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Early Addition
Yesterday a press conference on the steps of City Hall was held in response to the eviction and closing of Tonic, the downtown venue that shut its doors after nine years. A committee of musicians, cultural activists, and supporters made a call for public and political intervention to protect new music/indie/avant/jazz in New York City and to ask the city to provide a minimum 200 capacity, centrally located venue for experimental music. From the press release, the coalition is asking:
1. that the city council adopt a general principle similar to European cultural policy: that NYC's new music and experimental jazz/indie musical culture is a unique asset, an essential part of the city's history, economy, and identity, and not to be left entirely at the mercy of market forces.2. that the city recognize the damage done to its cultural heritage and status as a 'cultural capitol' by the displacement of venues central to experimental musics, and act now to protect those venues still left from displacement either by providing funding sufficient to allow them to withstand the explosion of commercial rents, or by legislation forcing landlords to restrict rents of culturally valuable venues, or both.
3. that New York City intervene to preserve 107 Norfolk Street as an experimental music venue, or make available a comparably sized and centrally located space for that purpose.
About 40 musicians in all showed up yesterday, including Marc Ribot (pictured), Ned Rothenberg, Rebecca Moore (pictured), Patricia Parker, and Cooper-Moore, all who spoke on behalf of the cause. Councilman Alan Gerson was also on hand, stating, "This is not just about music. This is about whether New York will remain the cultural capital of the world. It's time to sound a note of crisis."
Tonic was located at 107 Norfolk Street until April 14th, closing after being unable to afford a series of rent increases imposed by landlord William Gottleib Inc. Marc Ribot and Rebecca Moore were arrested there that night. Other recent venue casualties have included The Fez, CBGB, Sin-e, The Continental and in 2009 the Knitting Factory may be gone, too. It's sad that New York City cannot be depended upon to provide a unique and diverse venue for its residents as well as tourists. Who wants to come here to see giant blue condos? There is a petition to sign here.
Photo by Bob Arihood. More here.
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I always used to have a saying that whenever NYC isn't the BEST city in the whole world to live in, I would leave. While it's not there yet, it's getting more and more like a suburb every day and these people (read: soulless morons who moved to NYC but seem to hate the inconvenience, of, I dunno, noise and people??!) will have to bus in their baristas and waiters from Yonkers and New Rochelle and Newark. They'll cross their fingers that someone so hip like Dave Matthews wants to play in Central Park. Ahem. Let the yuppies have Manhattan and turn it into a culturally bankrupt city like Orlando or Cleveland and see what happens then. Idiots.
tonic goes to CITY hall? or are they putting on some benefit at town hall?
Wait, wait, wait - didn't I JUST read that the Knitting Factory is re-upping it's lease or something?
Who signs a petition "Anonymous"? What's the point of that? Way to stand up for what you believe in.
You have to enter your actual name, but you have the option of having it displayed on the website as "Anonymous," so everyone reading the site can't see your name and where you work.
Personally, I'd rather have the Village Gate or CB's back myself. Manhattan is now a boring suburb, all the people who actually make the city interesting and functional, from chefs to cops to artists can't afford it anymore. Just a bunch of boring rich people. I have never been against change, but how many condos do we need? Are any of them under $1 mill? I miss the old NY.
I don't think that the answer is in the city subsidizing cutting-edge music venues for a couple of reasons; I think that puts the whole thing at the mercy of the current city government. and it sort of runs counter to the whole spirit of artistic freedom. What do you think will happen when a band does or says something controversial or politically incorrect in one of these venues during an election year?
The fact is that music is and always has been subject to market forces and I think that really, this is ultimately good thing. I'm not trying to say that artists who don't appeal to the masses don't deserve a venue for their work. I am saying that artificially propping it up a venue with public funding means that you're eliminating the element of a sort of artistic darwinism for lack of a better term, that allows the truly good art to rise to the top and the more mediocre stuff (and there's lots of it these days which doesn't help this situation) to fall by the wayside.
Anyway, I think that the ultimate answer is the same as it's always been: enterprising people need to open new clubs in the neighborhoods that are now what the LES was 10 years ago (and these places do exisit in brooklyn and elsewhere) Then, in a few years, those neighborhoods will become more attractive to people with money who want to appear cultured, the rents will go up, and the whole cycle will continue.....
Bottom Line (pun intended) - don't hang on to the past, these clubs had their moments, the neighborhoods have changed, it's time for something new. Isn't that truly in the spirit of the cutting-edge and the avant-garde?
sad as i am to see tonic go, i think DG got it exactly right.
Jack, I'm with you. I'm already planning to move. The benefits of living in New York are quickly being outpaced by the cost and disappearance of the city's uniqueness.
Every place in this country pretty much looks like every other place now, and I don't need to spend 50% more to experience the same crap I can get in Des Moines or Philadelphia or Orlando.
amen, dg. i really liked tonic as well, and its really unfortunate that the place has to close.