Letter: Crock the Block!

The holding of events on Main Street continues to be a double edged sword. On the one hand, the local charities, the fundings for which for years have been throttled by a number of legislative and local hammerlocks, need every cent they can get in order to meet their goals. On the other hand, every time the Main Street business community has been massaged into thinking that these events are what is needed to bring more lifeblood into its sagging corpse, what it ultimately winds up doing is further alienating the very residential population it looks to, whenever the weather is bad or the Slide goes out.

What message are we continuing to send when these events, both, dip into the incomes of an already struggling small business population, and two, leave the streets crawling with a number of drunken teenagers at closing time? It’s sad to think that, as a local community, the only way we can get people to assemble for a worthwhile purpose is to have alcohol available, and yet the powers that be will all tell you that so much of the money is made on the sale of alcohol.

The data from the 2005 Business Survey already pointed out that the only event that was worth its salt (from a business owners perspective) was the "Night of Lights", yet here we are again having the business owners take another bath while they are told that events such as this will increase their exposure. Sorry, but the Survey results didn’t bear that out.

The event holders should just send someone named Vinnie around carrying a violin case and "squeeze" the store owners for the desired amount, because, when it’s all over, I’d be surprised if what was taken in for charity wasn’t close to what the downtown area lost in business that day (less, of course, the "handling fees"). It makes one wonder if the only reason that Main Street has been continually abused is because there isn’t anywhere else locally that could host a crowd that size for that price, which for all practical purposes, is nothing.

Slowly but surely, we continue to see more businesses closed during these events as, one by one, they eventually realize the futility of trying to do business when people just want an excuse to drink in public.

The reasons for this are probably many, but the number of complaints of garbage, urination, damage, theft, etc., frequent during many of these events, seem to have been lessened somewhat during the "Night of Lights", perhaps by some overwhelming feeling of seasonal spirit. Who knows? Five percent of the 2005 Survey respondents noted that the "Night of Lights" was more successful than the Pumpkin Festival in both foot traffic and resultant sales, and that the Rock the Block event was clearly the big loser AT THE BOTTOM OF THE LIST, and yet, here we are again.

It would seem far more constructive in the long run to design events that promoted family values and community involvement rather than have to get everyone sloshed in order to open up their wallets; events that embrace families eating together with friends, chowder & seafood dinners, spaghetti & meatballs, whatever, and where wine or beer was only available, if at all, while you were seated at one of the many tables running in two rows down the center of the street on one block only. In between music sets, the charity group(s) would be able to speak about the importance of their work and its serving as a barometer for the preservation of the community.

There are already very successful family oriented fundraising models within the community that don’t require holding the small business owners hostage during their events. Why can’t we do something more like that?

Frank Long
Half Moon Bay