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Within just a couple days of the news that the City Council would vote on an independent-promoter ordinance this Wednesday (see my amended post below), a torrent of outrage erupted that crossed all social and genre lines, sweeping up experimental-music fans and superstar rapper-producers alike. My inbox has been flooded with mass e-mails from bands, venues, DJs, bloggers, and regular old people who like to go out to clubs–even people who don’t live in Chicago–all of them calling for organized opposition to the measure. From what I’ve heard, the phones at a bunch of aldermen’s offices have been ringing off the hook with calls from citizens who wanted the ordinance shut down.
The ordinance has been tabled pending further research, which in politician talk means, basically, “This thing is so wildly unpopular that there’s no way any of us are going to touch it.” Of course there’s still the chance that the promoter-licensing scheme will rear its head again–remember, this is the second coming of a similar ordinance the City Council floated last year–but the breadth and depth of the protest against the measure might persuade our aldermen (or Daley, since it seems likely he’s behind this) to reconsider the idea’s merits.
