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The Skewed Review Editor's Reminder: The views expressed
here are those of Matthew James Jacobson, and not of any
other person, place or thing. This is commentary on local
news and was not influenced by any person from the St.
George City Council, GoGo 37, KTIM, Dixie Sun, or any
other party that suspicious people may think are involved.
Matty's views are his own and is not monetarily or
otherwise compensated in any way, shape or form for
articles that may favor certain local businesses. Matty
can be reached via email here. Please include "The Skewed
Review" in the subject line to avoid having messages
automatically deleted. Amen.
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It's never fun to attend a funeral, but at least one southern Utah business is trying to make it worth your while.
GoGo 37 is (or rather, was) a St. George art gallery and concert venue. They were known for three things: Bringing awesome bands to St. George's downtown area, feature work from local artists, and running the risk of being shut down at any event because of an antiquated (and frankly, baseless) ordinance that prohibits people from dancing.
If you happen to be from anywhere other than Utah, this might sound like some ridiculous movie plot. Wait a minute, there was that one flick--actually filmed in Utah--that dealt with that exact same topic.
One can't help but wonder if St. George, Utah, was the inspiration.
It was just about two years ago when two local entrepreneurs opened GoGo 37 to the chagrin of the St. George City Council. Our City Council, which is a team of Good Ol' Boys if ever I've seen one, is elected by our senior citizens. That's really no different from any other part of the country, actually. Senior citizens are the demographic that vote the most, so it pretty much goes without saying that all the old folks get whatever the hell they want in this town.
And something they don't want is fun. Well, at least nothing fun for a college-aged student to do.
The City Council awards less than 10 dance permits per year (yes, you have to have a permit to dance in St. George). And, believe it or not, the majority of those dance permits go to golf courses.
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Because nothing makes you want to dance more than a good round of golf. By the way, there's no permit needed for those pants (although there should be). |
If this confuses you, then you're not alone. Why on earth would a city council want there to be dancing exclusively at golf courses? Here's the sad thing, though. College-aged students make up a very large portion of the St. George population. They just don't really vote.
And now, because of that, GoGo 37 is closing its doors.
You may ask: Why? Well, here's my personal observation. Whether or not it was intentional, the City Council awarded GoGo 37 with a business license for live music, but denied them a permit to dance. So that meant that anyone who came to groove was endangering the venue.
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| GoGo 37 Facebook Page
Yup. They pretty much had to tattoo the wall to prevent getting shut down,
which is something that happened on several occasions actually. Just because
patrons danced. Eat your heart out, Kevin Bacon.
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At a venue where dancing is not permitted, it can be very grueling getting people inside the doors. When you go to listen to live music, you want to dance! But thanks to these folks, GoGo 37 was never given the opportunity to allow their patrons to do what music makes people want to do.
Pictured above: Eight murderers?
GoGo 37 will host its final bash, which is eloquently titled "The Death of GoGo 37."
So, congratulations, St. George City Council, mayor, city manager, and all other Good Ol' Boys! You've successfully driven out a local business. In the meantime, why don't we all go amuse ourselves on the quarter-of-a-million-dollar carousel that was approved for downtown St. George by none other than the City Council?
Good call. Hopefully this will be a wake up call to my fellow young citizens. We need to stop letting the retired crowd dictate what our options are when it comes to recreation.
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