Nightlife Ordinance Looms

Yesterday Seattlest said the following:

Sally Clark has pulled her nightlife plan citing the fact that everyone from the mayor to the other city council members to the lowliest 1st ave drunk hates it.

Which is only vaguely true. Clark pulled the licensing portion of her nightlife plan that would require clubs to receive a license from the city which could then be revoked at the city's discretion. Kind of like a liquor license, but...different, somehow. The remainder of Clark's plan is currently being expedited into law according to the Seattle Times:

• Nightclubs could pay into a pool run by a neighborhood association that would hire off-duty Seattle police officers to patrol the streets outside nightclubs and bars.

• Five nights a week, two city inspectors would cite clubs that violate noise, occupancy and litter rules.

• The city would impose steep fines on clubs that generate noise above a specific decibel level.

The Mayor seems to still be in favor of a licensing model that would keep clubs beholden to the city so that whatever the black club du jour is can be safely shuffled away from upright, condo dues-paying citizens and their neighborhoods. The Times tries to bolster Nickels' case with this paragraph:

Just after 1 a.m. Monday, a suspect fired shots along Western Avenue that wounded a young woman. Police say the man they arrested, a 21-year-old Navy cook assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln in Everett, and a friend had been at Tabella Restaurant & Lounge about 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

Wow, yeah, he was at Tabella an hour and a half before the shooting--obviously the club must somehow be responsible.