☆ Too much booze
This week's prized Cognitive Dissonance award goes to D6 CM Michael Mulcahy. He praised—even after five adults were sent to hospital after a wild shooting spree in SJ's boozy San Pedro Square post Super Bowl— “the power of the experience economy.” An Opp Now exclusive.
By the "experience economy," Mulcahy is referencing, in part, to districts like San Pedro Square, which take advantage of Scott Wiener’s SB 969 (which SJ supported), that allows California cities and counties to designate “entertainment zones” where bars and restaurants could serve alcoholic drinks that people can consume on public streets and sidewalks.
In other words: alcohol-fueled party zones, especially around special events like the Super Bowl.
These areas are often created to aid struggling downtowns or boost tourism.
Needless to say, Sunday's shoot-em-up was eminently predictable as urban planning experts like Streetsblog are critical of these zones because:
Public Safety and Disorder: The concentration of alcohol consumption, particularly outdoors, creates risks related to public intoxication, disorderly conduct, and increased liability, according to Alcohol Justice.
Lack of Economic Diversity: Entertainment districts fail to provide the diverse, 24/7, multi-use environment necessary for a truly vibrant urban area.
Focus on Temporary Activity: Entertainment zones are often only active on weekends, leaving areas inactive and potentially less safe during the week.
The bigger problem, of course, is that these "experience economies" and “entertainment zones" simply mask the moribund nature of SJ's and other cities' downtowns.
Pop-up keggers for thirsty 20-somethings may fill a street with tourists and conventioneers for a few hours on a few weekends, but do nothing to address office vacancy rates, overpriced housing, dangerous central city crime, and homelessness. As Super Bowl Sunday taught us, they may even make these chronic problems worse.
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