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Preliminary City Council vote was 7-0 in favor of curtailment of live entertainment in downtown Wilmington at 11pm on weeknights and at 1am on weekend nights. Despite a large turnout at City Council meetings, an all-day demonstration concert, a petition, editorial attention from every entertainment publication in town and organized efforts from the hospitality industry, the second, final vote was the same. This strongly implies that the ordinance decision was made prior to the official meetings.
What motivated our City Council? Are they the stereotypical politicos we assume all elected officials to be in the year 2000, unanimously bought by stereotypically unscrupulous developers? Doubtful, mainly because neither the Council members nor the developers are unanimously stereotypical, but also because such an evil, greedy Big Business Monster would have been content to buy four or five Council members, but would have been motivated by love of money to purchase no more Council votes than necessary to achieve the desired outcome; four or five, in the unlikely scenario in which every vote needed to win would have to be bought, but certainly not all seven.