Dallas Blog

Bruce is a musician and a sound engineer. I'm sure he knew it was music that was making the noise. How about walking over, seeing what was going on, perhaps talking to Chris Penn, THEN filing a complaint? I realize that hindsight sees really good, but there was no life or death situation that warranted a complaint before investigation, was there?

It was a Saturday ,that means it's the weekend , National Record store day that's a holiday!, Mr. Richardson should have brought the grill over and cooked some dogs!
Having that much talent in one place is not something you want to shut down you should encourage and protect.
some people just have the wrong attitude.

Jesus Christ, Avi. Can't you just shut up now?

You made your point five years ago.

not to beat a dead horse, but, True Widow was also cut off on the inside stage. The cop and the sound guy simultaneously made the finger across the throat motion at Dan Phillips after the sound guy had stepped on the stage and grabbed Dan's arm.

Of course, to the sound guy's credit, he asked them to stop from the back through the monitors. You could make it out from where I was standing. And the band went ahead with another song. So he cut their mic's.

What's SHOCKING to me is that not three days earlier, a small group of people were randomly assaulted in front of the Cavern by a man in a group of buddies whom had just been kicked out of a bar. The cops told the small group of random victims (who had never met each other prior to this event) that they'd only be taking the group of males to jail on a Public Intoxication charge. Despite the fact that this one guy who went on a drive by punchfest and knocked over a scooter wasn't even charged with assault, the cops failed.

As they did on Saturday when DPD went apesh!t over noise complaints from two people.

i guess the best part is Good threw a kickass party with something for everyone music.

Avi should open a bingo hall in those vacant spaces and b-rich can provide the entertainment.

Jesus Christ, Liles. Can't you just shut up now?

Unless you're gonna tell that story about how you smoked your way onto the Colors soundtrack. Let's hear that old chestnut again.

"Jesus Christ, Liles. Can't you just shut up now?"

Yep, sure can.

Thanks for reading "Echoes and Reverberations".

it was fun.

A couple of clarifications:

ARTICLE: "But Hunt, who says she's currently looking into the complaints, is not yet faulting either side."

Actually, I fault BOTH sides here. The applicant for misrepresenting numerous statements on his applications, not the least of which was misrepresenting the crowd size, claiming that the stage would be small when in fact it was large, and falsely stating there would be 4 police officers when there was only 1. I also blame the city for permitting what was obviously a large outdoor concert next to a residential neighborhood and for failing to recognize that this was an event in Lower Greenville, where the neighbors are already overburdened with illegally operating bars.

ARTICLE: "I just don't think it wasn't properly permitted." Hunt says.

I just don't think it WAS properly permitted.

ARTICLE: "Oh, and one more thing, [Good Records Manager Chris Penn] adds: 'We're going to do it again next year. I don't care.'"

I wouldn't plan on it.

Here I was thinking how cool Saturday's event was. I was able to walk up the street from my house, hear some good bands, meet some good people, have a bite, and all for free.

I wish it were loud enough for me to hear it from my house. I would have poured myself a glass of wine and thrown open the windows. I would have called everyone I ever met to tell them, "Dude! Erykah Badu! It's like she's playing at my house!"

I wish we had more events like that down here. My husband and I decided Saturday that Good Records would be getting all our business because of the party they threw. (We were the ones in the lawn chairs with the giant ashtray and the little dachshund).

It was a beautiful day and a beautiful party, and I am sad that we may not get another one.

i side with good records for the most part on this, but for chris penn to be so defiant, even throwing in an "I don't care" at the end for good measure..... that's childish and inflammatory. how about just being more upfront about the type of event you were planning? and sorry, but that stage was pretty large. i went, i had a great time, i am glad the event happened. but it's not like good records were completely forthright here

OK, three Dallas observations:

1) In regards to noise, intoxicated people, violence or general mayhem, this Good Records event was like a Sunday church service compared to the Greenville Avenue St. Patrick's Day Parade. Why the double standard when it comes to rules and regulations for special events? Does corporate sponsorship buy promoters a "look-the-other-way" mindset?

2) I was an avid supporter of Angela Hunt, but this knee-jerk response to what happened on Saturday has me seriously questioning that commitment. Clearly all things were not taken into consideration when she made these reactionary remarks. I find it very difficult to believe her implicit assertion that the people who run Good Records would have strategically used to dishonesty to orchestrate this event. On one hand, they're not smart enough to ever think they could get away with it; on the other hand, they're not so stupid as to take on that potential liability and try. In retrospect, however many off duty policemen they hired that day was just enough - there were no (0) incidents of violence or blatant public intoxication. Even in light of a performer being cut off in mid-set, there was still no discernible civil unrest. That says a lot about the Good Records audience. Under any other circumstances, this probably would have turned out horribly. The police were the only ones there instigating a conflict dynamic towards the end of the evening, and the audience was above making an issue of it. Just once I'd love to see an authority figure in this city give our citizens the benefit of the doubt. This "nanny state" bullshit is strangling our economy and stripping this city of its character and style.

3) Avi (whatever your last name is): your wannabe cop act is tedious and lame. This ridiculous idea that you see yourself as the sole gatekeeper/ethic administrator of anything that happens on Lower Greenville is both presumptive and shamelessly ego-driven. Stop sucking the air our out of every single discussion. Let the grown-ups sort this out, OK? If you weren't there, we don't care. You're a spare. Spare us.

I've lived in the Greenville neighborhood for 7 years. I encourage the Good Records event at the cost of loud music past 10pm. It's not worth comparing it to St P Day. Most of the parade crowd is only concerned with alcohol. The Good Records crowd was concerned with music. Something all together different. It's not black and white here. The Good Records crowd was loud therefore they are breaking the same laws as 3,000 drunken tourist. Not even. I don't think any of us live on lower Greenville because we want a nice safe predictable life. We are here because we posses a sense of adventure in our lifestyle. We encourage music and art and the freedom to share that with one another. The police are not paid to make distinctions. You say you rights are being violated and they show up. We have have to make those decisions. Do you want music on lower Greenville? Do you want Good Records in your neighborhood? If not here than where? I don't personally need another homogenized strip mall in my life. I don't care how safe it is. We who live down here know full well Good Records isn't the reason the police patrol the streets at 2am with paint ball guns filled with tear gas. I think throwing them in the same category as that type of activity is a shame. If nothing else they are setting the example for what Greenville SHOULD be and what it once was. Your going to pull the plug on Erkyah? Classless. She could have played anywhere in the world that night and she chose to come back to our broke down little part of Dallas. Are we saying we just want anything outside of status quo to go away. When was Greenville ever like that?
I applaud the effort to stop the violence and drunken chaos but, think at what cost your protection is coming. Try to have a little sense of adventure.

Here's the thing: We can yell and scream at Avi and others or we can try to make it work. I'm not worried about Avi showing up at my doorstep with a video camera unless the donkey is underaged and drinking. I don't want to get all Up With People with this but if we want it to change we have to work together. I need coffee.

Avi, nobody needs you to summarize anything for them. You have an agenda, and it isn't good for anybody who works in the service industry. You put yourself first, and everybody else can go jump in the lake.

In summary, you are trying to get on television anyway you can - even if it means crippling or decimating the economy on Lower Greenville Avenue.

Avi, if you weren't at the Good Records event, SHUT YOUR FREAKIN' PIEHOLE.

Your actions and opinions are indicative of how Dallas handles what it deems nuisances. Instead of getting to the root of the problem and addressing it, you broadly make a sweeping blow to just push it away. I don’t understand why this debate has turned to running off all businesses that break a rule. Yes, Good Records seem to have not had things in place to execute this event correctly. The answer is not that they have a bad business plan; they just didn’t abide by how a select number of residents feel the neighborhood should be. I would hope that there would be recognition of how this particular event was good for the neighborhood, but was poorly executed.

Maybe in my haste my thoughts weren’t as clear as they should have been to you. I wasn't trying to put you on the defensive, and was absolutely NOT saying that residents MUST support local businesses. The point I guess I was trying to make was that this neighborhood has been this way for a very long time.

Please stop acting like you speak for every single resident in this neighborhood. I still go back to closed businesses on this block. It is never a good thing for local homeowners- Urban Planning officials know this. How long have the shops next to the Taco Cabana been vacant? As investors look to invest in this neighborhood and they see the limitations, they will not want to invest their money (which is what is going on at this location and others around it). The rent on existing retail properties and new retail/resident buildings in the neighborhood has skyrocketed. In a neighborhood where a representative of the local NA seems to be saying that unless a business lives by your standards they will not support local businesses, why would a sound business person with the BEST business plan want to invest in that neighborhood? It seems to me that there has to be a common link in why businesses try and get around city laws to make money. They have to make money and what seems like a good business plan at first (maybe a local neighborhood restaurant) turns out to not make money so they have to then tweak their business plan to make money. If you want to keep your standards so high on businesses, I’m wondering what kinds of businesses do you see that could fit all the criteria and be successful?

For the 15+ years I have lived in the neighborhood and the 6 years before, when I simply attended concerts or ate at restaurants or bought clothing and records, this neighborhood has always had the demographic of people that go to bars and clubs and people that support their local businesses, like the Whole Foods. It is not a coincidence that the Whole Foods location on Greenville Ave. was THE first store in Dallas and one of the company’s first stores in the country. They were so successful that they outgrew that location. A good majority of their clientele were of the same demographic that used to frequent the restaurants, bars, and retail outlets in the neighborhood- people who support local.

What I see is that in these 21 years that I have been exposed to the neighborhood I have seen white collar workers and property investors move into the neighborhood. They have then run out blue collar workers, artists and musicians, mom and pop business owners, torn down houses, razed apartment buildings and built houses and “lofts” that look exactly like the housing from Richardson and McKinney (cities you referenced earlier). What I would like to encourage is that people belonging to your NA take a look at what you seem to be saying is best for their properties, then evaluate if they need you speaking up for them in the manner you do.

I understand that there is no right for a business owner to assume that its neighbors have to support their businesses. But, as you throw around the word business plan so much, please know that “location, location, location” means something in a business plan/investor. It’s on page 20 of ANY business plan text book and week three in any Business 101 class – from Harvard Business School down to the local Continuing Education class at the YMCA. Place (neighborhood) is a big part of any business plan.

None of this has been written to change your mind. It has been made very clear by every comment you have made that your mind is made up. You don’t want a business to succeed in your neighborhood unless they meet your standards of business. (As I stated in my other post to another article in which you replied, I can wholly understand if this was an ongoing event that became a nuisance on the neighborhood.) As long as the recorded music market is still thriving, Good Records will stay in business. Until that day, their business plan is sound. In providing these types of events, they are making sound business decisions and being creative in their marketing. Next time, I will agree, they should be sure to dot that “t” and cross that “I”.

The position you seem to take in these debates is that you are an innocent bystander doing a duty that has been assigned to you. BUT, I think you suss out these kinds of situations. I have read in blogs, news articles, and heard from your neighbors that you have been involved in these kinds of debates in neighborhoods that are not even part of your area. Is that true? What is your agenda for Dallas?

I am a big proponent of shopping locally. That’s why I live in this neighborhood. And I know it’s why a good majority of the people in the area are here. Before you lived here, this neighborhood was already defined. You have just seen a few victories of late because of apathetic residents that don’t get involved in the process. They’ve seen it happen too many times in Dallas. Money and influence, which now seems to define this neighborhood, almost always wins in Dallas.

What seemed to be a boon for real estate investors in this area has now been seen as a bust. What is going to happen when all this expensive housing and retail property is empty?

Good Records is a business that seems to define (or maybe, now, once defined) this neighborhood. You do not seem to want to bend or find a way that a business like this can survive in your neighborhood. You have shown nothing but defensiveness and disdain towards anyone that has posted on here. Even myself, who was not trying to show any disrespect when I posted on the other news article.

Thanks again for your time.

Some random thoughts:
Please stop referring to a general group of people as gang bangers and hoochie mommas. We know who you are speaking about and it sounds very racist.

Please stop assuming that the people on this blog who have commented do NOT live in the neighborhood. We do live in the neighborhood and care very deeply about its success or demise; and not just on one’s terms but on OUR collective terms, hashed out in a civil debate.

I read that event permit link...pretty interesting. Has anyone else read it? Here's what Good Records applied for:

A PARADE(??), for 75 "participants" and 325 "attendees," from the hours of 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., specifying one "small stage", event perimeter fencing, with no food, beverage, merchandise, or alcohol sales.

A parade?

That's not what they did at all. I saw it (and heard it) too. Big stage, big PA, enough for a 1000-2000 seat house, easy. Coliseum stage? No, but not small. You could have gotten Polyphonic Spree up there.

I could hear it loud and clear, and it stopped a few minutes after ten. That's what the linked application says Good Records applied for. Am I missing something?

I read the whole thing. Had they properly filed (disclosing everything they planned to do), Good Records would have been responsible for significant insurance coverage and other requirements. Looks like they were trying to sneak by without paying for a lot of things that would have been required.

The article says they charged a flat-rate for "all you can drink" beer. That's not legal at all in Texas, and TABC gets crazy about that kind of activity. So, it wouldn't be surprising to see them have to answer for that.

The perimeter seemed unsecured except for one cop. That's a major liability (alcohol in/out, which they didn't disclose). They said they were providing fencing. I didn't see any.

If the city actually charged them with the penalties related to the false permit application alone (they're on that application link, too), Good Records ***could*** be facing thousands of dollars in fines.

So, I don't know. Honestly, it seems like a wash. For all the bitching and sabre rattling, this seems so mundane.

From what I can see, the promoter lied--a lot--on the application. Then, he didn't stay on schedule, and time ran out on the headliner. They got noise complaints, and that always is a problem around here...bars get shut down all the time for that. They didn't hire the required security. They served alcohol, but didn't apply for that, and on top of that, they violated some pretty obvious TABC regulations. They probably didn't obtain any of the insurance the application required for alcohol and more people. They would have had to pay for all that...had they been truthful.

It's weird to see people get personal about things, no matter what opinion a person holds about the laws at hand. The evidence on the application shows that this promoter f-ed up, BADLY.

Seems to me that's the story here. Good Records tried to get away with a lot more than they knew they could, and when they got caught, they got unhappy...along with a lot of other people--who blamed cops or the neighbors--when really, the event promoter screwed up.

But it sounds to me like all he got was a noise ticket, and they let him slide on everything else.

By the look of things, Good Records got the happy end of the stick in the end, by a good margin.

Interesting what Facts? has to say. If that is the case, I suppose Good Records is fortunate. But what I would like to know is this: Can Good Records put on another event like that? And what do they have to do to make it happen?

What Mitchell said. x10

"Newman" just doesn't get it. He never will.

What a windbag.

AVI KILLS ART AND COMMERCE DEAD IN ITS TRACKS.

Avi

"on the street documenting the hoochi-mamas and gangbangers"

Thats kind of racist, jew.

I sure am glad I live in Denton.

@Bob: As we weren't able to prepare Echoes in time for last week's run, we're holding Jeff's next column until its normal slot on Friday.

Per his own request, it will also be the last Echoes we run for the foreseeable future.

I have, indeed, seen Mr. Adelman's attempt at graphic design.

Artless, garish, illogical and tacky.

As one might imagine, not unlike the man himself.

Sorry for the late post but I had a death in my family last week.
There were mistakes made by all parties, except the crowd. I live across the street from Good Records and I had no problem with the event. My 82 year old Mother also enjoyed the event. We sat on my porch and enjoyed the whole thing (except the police interruptions). It is not fair that 1 person, 5+ blocks away can complain and shutdown something that all the immediate neighbors had no problem with. I think that Chris did a great job of managing the entire “happening”.

The crowd acted very appropriately… they showed that they did not agree with the cops actions but they knew violence is not the answer.
Jason, you are “right on” with your comments!
The event did bring important commerce to the area.
Avi:
You do not speak for me but I am a member of the Belmont Assoc., not sure for how much longer given the fact that I do not agree with most of your actions or opinions. With your approach, the area will become the next Deep Ellum with more closed buildings than anything else. I would much rather have bars in my area than closed, vacant buildings that will become rat traps. Speaking of the Democratic approach, since I have been a member of the Belmont Assoc. I do not recall there ever being a Democratic process to elect the officers of the Belmont Association (forgive me if I missed the notice, but at least let me know when the next meeting will be held).

"And, second, the permit required that Good have four off-duty cops in place at its event."

Did i read this right? You're required to file a permit. To get the permit, you have to hire four off-duty police officers. What a racket!

The city of Dallas is a joke. I tried to live within the city limits for a short time. Never again. The city government is run by con artists.

Also the one time I went to Good Records, the staff were total douchebags.

Love, Knee Jerk.