LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — West Hollywood's City Council met on Monday to take hard look at the sunset strip House of Blues and may be considering sanctions against the club, including a revocation of their business license.
The Council's interest in the Live Nation-owned venue stems from a recent string of violent disturbances and arrests at the club in recent months. According to to statistics released in Heilman's report, events at the club have led to 44 arrests in the last twelve months for a variety of incidents including fights, drunkeness, disorderly behavior and theft
The most recent of such disturbances was a large brawl of more than 100 people on September that spilled out into the streets, leading to a large police response that shut down Sunset strip for several hours and led to dozens of arrests.
As a result, the Council is considering the efficacy of suspending or possibly even revoking the club's business license, a move that would leave the club high and dry.
"Unfortunately, for the last several years, the House of Blues has had a history of serious problems and an unwillingness to address these problems," Heilman's report noted "After each serious incident, there is a perfunctory apology and a promise to reform, but the problems persist and have escalated."
Other Councilmembers expressed concerns about the HoB's alleged failure to address the issues at the venue. Mayor pro tempore Abby Land stated that she thought that some plan should be implemented to help hold HoB "accountable."
HoB wasn't without friends at the meeting. Several members of the community, including several representatives from the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and other local businesses made short statements in support of the club. Jim Uhl, HoB's general manager was on hand as well to plead the case for the venue. He reminded the council about the 300,000 people and revenue that the club attracted to West Hollywood annually as well as the service to the community, but did not address the concerns of the City Council.
No final determination on the license was made as the purpose of the meeting was merely to ascertain if there was cause to direct the city council staff to review the matter more fully.
The City Council is next set to meet on October 20th. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
