter is things like the carousel is an effort by the city to fix the problem, to bring people into the area so that hopefully the businesses can capitalize. If you have been by the Town Center lately check out the splash pad, it is ALWAYS packed, whole 'horse to water' analogy applies.
I also urge you to ask the people involved or have been involved why this AMAZING venue didn't work, and I don't think the city government woud top the list.
And I know, I am being pushed by like minds that I should be against the carousel, but have you been on it? It's darling, quaint, charming (pick one). I have the privilege of living on Main St. downtown, with 2 small children, I applaud the what the city has done with the 'Town Center', the whole main street business complex (with the real estate office where a brew-pub should be), don't even get me started... :)
It's a goddamn shame. GoGo came in trying to add culture and something for kids to do at night. Now we'll all have to go back to drugs and prostitution.
ReplyDeleteWell, like I pointed out in my article, allowing people to move to the music is what keeps venues like that in business. Since GoGo wasn't a restaurant, they relied on people to come check out the music. But who wants to listen to music and be prohibited from dancing? If the City Council would have allowed GoGo 37 to let its patrons dance, then they wouldn't have been faced with the issue of people not showing up.
ReplyDeleteIf it weren't such a problem, GoGo wouldn't have had to put a billboard sized reminder on its walls. It turns people off of a venue pretty quickly when you go to enjoy something that's supposed to go hand-in-hand with something else, but it's not allowed. For example, it would be like opening a movie theater and allowing people to listen to the dialogue, but then shutting down the theater if the patrons opened their eyes to watch the film.
Other venues aren't prospering simply because they allow dance. Look at the Electric Theater (dance appropriate), struggling every month. Fortunately the owners of the Theater believe in maintaining the venue for the kids, and have the financial ability to keep the doors open.
DeleteThe fact is, if people supported the great shows that Ryan, Mitch, & Josh worked very hard to get to town, they would be vibrantly open. When you have shows featuring great musicians Josh Warburton & Christina Osborne, and only a handful of people show up to see the show, therein lies the problem. It seems to me if you want to dance, you find places TO dance. If GoGo wished to be a 'dance' club, they would of had to follow the protocol (get permits, appropriate location, etc) to offer this ability.
GoGo didn't in fact set up as a dance club, it was set up as an art and music venue, dancing was an after thought). That would be like a Pharmacy blaming the city for it's failure because of the fact that the city didn't allow them to open an indoor firing range.
Dissonance is easy, being part of the solution is a lot harder, but also a lot more rewarding. :)
(love you Matty, enjoy your blog!)