New searches for New York’s clubs

New searches for New York’s clubs

13 November, 2008 | 11.43AM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: new york

On Friday June 27th 2008, something changed in New York City.

In the space of just 24 hours, 11 nightclubs and bars were raided by police and forced to close, seven in Manhattan and four in Brooklyn.

The timing couldn’t have been worse for Pacha, Marquee, Splash and the other shuttered venues - Gay Pride weekend was taking place, typically one of the busiest weekends of the year for New York’s clubs.

It was a night of nuisance abatements; the punishment New York’s authorities dish out to establishments that supposedly “endanger public health and safety” by “allowing” illegal drug sales, prostitution or gambling.

Since then, numbers in clubs in New York have begun to dwindle thanks to airport-like security checks being employed at almost every club front door across the city.

Two weeks ago Apt, a DJ bar in the trendy meat-packing district, was forced to close.

Last week rumours started circulating that house music bastion Cielo was on its last legs.

“That rumour isn’t true, but New York’s clubs are suffering from the new police attention,” said Karrie Goldberg, Director of Marketing at Cielo.

“The city is forcing clubs to strictly search patrons and that is affecting some of the bigger clubs.

“Cielo wasn’t part of the crackdown in June, but we saw it coming and decided to cooperate with the police and enforce stricter searches before it became an issue.

“People must have taken the suddenness of our searches as a sign that Cielo was in trouble with the police, but that was never the case.”

Even so, invasive door searches are never popular with clubbers, regardless of whether it’s for drugs or weapons.

There’s something about being manhandled and forced to empty every pocket and bag like a criminal that takes the fun out of a night, albeit if it’s a temporary inconvenience.

“We don’t want to search but we have to, so consumers need to be educated about why the searches are happening,” continued Karrie.

“Part of the problem for us is that drugs have become a problem on the streets, and we have to make sure we are doing our part to keep it out of the club.”

The good news for Cielo is that it’s never been known as a drug den.

Thanks to its commitment to quality electronic music and its relatively small, 350 person capacity, the club has always attracted an older and more sophisticated crowd.

And to keep the police extra happy, Cielo are searching everybody who walks into the club, regardless of whether they’re a superstar guest DJ or a VIP.

New York has seen this type of nightlife crackdown before, of course.

Since the mid-1990s the authorities have regularly targeted the nightlife industry with overzealous regularity.

The giant Pacha nightclub has been shut down countless times.

The infamous cabaret laws, which were deployed during Rudy Giuliani’s administration, banned people from dancing in bars, a preposterous restriction of freedom that could have come straight out of George Orwell’s 1984.

The smoking ban too had a detrimental effect on nightlife in New York, just like in other cities across the world, but as Goldberg explained “people got used to it.”

New York’s nightlife scene has a habit of being resilient, so these searches shouldn’t affect things for long.

How do you feel about being searched going into clubs? Let us know your know your thoughts below.

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