So, since I live in the neighborhood and I work a soulless corporate job that gives me some flexibility with my hours, I went to the administrative hearing about Solae's yesterday.

I didn't stay for the whole thing (it seemed like it was going to take an awfully long time) and since I was just a member of the public, I wasn't going to have the opportunity to speak.

Some context: I live in the hood, participate in the neighborhood association, and hadn't heard any complaints in the 2 years since it opened.

I've been and it seems like a pretty solid spot. That said, I used to live by The Standard in Kerns, so I know that it can be pretty annoying to live next to a bar.

Some thoughts: 1) City Hall: further south and slightly less shabby than I expected. (I had never been.) 2) The wheels of city procedure and justice are, not shockingly, a little bureaucratic and byzantine. 3) It doesn't seem like Yosief, the proprietor, took the complaints as seriously as he probably should have. I think it may not have gotten this far if he had been more responsive and quicker to address things earlier in the process. 4) That said, work has been done and money has been spent to improve the noise situation 5) Finally, this is clearly more than a noise issue, masquerading as a noise issue.

Judging by the discussion in the hearing and by the folks commenting on the Willamette Week article, it seems like folks are somewhat worried about noise, but more worried about a couple of shootings or gang-related incidents that have happened outside.

Which is fair. If there were a couple of shootings half a block from me, I'd be pretty concerned too. But at the same time, that strikes me as a good issue for the police/Gang Enforcement Team to tackle, not the Office of Neighborhood Involvement.

Moreover, it doesn't seem like Solae's has any affiliation to gangs or is doing anything shady.

Having been a few times: it's just a jazz and blues club. Good music, decent cocktails, bad beer selection. And a wide variety of folks go there. Some folks are in their Sunday best, some folks look pretty rough, some folks look like dweebs who like jazz. (And some folks look like me: white folks who want to hear some good tunes.)

In short: it's a place where a cross-section of diverse folks go.

And, I dunno. It feels weird (and, yes, pretty fucking racist) to try to punish a place where a gang member might be seen even if that place has no relation to the gang. I'm sure gang members shop at Freddy's and eat at Taco Bell but no one's trying to shut their hours down early because of it.

That's my take. I'm glad it's gone offline for the parties to sort out. I hope Solae's gets to stay open for normal jazz club hours, I hope the neighbors don't hear any bass at midnight. The rest is something for the police to sort out.