Sacramento's first-ever music census finds city regulations hurt live music scene
Sacramento city regulations are hurting its own live music scene. That's according to a new city hall report published by the Sacramento Arts, Culture, and Creative Economy Commission.
The city's first-ever music census found that the "local live music is stifled because of Sacramento's outsized regulatory landscape."
Sacramento's Shady Lady is a well-established restaurant that is not allowed to play live music. Its entertainment permit lapsed and its renewal process started a year ago.
Jason Boggs opened Shady Lady with live music as a key element, making the missing music now so noteworthy.
"We've always had much respect for the city and our neighbors," Boggs said. "We opened up in 2009 and had bands four nights a week and we would love to get back to that."
Byron Coborn is a Sacramento saxophonist who has seen his opportunities to perform live scaled down.
"The musicians are still hanging around but yeah, the places to play are much fewer than they once were," Coborn said.
Tina Lee-Vogt has operated the city's entertainment permit program since 2009. The permits are required for any amplified music.
She responded to the new music census findings at a training session for downtown business operators.
"I think the underlying focus of this program has always been safety," Lee-Vogt said. "Everything in this city is managed by code, and so we're really going to look at our city code and work through that process to adjust our city code - and so that's the next step."
Lee-Vogt says they are planning to offer a new kind of limited live permit that will offer more options for live performances. Any changes will still need to go through the city council.