Nickels proclaims Seattle the "City of Music"

With Seattle city elections just over a year away, Mayor Greg Nickels courted the local music community Wednesday by unveiling the "Seattle City of Music" initiative at the Paramount Theater.

"When I became Mayor in 2002, we created the Office of Film and Music," Nickels said in an informal news conference before addressing the crowd of an estimated 1,000 people gathered at the historic theater.

"We've worked with the community in a number of different ways to try to recognize that we are a city of great music, and that our attitude as a city ought to be welcoming and encouraging more music in the city."

The open-house/concert event signaled a shift in the city's prevailing attitude toward live music. After a summer that saw venue owners, music fans, and the media decrying a civic "War on Nightlife," with fines and closures leveled at a dizzying pace, the "City of Music" initiative suggests a more benevolent relationship.

"We want the music, we want the venues, but we also want it to be in a way that the neighborhood can coexist with the clubs," Nickels said, speaking briefly at a Paramount presentation that included musical performances from local groups ranging from jazz and marching bands to Johnny Cash sound-alike teen Vince Mira to the Blue Scholars hip-hop duo.

The initiative hinges on a 12-year plan that includes a proposed admissions tax exemption for live music venues, expanded music education in public schools and other programs, all to be overseen by a Seattle Music Commission comprising the pre-existing Office of Film and Music and key members of the local music industry.

Jonathan Zwickel: zwickelicious@gmail.com