But this is about more than just dancing to her. It's a free speech issue. Miller's cohort, Pritchard, insists that social dancing is an expressive right. The mayor dusts off arcane restrictions on our personal integrity and uses them to bludgeon honest businessmen and people who are out to have a good time. Though no dancing signs have sprung up throughout the city, few people know about this law or its scope.
Lakeside is by no means a dance club.
In fact, there's very little room even to move around. But four years ago, the club was ticketed because a fire inspector identified two people as dancing to a live band. The bar's co-owner, Jim Marshall, was told he would be padlocked for the weekend if anyone was caught dancing again. I just didn't think it would be enforced at that level a couple of girls shaking it while the band was playing. Indeed, many bars Baby Jupiter, Coney Island High, Hogs and Heifers, Vain, and countless others have been shut down the second time police have witnessed unlicensed dancing on their premises.