By Annie Holub
Arizona Daily Wildcat
April 23, 1998

End of the Line?

Every Friday or Saturday night when every other place is closing down, The Fineline is just getting started. Even if you are not the sort of person who particularly cares about industrial music, it's nice to know that there is a place in town where you can hang out if you're underage. Because every once in a while, we all need to dance. And The Fineline has been there for us.

But the club's constant companionship has been compromised by neighborhood concerns.

The Fineline's original building, located at 101 W. Drachman St., was recently bought by Pima Community College to be converted into a parking lot for the campus's expansion. The 18-and-over dance club, which is also a bar called Outrageous, had to move, and it had to do it fast. Luckily, a building at 2520 N. Oracle Road was a lovely shade of black and conveniently for sale.

Everything was going fine. The Fineline had no problems getting a dance hall license allowing the different age groups to dance together. It already had one for the Drachman location. The problems began when owner Richard Plowman applied for approval to transfer his liquor license to the new location.

City regulations call for a note to be posted on the door of the would-be liquor establishment in order to give residents of the surrounding area an opportunity to both know what's going on in their neighborhood and protest it if they see a reason.

The residents of the Balboa Heights neighborhood saw a reason.

"They protested a gay bar, a teenage bar - I mean, everything that we're not, they protested," said Plowman. "I went to their meeting as soon as I found out there was a neighborhood association and boy they weren't going to let me say anything! They let me talk but they weren't going to listen. And they kept shouting things while I was talking and it was really terrible, they just really put me down."

The members of the Balboa Heights Neighborhood Association, along with members of the Oracle Boulevard Merchant's Association, protested the opening of The Fineline because the last thing they wanted was for their neighborhood, already saturated with bars and seedy nightclubs, to have, in their eyes, yet another bar and seedy nightclub.

"The area is one of the highest stress areas in Tucson," said Andrea Ibanez, council aide to Jerry Anderson, who represents Ward 3, the ward that includes Balboa Heights. The stress factor of an area, Ibanez explained, is calculated from the amount of police calls, crime, poverty, child abuse reports and other such ills; the people and businesses right around Oracle have been striving over the past few years to revitalize the area, to "tip the balance in the other direction," said Ibanez. They even asked the Walgreens at Oracle and Grant roads not sell alcohol.

"They're concerned about a bar, they're concerned about the number of patrons parking on their streets, and coming out after hours," said Ibanez. The Balboa Heights residents, who have worked so hard over the past few years to curb their problems, will not let this kind of threat to their work go without a fight.

The Fineline is Tucson's premiere 18-plus nightspot; two nights a week, the building is crawling with people. "We have been noted as one of the five best dance clubs in the country," said Plowman, and in the club's 17-year existence, it has managed to overcome obstacle after obstacle.

"We're probably the only city in the U.S. that's been able to maintain this type of a business without going under for either liquor violations or for lack of control of their clientele," explained Plowman. "It's wonderful because The Fineline clientele is so responsive when we asked them to do something like 'Be quiet when you go out,' or 'You represent the Line; anytime you're around it, remember that.' It's wonderful. I had a response I had never expected, I mean I just didn't even know all these people felt this way and I'm just delighted."

Plowman said that people have been e-mailing in from around the country and even Europe to rally support for the dance club.

Tucson city clerk Linda Dietrick said that the City Council had received, as of yesterday afternoon, 35 calls in support of The Fineline and 20 calls in opposition. Plowman submitted a petition signed by approximately 340 people who went through the club last weekend.

Monday afternoon, the council was scheduled to decide whether or not to recommend the liquor license transfer to the State Liquor Board. In the face of testimony from club loyalists and Balboa Heights residents, the council decided to put off their decision until next week.

About 15 or 20 Fineliners of various ages sat in the audience waiting to defend their club, item 6H on the council's consent calendar at the meeting.

From the 30-year-old with the mohawk, to the 20-year-old in the hip-hop pants, they told the same story : The Line gave them a place to go, kept them out of trouble, was a safe place in an uncaring society. Imagine the Sisters of Mercy singing "We are Family."

When Josh Parrish, 21, hit Tucson three years ago, he was living in a UA residence hall and having trouble finding a place to go.

"Fortunately, somebody who lived in my dorm said 'You should try going down to the Fineline,'" Parrish, a junior studying communications and Spanish told the council.

"These are not teens, these are people over 18. They can fight for our country, I think they should be allowed to dance," Parrish added.

After the meeting, Parrish said, despite turning 21, he still ends up at the Fineline.

"I guess I'm used to what I'm used to."

Balboa Heights resident Betty Stevens told the council she doesn't want the traffic, doesn't want the noise, and besides, there are two bars in the neighborhood already.

"We have a troubled neighborhood, we don't need to have a place for young people to go to get accustomed to going to bars," the 11-year resident said. "They have plenty of time when they grow up."

If there are any protests against a recommendation, the council gives both sides a week to try and sort out their differences, and then the issue is added as a separate item to the agenda. Plowman, the merchants and the Balboa Heights Neighborhood Association met last night to try and sort out their differences.

However, no compromise was reached; the neighborhood association is holding with its complaints and Plowman is determined to run his business.

"They're determined to shut us down," Plowman said after the meeting yesterday. "They have made up their minds that we'd be a detriment to the area."

The main concern the neighborhood has is with the bar side of the establishment, and Plowman is adamant about his need to have the alcohol area adjacent to the dance club.

"It's the mixture of combinations of people that come," he said. "It's a nice combination; even though the largest number of people go to the dance hall. But it's still an intricate part of the business that makes it work," he said.

"And we do something that other places are unable to do," Plowman pointed out, "and that's that you can drink until one and dance until four and therefore you don't have to get in your car and drive drunk.

"I know that I am not a detriment. I know that this place here being filled here by us will be better for the neighborhood than if it were left empty," Plowman said.

"I wouldn't trade all the young people who come into my club for anything in the world," Plowman continued. "The Fineliners need their place and I don't want to keep them from it so I'm going to open it up as fast as I can, " he assured.

"It's not the end of the Line."

To voice your opinion, call Tucson's Citizen Comment Line at 791-4700. The next City Council meeting will be Monday, April 27, at 7:30 p.m in the City Council Chambers at 255 W. Alameda St.

Wildcat reporter Tom Collins contributed to this report.