Division Avenue Arts Cooperative closes!

[Sailor]

http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2007/12/divi...oop_closes.html

GRAND RAPIDS -- West Michigan has one less haven for alternative culture.

The Division Ave. Arts Cooperative, 115 S. Division Ave. has tentatively closed its doors for good, following a surprise visit from the Grand Rapids Fire Prevention Bureau on Thursday night.

The small artist's cooperative, housed in a former storefront in the blossoming arts district of Division Avenue, was hosting a music event by an experimental Grand Rapids band at the time of the inspection.

[Rhino6885]

http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2007/12/divi...oop_closes.html

GRAND RAPIDS -- West Michigan has one less haven for alternative culture.

The Division Ave. Arts Cooperative, 115 S. Division Ave. has tentatively closed its doors for good, following a surprise visit from the Grand Rapids Fire Prevention Bureau on Thursday night.

The small artist's cooperative, housed in a former storefront in the blossoming arts district of Division Avenue, was hosting a music event by an experimental Grand Rapids band at the time of the inspection.

[Parhelion]

How sad! We need places like this, especially on Division. It seems to me that it can't just be a code violation issue, you can easily monitor and fix that so you pass the next inspection (as I understand it). I wonder if the lease either got jacked up or if the DAAC just couldn't pay its bills. Does anyone have any insight in to the situation?

[Nitro]

Come on, is having too many people really that big of a deal--enough to shut them down??

[Rhino6885]

No, not at all.....until there is a fire and a lot of people die. Then all the people will stand around and say.."Why didn't someone do something about this?"

[fotoman311]

How sad! We need places like this, especially on Division. It seems to me that it can't just be a code violation issue, you can easily monitor and fix that so you pass the next inspection (as I understand it). I wonder if the lease either got jacked up or if the DAAC just couldn't pay its bills. Does anyone have any insight in to the situation?

[tamias6]

http://www.g-rad.org/daac/archives/2007/12/rip-daac.php

According to the DAAC's blog, someone's mother called the fire department to complain about them being over capacity and there were a few other violations cited in the Press article. It seems to me that they could fix all the problems with having no visible emergency exit signs and no push bars on the emergency exit doors for not a ton of money. Maybe they just didn't feel like dealing with the fire department enforcing the capacity on their shows.