Mayor Bob Coble said having space where emerging bands can practice is important to the city’s efforts to attract young professionals to Columbia, South Carolina — and keep them here.
“This isn’t a nuisance,” Coble said. “This is an asset.”
Coble promised to head up efforts to find “available space that’s appropriate” for the noisy practice sessions.
The mayor was responding to news of a Richland County fire marshal’s ruling that bands can no longer practice at Sumter Street Storage, near the university.
Since “the sheds” opened in 1986, up-and-coming bands, including hometown heroes Hootie and the Blowfish, have rented space there.
But complaints by a neighbor in Shandon prompted the inspection that’s closing rows of metal buildings to musicians at the end of the month.
