OAKLAND — On Dec. 2, 2007, a special team comprised of Oakland police and state liquor license officials exposed 21 Grand, an auto shop-turned-music-and-performance venue that was hosting unpermitted events in the city’s KONO district. Nine years later to the day, the worst fire in the city’s history ripped through a Fruitvale warehouse, killing 36 people, nearly all of whom were guests at an underground dance party.
The inauspicious coincidence struck a cord with 21 Grand co-founder Sarah Lockhart. Her venue lacked a cabaret license, and eventually shut down, in part due to the difficulties in attempting to retrofit the former autoshop and bring it up to modern seismic and building codes, she said. To Lockhart, the irony was clear.
“The fact that the Ghost Ship fire happened on the ninth anniversary of 21 Grand getting busted, well that had personal significance to me,” she said. “I felt like that fire was, in a way, a tragic result of the way the city policed underground venues in the mid 2000’s.”
In the wake of the deadly fire, city officials are beginning to acknowledge the permitting system, which many event producers have described as costly, cumbersome and oftentimes discriminatory, is in need of an overhaul if it’s going to be an effective tool in bringing underground events into the light, said Greg Minor, an assistant to the city administrator. Last week, the group sent out a survey seeking input from the community on ways to streamline the system.
It marked the first public attempt to solicit feedback. The city formed a task force earlier this year comprised of representatives from various city departments, including police, fire, building and cultural affairs. There has been one invite-only listening session, where task force members heard from people involved in the local entertainment industry.
“If you have a burdensome permitting process, and on the other side, a lack of enforcement and maybe other issues that discourage people from coming forward, maybe revealing a nonconforming building (for example), it would probably encourage someone to not seek a permit,” Minor said. “In theory, the (special event permit) process is to promote safe events and to help mitigate the impacts of events on neighbors.”
But many event producers remain concerned about whether the proposed system will retain the police department as the primary agency determining which events get approved, and when they do, whether they require costly security details.
Enforcement of city laws regulating events has ebbed and flowed over the years, Minor said. Any dance party, concert, performance, art or other event with more than 50 people that is open to the public, where alcohol will be served and consumed outside of private property, or where sound can be heard from outside the property, requires a special event permit, or for ongoing entertainment, a cabaret license. But in the recent past, Minor said enforcing those rules hasn’t been a priority of the police department.
For example, Oakland police Officer Hector Chavez visited the Ghost Ship warehouse space in March 2015, and wrote a report about an unpermitted dance party happening there. He forwarded that information to the department’s Vice Unit, according to city officials. That report was then forwarded to the department’s Alcohol Beverage Action Team, where it is still marked pending.
It’s not likely the city will begin allocating more resources to crack down on illegal events, Minor said. Instead, city officials are hoping that by making it easier for people to apply for a permit, more people will come out of the shadows.
For events of a certain size, there has been little incentive to do so. Pendarvis Harshaw, an Oakland journalist and photographer, has, for the past four years, co-hosted an underground event series in West Oakland that sometimes includes musical performances, movie screenings and political events.
He and his co-hosts alert neighbors in advance of their activities, hire security details for larger events, monitor parking and pick up trash around the neighborhood afterwards, he said. They have fire extinguishers onsite and clearly marked exits for the backyard venue, Harshaw said. But with fewer than 200 people per event, he said he sees little benefit in requesting a permit, which requires a $50 fee, event insurance and could include hiring police officers to staff the shows, the latter of which can cost up to several thousand dollars.
Nor is it easy for someone to secure a permit, even when they want to, said Shayla Jamerson, the president and CEO of SoOakland, a music, fashion and community event production company that celebrates Oakland arts and culture. Applications have to be dropped off at the police department’s Eastmont substation on 73rd Avenue, and then must secure additional approvals from the fire and building departments. Because she often hosts events featuring hip hop music, Jamerson said the police department has required up to $3,000 per event for security alone, a requirement that isn’t applied evenly across all musical genres or events.
“I have a lot of friends who want to throw (events) but they give up because they know it’s so expensive,” she said. “It’s so expensive to have even the smallest gathering.”
Minor said city staff are considering removing some of the ambiguity in the regulations defining special events so the police department and other city officials have less discretion in whether to approve or deny a permit and what requirements to levy on event producers. They’re also looking at creating a “one-stop shop,” possibly in downtown Oakland, so applicants don’t have to visit departments on the opposite ends of town.
But that doesn’t change the issue of where the events will be held, an increasingly challenging problem for promoters, said Will Bundy, the co-founder of Wine & Bowties, an arts publication that also produces the music and immersive arts event, Feels. Bundy said he’s been looking for the past year and a half for a venue to host their next gathering, and so far, hasn’t been able to find a suitable space that allows for multiple stages and art installations.
The continued loss of accessible performance venues that minimize overhead and allow promoters to take risks on unconventional events is one reason artists ignored fears about performing at the Ghost Ship warehouse, Lockhart said.
“When you want to put on a show and your only feasible options are sketchy and sketchier,” Lockhart said, “well, that’s what the policy unintentionally led to.”
To take the survey, visit SurveyMonkey.com/R/YM7F8K5.
