Editor’s note: This story was updated to reflect comments from Google.
Dave Chappelle and other comics assembled at San Francisco City Hall on Tuesday to try to save the Punch Line comedy club, which has its lease expiring in August.
Supporters fear the club, located in the Financial District at 444 Battery St., will be displaced by Google after spending more than 40 years in its current location unless legislation is passed to conserve it.
Google has since denied allegations by the comedians and San Francisco city officials that it will acquire the venue, saying it has leased the space next door. The company said it does not want to jeopardize the future of the comedy club.
“As a neighbor, Google is committed to trying to find a way for the Punch Line to remain a vibrant part of the Bay Area community for years to come,” a spokesperson for the search giant said Wednesday.
However, Supervisor Aaron Peskin maintained that he was talking with Google as part of his three-fold plan, which he announced during the Tuesday rally, to save the Punch Line. First, he is introducing legislation to the board for an “interim zoning moratorium” that would prevent the conversion of spaces zoned for entertainment use to any other use.
In addition to talks with Google, Peskin has nominated Punch Line as a legacy business, which would entitle it to financial benefits from the city.
Although the club is owned by Live Nation Entertainment, which runs many venues across the country, its comedians said it has retained a “Mom and Pop” feel as well as provided a mental health service to residents and an economic boost to the city.
“Any storied comedian will tell you it’s an American phenomenon. When they say special things happen there, it’s an understatement,” Chappelle said May 21. “It’s one of the best comedy rooms literally on Earth — you should protect it.”
Some of his colleagues voiced concerns about the degradation of the city’s culture and alleged it was inattentive to artists. Award-winning comic W. Kamau Bell asked “if the city can’t even prioritize a successful club that makes money, how is it going to fund smaller, less profitable art?”
Larry Dorsey, a patron and performer at the Punch Line, said, “People used to come here for inspiration, for art, and now it’s slowly dying out. (San Francisco) is becoming roboticized.”
Another comic, Nato Green, made similar sentiments.
“We need to have one place in San Francisco that’s not an algorithm, and that’s the Punch Line,” Green said. “I have been in direct communication with Google specifically about the Punch Line site, and I am cautiously optimistic,” Peskin said Wednesday. “Regardless, the clock is ticking on the Punch Line’s future, so I am pushing forward with my Punch Line Preservation legislation.”