UPDATED 02.21.13: The drama has ended. After meeting with Spokane’s mayor and police chief, Knitting Factory will reopen its doors Saturday.
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UPDATED 02.20.13: The Knitting Factory in Spokane has not canceled any events beyond this Friday. Here is a statement from COO Greg Marchant regarding this week’s closure:
We have had an extremely positive dialogue with the City and Chief Straub, and are confident that all parties are looking to resolve this matter and get back to business. We have not cancelled any concerts from this Saturday night forward pending what I believe will be continued successful ongoing talks. We greatly appreciate the overwhelming support the Spokane community has given the Knitting Factory. Chief Straub and I, as well as our teams and neighbors, are focusing on how we can work together to keep the Downtown Arts District a vibrant and safe entertainment destination for the region.
There’s now also a “Keep the Knitting Factory Open” Facebook page with more than 3,200 members.
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UPDATED 02.19.13: The Knitting Factory in Spokane has not formally appealed the closure. Nor has the club canceled any events beyond the one this Friday. Club management maintains hope that this situation can be resolved with Spokane Police without additional events being affected.
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ORIGINAL POST: After two shootings that left four people injured Monday, Spokane Police have shut down that city’s Knitting Factory Concert House. The venue has 20 days to appeal, but it’s not clear if that has happened yet.
Considering that the violence occurred outside the Knit, this seems a bit crazy. Does the city of Spokane have any legal leg to stand on? I’m guessing … no. (Any attorneys care to chime in?)
This isn’t the first time there have been shootings outside the Spokane Knit in the past year. The Knitting Factory says it will cancel its next event — this Friday — as a “cooling off” gesture. (Read the response from Knitting Factory here.) But COO Greg Marchant hasn’t responded to my email seeking additional details, so I’m not sure if the club intends to appeal, stay closed indefinitely, or defy police and throw open the doors again after this weekend. But I have a feeling the closure won’t actually last 20 days. This headlines-grabbing move by Spokane’s new police chief seems unprecedented.
From the Spokesman-Review:
“We will not tolerate these acts of violence,” Straub said. “We are shutting Knitting Factory down because of public safety concerns.”
The concert house was hosting an event Sunday night called the “VDAY/BDAY,” which featured several disc jockeys.
The Knitting Factory management will have 20 days to appeal the decision.
“They’re going to have to demonstrate to us that they’re serious,” Straub said. “We were there a few weeks ago talking to them and they promised us they were going to exercise some thoughtfulness somehow in their patrons and the activities that were going on in there. Clearly they didn’t.”
Clearly they didn’t? I’m not sure what the Knitting Factory staff is supposed to do. Hire security for the entire neighborhood? Ask gang members to please bring their guns into the venue so that staff can confiscate them?
It makes me thankful to be a music fan in the Boise area, where violence outside concerts is rare and usually fairly modest. Right, Garden City?
On a more positive note, Boise’s Knitting Factory announced a very cool concert today.
Definitely sounds like the police aren’t doing their job so they project the problem onto someone else. If they were actually looking for a solution instead of someone to blame, they would have done a big, unannounced step up in presence during one of these concerts, or even stop-and-frisk checkpoints (even though I disagree on the legality of those). While it can be annoying that moths are drawn to light, the answer is to put an electrified zapper around it rather than living in the dark with the moths still flying around.
Looks like Spokeyna is living up to its name.
Perhaps if they put a checkpoint at the driveways, fenced the lot and hired security personnel for the lot…
That is only obvious, as well as obtaining restraining orders against certain parties, banning colors etc?
Pretty simple.
I have attended many concerts at the knit in spo-kompton and this isnt that surprising, even at metal shows you had to watch your back outside. the venue is better then the boise one but its in the middle of ghetto fabulous downtown spocaine.
According to news reports, Spokane PD and venue management have reached an agreement to let the place reopen, with one concert canceled.