To the editors:
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Once again director of the Mayor’s License Commission, Winston Mardis, is playing judge and jury over the fate of an important Chicago music club (Ben Joravsky’s Neighborhood News column, August 13). Just five months ago Ben Joravsky reported on an attempt to shut down the Wild Hare reggae club, this time it’s Rosa’s blues bar. There are similarities besides the cultural significance of the music. In both cases the clubs are active and respected in their respective neighborhoods and have the support of many neighbors. The notion that 60-year-old Mama Rosa somehow sanctioned a drug sale by one of her waitresses is as preposterous as the Wild Hare noise allegations.
Maybe it’s time for musicians to announce from the many stages around town what is common knowledge around the bar scene; that the License Commission operates like a political fiefdom, like a corrupt piece of old Chicago, arrogant and out of touch. Maybe we should announce from the stages of the jazz and blues festivals that the director threatens live music year-round. Maybe we should suggest that come election time, musicians, waiters, waitresses, bartenders, club owners, and fans hold Mr. Mardis’s boss, Mayor Daley, accountable for the threat to live music in Chicago.
