Downtown Ald. Burton F. Natarus (42nd) wants City Hall to stop the music: He's sick and tired of dance promoters who drum up overflow crowds that "raise havoc" in the Loop.
"People from all over the state come into the city on a Friday and Saturday night and raise havoc. All of the shootings that have taken place -- that thing with E2 [nightclub] when they were all locked up and they couldn't break out -- that's all because of these promoters," Natarus told city Business Affairs and Licensing Director Scott Bruner at City Council budget hearings Wednesday. "We have to put under wraps these people who promote these dances late at night, these events.
" Calling promoters "the real problem," Natarus said, "I've seen taverns and bars. They will have four or five people in them Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. But, on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, it's a mob.
" City Hall has been threatening to come down hard on promoters ever since the E2 nightclub disaster that killed 21 young people in February 2003. Natarus demanded to know why the crackdown is taking so long. Bruner said he is "hoping" to produce an ordinance "relatively soon.
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