There are many challenges to putting on live entertainment and live events for San Diego bars, restaurants, and coffee houses. There are also various licensing fees for music, cost of sound technicians, expenses for security, and there are also fees for Entertainment Permits paid to the city of San Diego. At the June 28 City Council meeting the requested revisions to the Entertainment and Money Exchange House Permit fee were presented and increases were approved with the intent of fully recovering the cost of the issuance of permits and regulation within the entertainment and money exchange house industries.
John Rippo wrote an September 13 article for Espresso voicing concerns over how the rate increase might impact local coffee houses.
Seth Combs is a freelance writer who has covered arts and music for CityBeat and KPBS' Weekend Preview. He wrote an August 24 article for CityBeat about the challenges promoters face in putting on live events in San Diego.
Here is the Independent Budget Analyst's report on the fee increases.
You can watch the video (begins at approximately 3 and a half hours into the meeting) from the City Council's Meeting regarding the revisions pertaining to Entertainment and Money Exchange House Permit fee.
Guests
John Rippo, editor/publisher of Espresso.
Seth Combs, freelance arts and music writer.
