Editor,
Let’s call the “Entertainment District” what it is: permission to publicly drink alcohol downtown on the curvy, steep, slippery, old sidewalks and streets. Streets that are full of automobiles driven by drivers distracted by architecture, shops, wacky parking, wonky GPS, sober pedestrians, and now, drunk pedestrians? I do not see that the proposal enhances our downtown. It raises complicated issues with very little benefit.
To-go items generate a lot of waste. Hopefully, it all ends up in trash cans and not dropped on the street. The sidewalk and park trash cans already overflow every festival weekend.
Is it going to be okay for folks to have a cooler of beer as they watch a parade? Or, is this drinking experiment just to generate revenue downtown? To-go items often don’t generate a tip for the server; just as much work, none of the benefit.
When someone is over-served, who is responsible? When an intoxicated individual is injured or injures somebody else? When teens get an adult to buy them to-go drinks? When an unsuspecting little kid drinks from a cup left on a rock wall? When street drinkers get too rowdy?
The community and the city have spent thousands of dollars and thousands of volunteer hours curbing the spread of Covid-19. Let’s not jeopardize this effort by encouraging people to take masks off just to take a drink on the street.
Heather Huber