IT'S BEEN A FEW WEEKS since Seattle Mayor Paul Schell's most recent total doofus action.
I'm a little less upset now, but still sore enough to call for his impeachment, or at least a concerted drive to find a progressive opponent in his '01 re-election.
The All-Ages Music Task Force had spent the better part of two years in committees, forums, hearings, and compromise-filled strategy sessions, trying to once and for all kill the onerous Teen Dance Ordinance (which, since 1985, had essentially prevented all-ages music events in Seattle under the pretense of "regulating" them). They worked and worked and crafted a delicately-worded successor law that would allow all-ages shows, but still answer the concerns of cops and parents. It miraculously passed the Seattle City Council on a 7-1 vote (with one absention).
Schell promptly vetoed it, apparently without having fully read or studied what he was vetoing, and apparently under the heavy guidance of city attorney and gentrification-enforcer Mark Sidran.
As he proved with his utter mishandling of the WTO fiasco and his purposeless cancellation of public New Year's celebrations, Schell is totally, hopelessly out of touch with anyone who's not an upscale Rainier Clubber such as himself.
He apparently believes (as does his chief media apologist, P-I columnist Susan Paynter) that the only people who want all-ages music are people too young to vote, or perhaps just old enough but too apathetic to vote; while a "bold" move to Protect Our Children (the same rationalization politicians elsewhere use to crack down on gay rights) would score popularity points with the concerned mommies and daddies.
Schell (like his predecessor Norman Rice) seems to have not heard that there's been this thing called a Seattle music scene. (Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if Schell even knows the name of a single post-sixties recording artist.) There are a lot of people (and not just commercial music promoters) who believe live music (particularly the indie-rock, underground-dance, and prosocial-hiphop types) are good for teenagers.
Remember: The parents of teenagers today aren't likely to be Schell's own pushing-60 crowd. They're more likely to have come of age during the early punk years. Even if most of them weren't hardcore punks themselves, they may still have stayed up to watch the B-52s on Saturday Night Live or saved up to see David Bowie at the Tacoma Dome.
Also remember: The indie music scene leaders these days, especially the all-ages activists, are no lowlife crusters. Many of them are anti-drug and anti-drink. Some, such as the promoters of the Paradox Theater in the U District, are born-again Christians. They all believe in creating a supportive, empowering environment for the under-21s.
When done properly (i.e., by promoters other than those of Woodstock '99), all-ages shows can be safer than going to football games, more wholesome and less noisy than Gameworks, and less peer-pressure-prone than hanging out at Northgate.
Indeed, participation in indie music (as a spectator, reviewer, promoter, or performer) can help turn a young person into a free-thinking, independent-spirited, culturally and politically aware citizen.
Which, perhaps, is what Schell and Sidran just might really be afraid of.
TOMORROW: Beyond the environment-vs.-jobs dichotomy.
IN OTHER NEWS: The lawyers are circling the dot-coms like vultures.
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