New Imperial showdown … and DCM told to close at midnight
The City of Sydney will have blood on its hands if it doesn’t help get Imperial Hotel patrons off Erskineville Rd and into the safety of the newly renovated venue, its owner has claimed.
Imperial owner Shadd Danesi has made another plea to the Council to allow his original request for 788 patron numbers, filing a fresh application for the hotel last Saturday.
He told Sydney Star Observer it was about keeping the surplus 346 people off the street corner that even the city’s traffic engineers acknowledge is dangerous.
This follows council’s decision last month to grant only a minor increase in patron numbers to 442 -” despite the recent closure of the area’s other major gay venue, the Newtown Hotel.
We’re expecting there to be much higher demand, because of the Newtown and because of the renovations, Danesi said. But we don’t want to see 360-odd people out on the footpath.
A railing along Erskineville Rd, originally required by city planners, was knocked by the city’s traffic engineers fearing pedestrians could get trapped on the other side. This has Danesi worried that patrons queuing outside will be a bigger problem than just noise, with safety from passing vehicles also a concern.
Eventually someone will die. Those 360 people could be safe inside, rather than exposed to the dangers outside, from cars, from abuse, from homophobic violence, he said.
There’s no logical reason for them to not be inside, other than they [council] don’t want the numbers.
A City of Sydney spokesman said council generally didn’t approve of railings because they can cause more danger to pedestrians.
The Imperial’s new application will also include a new design for the rooftop stiletto based on the Priscilla movie. Danesi said he took the advice of gay independent Cr Philip Black and made it smaller, thinner, fixed and more in keeping with the building’s art deco style.
DCM to close at midnight
The Land and Environment Court has ordered DCM to close at midnight.
The problematic venue was a key feature in Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore’s late night walk along the Golden Mile earlier this year, along with Police Minister David Campbell and Sydney Star Observer columnist Maxi Shield as the authorities scrambled to deal with an influx of homophobic violence.
Meanwhile, just weeks after the Gaff nightclub and restaurant appealed for council help to keep daytime trade on Oxford St alive, the venue had its expansion application refused again.
The Small Permits Appeals Panel upheld the council’s earlier decision to deny a plan that would have seen the club’s ground floor expand as a day-time restaurant and night-time smoking area.
Last month Gaff owner Steve Baldacchino told SSO the strip was dying, and the city needed to support businesses offering day-time trade and getting smokers off the street.
James if you dont know much about a community then you have no right coming on here ranting and raving like you know whats best for us and all our fualts – You are doing nothing but the usual hetro male thing of flexing your ego.
Please get off our website and stop embarassing yourself – I bet youre one of those types that simply portrays that he is all for gay equality etc but never admits it to his family members let alone wife.
Well said Tim.
Chris, your post is pointless.
Hear Hear..
Trying to argue that 346 people will be lining up outside the Imperial, just because 346 is the number the owner wants added to the licence is completely outrageous and continuing to battle Council is only delaying the opening of this venue, which should already be open and offering an alternative to Oxford Street.
It seems to me that the developer/owner may have let the redevelopment of the Imperial get completely out of control, perhaps overinvesting and now needs the numbers to make the place viable.
It is not Council’s fault that the developer/owner keeps making changes to the development plans and keeps lodging further development applications.
If the owners were actually interested in providing a venue for the gay community, they would open the Imperial as soon as possible with the current approved numbers, prove to Council and residents that the venue can work and cause little disruption and then apply for greater numbers, if warranted.
I think there may be that number of people on the footpath on opening night but apart from that I doubt it would happen too many times a year! Mardi Gras, maybe?
I just witnessed a guy being bashed outside the midnight shift 300 pm and yes the attacker was dressed like a bogan (cheap trackky pants with the stripes flannel shirt etc ). The victim was being called a faggot as he was belted in the head several times. The victim was a straight guy ! Happily a lot of people went to intervene and after a chase the basher was apprehended.
The police came fairly quickly this time.
As a local resident I cannot agree with Mr Shadd Danesi,s arguement that the Imperial patronage should be increased by 342 to 788. It is not in keeping with Councils policy of encouraging smaller more intimate bars. Who really wants to be in a huge cavernous place that holds 788. The best atmosphere venues are always the smaller ones. Remember Cappricio,s? Most of the best venues in Europe too are the small bar type establishments. As for his arguement that there could be “360-odd people out on the footpath”. Well I have lived nearby Erskineville Road for 3 years and I have never seen anywhere near that amount of people waiting to get in the Imperial ,or any voilence and I pass there at many differant times during the day and night. I think the main reasons he wants the 788 is to get even more money across the bar. Please Clover Moore stay firm on this issue. Alan Brennan
PS Can you print this in SSO?
Getting back to the topic of the Imperial – a venue can only hold a certain amount of people. After a certain number, it becomes a hazard – for example, if there is a fire, and there are too many people, they won’t all be able to get out. The City of Sydney has obviously deemed the safe, appropriate number in the Imperial to be 442. If Shad Danesi is so concerned about potential loss of life, then perhaps he can explain how he intends to make the venue safe for an extra 346 people. Could it be that greed – not concern for the lives of patrons who will allegedly be forced to queue on the street – is the real motivation for Danesi’s complaints?
Just for the record, I do not post under pseudonyms and I certainly don’t post arguments with myself under different names.
Also, I’m 100% straight and have never been curious about having sex with a bloke. There’re too many good looking women in the world for me to start hitting up my best mate for a bit of action. Plus, my wife would have a fit.
What’s with the repeat posts above?
As for Simon, he makes some very valid points. It’s only a freaking rundown pub. Trying to cram 700+ people into it would be insanity. Imagine if a fire broke out, or if there was a fight? If you can’t get it, go elsewhere. Is it really a gay icon because it was featured in a movie 18 years ago?
Finally, I work in Erskineville and have picked up the SOO to read on the train on the way home, and I find it interesting. It’s certainly a fascintaing insight into a lifestyle/community/world that I know very little about. I like the letters page a lot, even though disagree with almost all of them.
In relation to the timeless problems of people with a bogan mentality ruining Oxford St for the gay & lesbian community, I think we’re at the stage where we need to start asking the City of Sydney to develop another nightclub precinct in this giant city. For instance, William Street?
It’s a bit absurd that in a city as large as Sydney that it only has a few quality night time neighbourhoods, such as Newtown, Oxford St, Darling H’bor and the X.
I give James one thing, there is a lot of anti-suburban rhetoric on this forum, and in a lot of the venues.
People are not automatically bogans just because someone comes from Bankstown, Parramatta or Blacktown.
A lot of gay people have chosen not to live in the gay ghetto of the inner city, for many of us it is a chance to get away from the bogans who choose to live there.
As for the development application, well I do not want to be the 788th person in the Imperial.
I think even 442 is pushing it to the point of totally overcrowded. This is a rather small dingy pub in the inner west, not Bankstown Sports Club, Revesby Workers or Canterbury Leagues.
BTW: What are the limits on the surrounding pubs like the Erskineville or Rose of Australia?
Does the coffee shop down the road have a limit? If so can we start a campaign to increase it to 1000? I wont hold my breath.
The Imperial is just a pub, a commercial entity, it has no real relevance to our community, we are capable of drinking or not drinking (although sometimes I wonder) and meeting each-other anywhere.
I suspect some of the (more absurd) comments above are being made by the same shit-stirrer, possibly posting under false names. Unfortunately, this can be hard to moderate or police -“ so we probably just need to be mindful that tossers like this will always be looking to stir the pot.
I also used to live within close proximity of DCM/UN and The Gaff (which wasn’t exactly cheap) and I couldn’t agree more with comments made above regarding the havoc such patrons inflict on the neighbourhood. And it’s not just the clubs -“ round the clock fast-food franchises, convenience stores, etc, also play their part in formulating a 24/7 attraction for undesirables. Property damage, drug deals, assaults, drunken stupidity and general disruption caused to residents and the GLBT community is commonplace every weekend. We also gave up and moved for this reason.
Good to hear DCM/UN is now required to close at Midnight, but unfortunately the venue has just re-located its patrons to Havana (another potential dilemma) and being right next to Stonewall, we can only hope this doesn’t compound the problem. One could easily argue that up to 80% of homophobic violence and anti-social behaviour along Oxford Street is in some way related to rogue venues and their patrons.
By the way; the challenges Danesi has faced in his bid to get The Imperial back up and running are not isolated to the capacity issue reported above. As anyone who’s been following the saga would know, it’s probably worth remembering that it hasn’t all been about profit with an application for increased patron numbers -“ Danesi has faced a number of hurdles over the past several months – and I think many agree that it’s starting to border on the ridiculous.
When considering the stark contrast between the problematic rogue clubs along Oxford Street and the excellent track record held by The Imperial among the community -“ both ours -“ and at large -“ it’s kind of hard to fathom how this can be so. As someone said above, give Danesi and the old girl (The Imperial) a break!
Some perspective please.
I suspect some of the (more absurd) comments above are being made by the same shit-stirrer, posting under false names. Unfortunately, this can be hard to moderate or police -“ so we probably just need to be mindful that tossers like this will always be looking to stir the pot.
I also used to live within close proximity of DCM/UN and The Gaff (which wasn’t exactly cheap) and I couldn’t agree more with comments made above regarding the havoc such patrons reek on the neighbourhood. And it’s not just the clubs -“ round the clock fast food franchises, convenience stores, etc, also play their part in formulating a 24/7 attraction for undesirables. Property damage, drug deals, assaults, drunken stupidity and general disruption caused to residents and the GLBT community is commonplace every weekend. We also gave up and moved for this reason.
Good to hear DCM/UN is now required to close at Midnight, but unfortunately the venue has just re-located its patrons to Havana (another potential dilemma) and being right next to Stonewall, we can only hope this doesn’t compound the problem. One could easily argue that up to 80% of homophobic violence and anti-social behaviour along Oxford Street is in some way related to rogue venues and their patrons.
By the way; the challenges Danesi has faced in his bid to get The Imperial back up and running are not isolated to the capacity issue reported above. As anyone who’s been following the saga would know, it’s probably worth remembering that it hasn’t all been about profit with an application for increased patron numbers -“ Danesi has faced a number of hurdles over the past several months – and I think many agree that it’s starting to border on the ridiculous.
When considering the stark contrast between the problematic rogue clubs along Oxford Street and the excellent track record held by The Imperial among the community -“ both ours -“ and at large -“ it’s kind of hard to fathom how this can be so. As someone said above, give Danesi and the old girl (The Imperial) a break!
Some perspective please.
Many of the posts here are actually from the same person -“ this person was stopped when it must have come to SSOs attention not long ago. But it looks like they’re up to their old tricks again. This person posts under different names, sexes and uses different email addresses to pass moderation, but unfortunately this sort of rubbish is hard to police. The only way to tell really is if the comments seem unusually ridiculous (as we can see above), then we can probably safely assume it’s our serial idiot. With the gift of the gab and far too much time on their hands, I understand this person even posts arguments between different identities. One very sad, schizoid individual indeed!
Just ignore the inflammatory twit -“ it’s really the only way.
I also used to pay exorbitant rent to live within close proximity of DCM/UN and totally agree with the comments above regarding the havoc the morons who frequented the place (along with The Gaff and The Burdekin) reek on the neighbourhood. And it’s not just the clubs -“ round the clock fast food franchises, convenience stores and a handful of sex shops also play their part in formulating a 24/7 attraction for undesirables. Property damage, drug deals, violence, sex in the streets, drunken stupidity and general disruption caused to residents and the LGBT community is commonplace every weekend. We also gave up and moved for this reason.
Good to hear that DCM/UN is now required to close at Midnight, but unfortunately the venue has just re-located its patrons to Havana (another problem straight club) and being right next to Stonewall, we can only hope this doesn’t compound the problem. One could argue that up to 80% of homophobic violence and anti-social behavioural issues along Oxford Street can be attributed to the rogue venues and their yokel patrons (who also park in the surrounding streets, where people are trying to live)
By the way; the issues Danesi has faced in his bid to get The Imperial back up and running again are not isolated to the capacity issue reported above. As anyone who’s been following the story would know, it’s not all about profit with an application for increased patron numbers -“ Danesi has faced a number of obstacles over the past several months. And I think many would agree that it’s starting to border on the ridiculous.
When we consider the stark contrast between the problems caused by the rogue clubs along Oxford Street and the excellent track record held by The Imperial among the community -“ both ours -“ and at large -“ it’s kind of hard to fathom how this can be so. As someone said somewhere above, give Danesi and the old girl (The Imperial) a break!
Some perspective please.
Just out of curiosity James, Who do you bat for?
And I can just about stomach the idea of straight sex acts, James, though it does seem rather revolting and unnatural to me. :>) In fact, homosexual sex is also common in a huge number of other species, too. I assume that by ‘gay lifestyle’ you were referring to fcuking, because gay men’s ‘lifestyles’ do not conform to the clowns you see on TV, we are as diverse as any group. And finally, to get post-modern on you, ‘gay’ is a modern and artificial construct, many men who have sex with other men do not identify with it, many cultures in the world still think it’s a silly notion. With respect, you sound like the typical bigot with his head full of stereotypes and misconceptions and I think you’d be a lot happier if you got a little awareness.
James you homophobe take your boring bigoted views and peddle them on a website more suited to your intellect ,I suggest The Daily Telegraph . If you want to get a rise out of posting your crap maybe try a jewish website telling them how much you hate jews or post on an asian site telling them how revolting their features are…why pick a gay site? It is all the same fascist crap.