Charges were filed today in Cleveland Municipal Court against Loren Naji, the art gallery owner who’s found himself at the center of this crazy storm of local arts policy debate.
Naji’s been slapped with “sale of liquor without a permit” (because giving away alcohol to attendees at art events constitutes a sale in wacky Ohio) and “keeping a place” (which sounds like local prosecutors are rolling out hip-hop tags or something). He’ll be arraigned June 24.
All along, Naji has said that he’s been told by city leaders that everything is copacetic. Following the state liquor agents’ raid that prompted the above charges, he was assured that all would be well going forward. BOOM – and then the Cleveland Fire Department dropped in on a May 23 event and shut his gallery down for lack of an occupancy permit. He’s in the process of obtaining all necessary permits from the city of Cleveland, and Councilman Joe Cimperman has publicly said that he’s been “working with” Naji.
Since literally no one from the city can string together a coherent statement on this matter, one thing remains clear: The cognitive dissonance between the local arts community and City Hall remains damning and depressing for a city struggling to appear cool.
This article appears in Jun 4-10, 2014.
Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaage.
WAY TO GO, CLEVELAND. FFS..
Way to go dumbass city of CLE with your heads up your asses….
OR the dude could just get a liquor license like everyone else in the world who wants to sell alcohol. went there for Brite Winter at 11pm to see one of the best bands and it was like a murder mystery dinner trying to find someone selling/giving away beer. get with the program.
Who did he piss off???
I just read an article, op-ed, (forgot the name) in a local free press paper in Tremont. According to the article, it looks like Naji had plenty of time to get the necessary permits and has chosen not to. Could Scene verify this? Someone is not being truthful and Scene has a responsibility to get to the truth.
Keep voting Democrat and you get what you got, Incompetence
Just look to Detroit for your inspiration.
It’s ridiculous foolishness like this that makes me despair that Cleveland will ever truly recover from its current decline.
Disgusting. All the murders and no arrest, but the take Naji to court over something that was not much of a problem. SMH Cleveland sure do hate artists and love violent crimnals
this is why you can’t have nice things Cleveland. hopefully the judge throws this nonsense out. get it together!
You think the burning river was a joke? Just wait, this is going to be a even bigger joke.
Did this guy get the permits to do business in Ohio City or not? Did he have ample time to get them? That’s the questions that have to be asked.
C’mon Eric Sandy of Scene….. Do a little digging!
If you have a space open to the public which features bands, serves booze and has had verbal warnings for over a year by city officials to get an occupancy permit and an OP isn’t obtained, the facility will be shut down immediately in almost any city. Most wouldn’t get such a long amount of time to fix it and still operate as this gallery did. I believe it is socially immoral to claim being singled out as an “artist”, when it appears that the operators were trying to run an art gallery by day and a private club/night club in the evenings without the required permits.
You know, there’s a really easy way to stop people from targeting you for not having all the right permits…and that’s to have all the right permits.
Go after and shut down a local business helping the local economy, yeah that makes sense. Good riddance I left this black hole of a city.
Overreach of local governments. The government calls it permits and enforcement, the Mafia called it protection and pay-off. Same thing. Why does he need a permit to offer a glass of wine? Why are the alcohol laws and the gaming commission so powerful in this state?
B.Y.O.B
To all those saying “get the right permits”, he chose NOT TO EVEN PROVIDE ANY ALCOHOL at the event he was shut down for! And NEXT time you invite your friends over for a cookout, and YOU provide a few beers yourself, YOU might want to get a permit for it first…
How DARE Cleveland maintain basic laws such as preventing distribution of liquor in a public establishment without a license, or requiring someone to take out particular permits.
Forget the fact that every city in the country follows these same laws.
@Markphoto1, he’s a business, not a private individual at his private residence giving his father a beer to drink. There is a difference.