Fineline fight

Karen C. Tully Arizona Daily Wildcat Two patrons of the Fineline and Outrageous Bar get down to the music Saturday night, the last night for "The Line's" home at 101 W. Drachman St. The Tucson City Council voted to not recommend a liquor license for the new incarnation of the bar, planned at Oracle Road. A final decision on the license should be known in one to two months.

"Mr. Plowman should be given an award for community service for the thousands of kids he's kept off the streets," Sarah Greenwood, a Fineline supporter, said at the mayor and City Council meeting Monday night.

People filled the council chambers and were seated in folding chairs in the lobby last night, a good number of them there to argue for or against a recommendation by the council for a liquor license for the Outrageous Bar, the 21-and-over component of the Fineline, Tucson's only 18-and-over after-hour dance club. "We've got so many people here and it isn't even a public hearing," said Mayor George Miller.

The Tucson City Council voted to not recommend the bar for a liquor license to the State Liquor Board, but the Liquor Board can overturn that decision. Fineline and Outrageous Bar owner Dick Plowman said that the board will let him know in one to two months whether or not the bar will be able to reopen.

The application for recommendation was continued from last week's meeting, where a number of people also showed up to defend or defy the relocation of the dance club to 2520 N. Oracle Road.

The opponents to the Fineline, members of the Balboa Heights Neighborhood Association and Oracle Boulevard Merchant's Association, also said time and time again that to add another bar to their already stressed part of town would only contribute more to the problems they have been fighting hard against for years.

"We don't need any more problems than what we've got," said Jane Baker, the president of the neighborhood association.

Robert Trimble, also of the neighborhood association, said that their argument wasn't against the business itself, or how successful it was.

"It's about a liquor license," he said. "It's about having another bar in our neighborhood."

Andrea Ibanez, City Council aide to Jerry Anderson, who represents the ward in which the Fineline's prospective location lies, said that the council sided with the residents because the neighborhood was already there and had been working so hard to improve their surroundings.

The Fineline will reopen in two weeks, Plowman assured. Without the bar.

"I'm not going to walk away from it," Plowman said, "The young people in this town are getting tired of the city and the neighborhoods saying 'we don't want you around,'" he continued. "These kids have to have a place to be."

Saturday night was the last night the Fineline and Outrageous Bar was open at its old location, 101 W. Drachman St. Regulars and people who wanted to participate in the saga of the legend filled the small building and enjoyed it while they could.

"We met at the Fineline and we've been going out for a year and a half," said Kira Mauro, a junior studying English, and Natalie West, a senior. "It's sad," said Mauro, as they talked about how they took some wallpaper from the bathroom as a memento.

"The Fineline deserves better than this," said Charlotte Peterson, looking around at the people passing back and forth from the upstairs coffee shop to the dance floor.

"I have a lot of hope for it," said Miko Peru confidently, "I think it'll survive. They gotta put us somewhere."