Thursday, April 16, 1998
Dancing dispute to be decided
PETITION: UCLA’s Ivicevich wants to bring boogie nights back
into Westwood Village
By Rachel Munoz
Daily Bruin Staff
Many students wonder why Westwood doesn’t allow dancing. Not
everyone knows of the tragedy that occurred in the late ’80s or
understands the details of the Westwood Specific Plan. But now, one
student has made it his business to know these things.
Chris Ivicevich is a fourth-year history student who has
followed Westwood politics for two years. As a strict believer in
dancing in any city, he feels that the concept of no dancing in
Westwood is a problem.
A problem he has decided to work on.
Despite its four dancing citations, Duet Restaurant and
Nightclub was voluntarily approached by Ivicevich; he wanted to see
how he could help to get dancing permitted in Westwood.
When he contacted owner Chris Mallick, a discussion ensued on
how to gain student support, and they settled on a petition drive.
A petition was then developed to show the support of the community
and students for dancing in Westwood. It is not an official
petition that will be put on any ballot.
For the past week, Ivicevich and Duet employees have offered
students and Westwood residents and employees the opportunity to
show their support for dancing by signing this petition.
"There is no legal ban on dancing in the Village, but no one in
the Village has a dance permit," Ivicevich said.
Dancing is not restricted in Westwood by a de jure prohibition,
which means that there is no formal law against dancing. However,
Ivicevich feels that there is no dancing through de facto (which
means simply "effective") because no one in Westwood has been
granted a permit. "The conditional-use permit is being used as a
weapon," he said. "The effective ban (on dancing) violates the
letter and the spirit of the law."
In reading Westwood’s Specific Plan, Ivicevich notes that
Westwood is supposed to cater to the core constituents of three
groups: the residents, the employees, and the students and faculty
of UCLA.
As of yesterday, Ivicevich said there was at least 4,000
signatures on the petition in favor of dancing, but the number
could be as high as 5,000.
Ivicevich said that about 80 percent of the people who he has
come across have signed the petition and are overwhelmingly
positive about allowing dancing. He said that another 19 percent
didn’t have time to listen to what he was saying or simply just
didn’t care. And only one student he has encountered was in support
of the ban on dancing.