Who would have guessed that the Taliban run New York? From the NY Sun:
In the early evening of Friday, March 14, 2003, two inspectors from the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs entered Swing 46, a small restaurant featuring live bands on Manhattan”s Restaurant Row. They immediately spotted the illegal activity they had been sent to snuff out: dancing. After witnessing this “unlicensed activity,” the inspectors ordered everyone to leave at 7:00 p.m. and padlocked the doors. Knowing this would cost the restaurant both a $5,000 fine and its crucial weekend receipts, one inspector shrugged and said, “We told you before to stop dancing.” Yesterday, the Department of Consumer Affairs held a hearing to consider whether it will continue making such busts, which are carried out under New York’s cabaret laws. In 1960, the city had some 12,000 bars and restaurants that allowed dancing; today, there are fewer than 300, at least in part because of the indiscriminate enforcement of laws passed in the 1920s to suppress jazz. [“Clubbing the Economy”]
Hat Tip: Paul Blair.