Whether a club owner in Pennsylvania’s industrial Leigh Valley region must scuttle his hip-hop events to obtain a liquor license will be determined by the Pennsylvania liquor Control Board now that both sides of the dispute have aired their say with one of the panel’s hearing officers in neighboring Allentown. At an April 21, several Bethlehem residents, business owners, and Bethlehem solicitor Joseph F. Leeson told a Liquor Control Board examiner that the eastern Pennsylvania town, approximately 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia, has no room for The Bottom Line in its jaded downtown district unless the 21-and-older club eliminates its stops playing hip-hop music and reduces its operating hours.
A restaurant within 200 feet of The Bottom Line on Bethlehem’s upscale Restaurant Row along the main thoroughfare of Broad Street is especially challenging its application for liquor license transfer after a change in owners and location for the club. All opponents of The Bottom Line’s application said they fear for public safety in the area after one of the club’s experimental under-21 hip-hop nights out of 14 held last autumn was associated with gunplay outside The Bottom Line Thanksgiving Eve. Club owner Ray Nieves and his former Allentown attorney Theodore J. Zeller III, who stepped back from the case after a conflict of interest, owner say those challenges are blatant discrimination, especially since the club has security staff, metal detectors, and a tougher screening policy for hiring DJ
