New York City's Cabaret Law, an obscure mandate that prohibits dancing at most bars, is expected to be repealed after 91 years.
The law previously prevented singers like Billie Holiday and Ray Charles from performing in bars without a cabaret license, and it has kept bar owners on their toes even though it hasn’t been enforced much since Rudy Giuliani was mayor in the 1990s and early 2000s, according to The New York Times.
Only 97 out of about 25,000 bars in the city have a cabaret license, the NYT said. The others that allow dancing just hope city officials don’t decide to start raids and enforce the law. Getting a license is expensive and time-consuming, requiring multiple agency approvals.
Although the law is not usually enforced and seems out of place in a self-appointed nightlife capital like New York City, it has resisted multiple repeal attempts, the NYT reported. A bill introduced by Brooklyn councilman Rafael Espinal is expected to repeal the law, however. Espinal says he has the 26 votes needed to pass his bill.
“It’s over,” he said to the NYT of the law, which is slated to come up for a vote on Tuesday.
Proponents of repeal say that the law encourages people to seek out dangerous and unregulated venues for dancing that could lead to fires or other disasters, Business Insider reported.
Current mayor Bill de Blasio said through a spokesman that he “strongly supports” repeal of the law, BI reported.
The repeal would come about a year after the city ended another outdated law that prevented restaurants from serving alcohol before noon on Sunday, according to Fortune.
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