Do We Live in Elmore City, OK or in Des Moines, IA?
Ok, I just read one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen today. I remember back in my youth when the movie Footloose came out that was about the dumb laws of Elmore City, Oklahoma that banned dancing. Well it came to my surprise, Des Moines has a similar law that goes into effect every night at 2am. I’m not talking about drinking past 2am, I’m talking about dancing past 2am.
According to the AP story, an obscure city ordinance outlaws public dancing after 2am and most residents and bar owners were not even aware of the law until members of the nonprofit Des Moines Social Club sought to hold an after-hours dance at their downtown building and were told no.
The law which dates to at least 1942, bans public dancing between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. Monday through Saturday. For more check out the full article at: http://www.thestate.com/166/story/862156.html.
This is not the type of recognition Des Moines needs when it’s trying to attract more young people to live here.
By MulderDSM
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Posted under Living Downtown | Last modified on July 13th, 2009.
Tags: Recognition
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Pete Jones - Desmoinesisnotboring.com on Wed, 15th Jul 2009 6:32 am
Oh, come on Larry! At least we are recoginzing the foolishness of the law and working to change it. I wrote a post on this also since it is completely insane to have made such a law in the first place. The funniest thing to me is the national media attention and the fact that the city council has to meet more than once to make the decision. I am of the opinion any attention is good attention, even if it come with snickers because of a 1942 law…
Hank Kelly on Wed, 15th Jul 2009 9:34 pm
Any attention is not good attention. Being laughed WITH is one thing. Being laughed AT is quite another. It’s unfortunate that the ordinance couldn’t have gone away quietly. Instead, it was carried on the CNN nightly news and to every corner of the country by AP. One only had to do some googling to read the snarky comments. “Des Moines should enter the 20th Century.”
Des Moines has come a long way but we’re still labeled as being a boring town. We don’t need to add to that by showing that we relish showing ourselves as being backward too.
Pete Jones - Desmoinesisnotboring on Thu, 16th Jul 2009 5:12 pm
Hank Kelly, Des Moines WAS known as a boring city, but I have proven otherwise. www2.desmoinesisnotboring.com