Knoxville can finally be 'Footloose' after council abolishes 'no drinking and dancing' ordinance

Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero recently made an inquiry about an existing ordinance on rooftop bars that led to the discovery of a decades-old ordinance prohibiting — wait for it — drinking and dancing.

Rogero's communications director, Jesse Mayshark, informed the mayor and her response was: "Wait, we have what?"

City Council acted quickly Tuesday night to abolish the decades-old ordinance on second reading and Mayshark posted the yarn on Facebook, and has received hundreds of likes and comments.

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When asked about the change, Rogero laughed and said she probably violated the law at some point because she didn’t know about it.

“It’s been our goal to do away with unnecessary laws on the books as we find them,” she said. “Here was one that didn’t make sense anymore. As someone who likes to dance and have an occasional drink it seemed appropriate that we face the century we’re living in.”

'Funny things that happen when you work in government'

Here's Mayshark's humorous post, in part:

"Funny things that happen when you work in government: A few months ago, the Mayor stopped by my office and asked if I knew if the City had any restrictions on rooftop bars. A member of the Metropolitan Planning Commission had asked her the question, after inquiries from a local bar owner. We dug around a little and determined that no, there were no restrictions on rooftop bars. 'But,' I said to her, 'I think we do still have a law against drinking and dancing.' The Mayor, who has been known to enjoy both of those activities, sometimes in public, said, 'Wait, we have what?'"

"After some digging into the ordinance in question, and some meetings at which no one seemed to know 'why we had the law in the first place,' it was determined it may have dated back to the 1960s.

"One can speculate about what kinds of mingling City Councils of that era were concerned with discouraging, but in any case, there was general agreement that the law, rarely enforced, did not have any particular merits. And it made us sound like the town in 'Footloose.'

"So I am pleased to say that, after everything was put in proper legal form, City Council tonight voted to abolish the prohibition in its entirety," his post continues.

"No longer will you have to stand at shows, holding a beer and wondering just how much backside wiggle you can get away with before someone calls the Shimmy Squad. So, ASSUMING YOU ARE OLD ENOUGH TO DRINK (required governmental caveat), get a cold one tonight and dance the night away!"

When asked about the vote Wednesday, Mayshark said city officials spoke with members of the police and fire departments to make sure there was no public safety reason for the law — indeed, there was not, they said.

The old ordinance said what?

The 1962 ordinance states, "No beer shall be sold on premises upon any part of which dancing is allowed, unless the cleared area provided for dancing shall contain at least one hundred forty-four (144) square feet of floor space."

The ordinance goes on to require a barrier between the dance floor and bar area.

"It’s not something that has ever been enforced with any regularity and (that) creates problems because It’s probably happening every night … if you’re going to have laws they should be something you can enforce," Mayshark said.