The latest on Cabaret Law Repeal

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Mayor Bloomberg wants to give more New Yorkers a chance to dance.

City Hall is looking to eliminate - or at least loosen - the cumbersome cabaret license so more bars and businesses can allow patrons to let loose, the Daily News has learned.

"We either want to eliminate the license or establish a different license so that it would be less onerous for people to engage in dancing," said a source close to the mayor.

The 82-year-old license "as it exists doesn't offer a reasonable opportunity for New Yorkers to dance at clubs," the City Hall source said.

The administration is in talks with the Consumer Affairs Department, which issues the licenses, and the NYPD, which enforces them, to make the change.

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From: Julie (Jewels) Ziff Sint

While we don't have many details yet, Metropolis in Motion is excited about the Mayor's office's move to reform the redundant Cabaret Laws and we will strive for a complete line item repeal of the illegal dancing statute. We hope to revitalize NYC as a safe and vibrant nightlife destination with all the economic benefit that entails. Once again, NYC can be like every other major city... because dancing is not a crime.

Please help!
1. Call 311 and voice your support for repealing the cabaret law.
2. Write letters to the editors of your local borough and larger media outlets. Or add a comment to the newspaper items already online.
3. Call your city council member's office and ask them to join the effort.

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The Ninth Precinct, which covers the bar-saturated East Village between 14th and Houston Sts., this week lost its cabaret enforcement unit, which has been folded into the regular patrol strength after the precinct received an additional sergeant and 14 additional officers.

The additional personnel will give the precinct commander the flexibility to assign more than the old cabaret unit of one sergeant and three officers to cabaret enforcement, depending on conditions on any given night, said Paul J. Browne, deputy commissioner of public information, in an e-mail reply to an inquiry from The Villager.

Susan Stetzer, district manager of Community Board 3, which includes the Ninth Precinct, was uneasy about the change.

C.B. 3 has more bar complaints than any other board in the city, she said, “way over 1,000 bar complaints to 311 for the fiscal year, which isn’t even over yet.” The board district also includes the Seventh Precinct, which has a cabaret enforcement unit, and part of the Fifth Precinct, which has no cabaret unit.

Stetzer noted that the old Ninth Precinct cabaret unit had special hours.

“If they work 24/7 they could lose their expertise,” she said, referring to the officers who replace the former unit.