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Friday, February 10, 2012
Marshall Park residents riled over festivals
by Suzanne Hurt, published on May 19, 2009 at 12:59 PM
Storyline: Mixed-Use Issues
Some Midtown residents are a little pissed to hear last-minute news that another big festival is coming on the heels of a Cinco de Mayo event that didn’t go as well as hoped – and that more are coming.
At a Neighborhood Advisory Group meeting Monday night, Marshall Park residents and others living nearby expressed frustration they were kept out of the loop on “Midfest 2009,” an event scheduled to be held at Marshall Park on Saturday, May 30, and Sunday, May 31.
They were notified Saturday by a Midtown Business Association (MBA) team going door-to-door announcing that the event will be happening just a few weeks after neighboring businesses held the first big Cinco de Mayo festival in the 2700 block of J Street. The notification was accompanied by an unofficial survey asking residents whether they approved of the event.
Now they’re also hearing about plans to continue these events once a month in Marshall Park.
“The main thing is this was sprung on people suddenly,” said Margaret Buss, a Boulevard Park Neighborhood Association board member. “This just came up. That is why everybody was up in arms about it. No one had heard anything about it.”
The City Council needs to update the approval process for special events permit requests and make sure the process is consistent for all events, said Sacramento City Councilmember Steve Cohn, who represents the Third District.
“We haven’t had a whole lot of requests until recently," he said. "Now it’s really taken off."
The MBA, one of Midfest’s organizers, is working with the city to modify special events requirements so neighbors are notified well in advance even for smaller-scale events like this, said Aja Uranga-Foster, an MBA staff member.
Midfest will feature a beer garden run by Paragary Restaurant Group, which owns adjacent Centro Cocina Mexicana restaurant and bar; live music; and sport demos by the Sacred City Derby Girls and Midtown skateboarders. The event is being touted as a fundraiser collecting money for a park fountain and several other organizations.
Residents have been told that several business-sponsored events have contributed money to the fountain fund. But the city says there is no money in the fund yet, said John Paul Olafson, who lives on 28th Street across from Marshall Park in the house closest to Centro.
“Our neighborhood has been promised a lot of things that have never happened,” said Olafson, who’s concerned about the plan to shut down his street for Midfest’s sports demonstrations. He’s worried that the 600 to 700 people who often show up for Derby Girls events will take over his yard and block access to the driveway.
Several older residents said the music is more than an annoyance; they’re worried their ears are being physically damaged by the loud music. Some have researched the issue online or talked with audiologists covered in their healthcare plans. They questioned why city ordinances over such things as noise aren’t being enforced in this area.
The first big Cinco de Mayo festival was not as bad as it could have been, residents said, but it still caused many of the same problems they’ve fought for years: a dirty neighborhood, parking problems and too-loud music that rocked people’s walls and eardrums until late Tuesday night.
Centro and other bars and restaurants operating in the 2700 block of J Street hosted the block-long event. One block of 28th Street was shut down for an outdoor music stage. Residents who didn’t want to party on a Tuesday night or who had to work the next day couldn’t escape the noise even six blocks away.
“The businesses have clearly won and the residents have clearly lost,” said Suzy Tyler, who lives next to Olafson. Her apartment building was the closest residence to the Cinco de Mayo music stage. “For whom are we making this city livable? 'Cause it’s not working for me.”
Signs said parking was restricted after 6 p.m. on nearby streets to residents with proper permits. That seemed to cut down on crowded parking and related problems, but violaters weren't towed, said Tyler and other residents. They question why provisions made to help buffer neighbors in these situations are apparently not getting enforced.
During the Cinco de Mayo festivities, Neighborhood Services Inc. provided security guards and picked up 90 pounds of trash from the event in the area between 26th, the J Street alley, 28th and H streets, said owner Charles Ortner.
His company was hired by bar and restaurant owners in the 2700 block. Randy Paragary, who owns Centro, and Danny Torza, who owns Harlow’s, “step up to the plate” and pay for the services, he said.
Two other businesses haven’t paid their share toward Neighborhood Services Inc. since January, leaving Ortner $30,000 in debt to the Sacramento Police Department, which provides supplemental police officers on weekend nights. Ortner didn't disclose the names of those establishments.
Paragary offered to put residents on 27th and 28th streets, between I and J streets, up at downtown's new Citizen Hotel on Cinco de Mayo. A Marshall School/New Era Park Neighborhood Association leader suggested using a cheaper hotel, said an association leader. Ultimately, the Vagabond Inn was offered just a few blocks from the event.
Organizers for the Sunday portion of Midfest – who also carried out some of the Midtown surveys – said most of the people they spoke with seemed to be OK with the event. They didn’t say how many of those lived in the three residential blocks fronting Marshall Park.
“However, they didn’t seem to be OKwith the Cinco de Mayo party,” said Shiree Cano, executive director for events for the T & M Organization for the Arts, one of the nonprofits to benefit from funds raised at Midfest. Surveyed residents complained about broken glass, public drunkenness, people vomiting and more.
“We are a family festival," she said. "We are closing at 8, not 4 in the a.m. I want to assure everyone we’ll clean up everything."
Cohn is planning to meet with Marshall School/New Era Park Neighborhood Association members to discuss the Cinco de Mayo event. The way businesses run these events will have a big impact on their requests for future special event permits, he said.
“Clearly, there is a lot of discontent from a lot of people," he said. "Not just from Cinco de Mayo, but other events."
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I just learned from the article that evidently it was one of our own residents on the Marshall School Neighborhood Association board that suggested using a cheaper hotel. I definitely have to find out who that was and voice my displeasure.
On a final note, I think the offer was only for the Cinco de Mayo party and not for any of the other summer festivals.
The proposed events on May 30 and 31 sound interesting, and if they are able to keep their promises about reduced volume, maintaining site safety, and ending the event early, I think it could set a good precedent. The problem is that business owners on the 2700 block have set a ridiculously bad precedent with their Cinco de Mayo event. The music from that party was audible from McKinley Park and Winn Park, half a mile away. A resident at the meeting was explicitly told by a parking enforcer that they had no intention of towing away non-residents' cars, which means that at future events those signs will be ignored.
There are plenty of examples of great neighborhood-friendly events in public parks. Southside Park and Fremont Park have frequent public events with relatively few complaints from neighbors, even though there are residences on several sides of those parks. The difference is in the level of intensity, noise and bad behavior. Because of the poor example set by the Cinco de Mayo event, and the general level of obnoxiousness seen on the concentrated strip of bars on the 2700 block pretty much every weekend, others wishing to hold events will of course experience a negative reaction from the neighbors.
If the organizations proposing these events can prove they can hold a safe, responsibly managed event, they will be more likely to be welcomed back to do other events by the neighborhood. But yes, they will have to prove it to the neighborhood, because they have been lied to before. It isn't the fault of the new organizers that previous events were so poorly run, but they will nonetheless have to deal with the consequences of less responsible parties' actions.
I definitely think that residents should be given more advance notice so if they wish they can arrange to stay away but it noise ordinances should also be enforced to be fair.
As with any issue, there is always going to be opposition from both sides.
Organizers from the Sacred City Derby Girls and T & M Organization for the Arts said at the meeting that they'll have a dunk tank and other events Sunday.
"Basically, noise is unwanted sound. It is a pollutant and a hazard to human health and hearing. In fact, it has been described as the most pervasive pollutant in America. Noise in our environment affects physical heath. Noise also has psychological and social implications and affects our well being and quality of life."
"Decibel levels in excess of 80 are considered potentially hazardous."
"The most notable physical effect of noise exposure is loss of hearing. Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) affects children, adolescents, young adults, and older adults. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), National Institutes of Health (NIH) the National Institute on Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) have noted that, because of noise in our society, hearing loss is appearing much earlier in life than would have been expected just 30 years ago.
Noise not only affects hearing. It affects other parts of the body and body systems. It is now known that noise
* Increases blood pressure
* Has negative cardiovascular effects such as changing the way the heart beats
* Increases breathing rate
* Disturbs digestion
* Can cause an upset stomach or ulcer
* Can negatively impact a developing fetus, perhaps contributing to premature birth
* Makes it difficult to sleep, even after the noise stops
* Intensifies the effects of factors like drugs, alcohol, aging and carbon monoxide."
Following is an email to me from an elderly woman (mother of five grown sons):
"I am sensitive to noise to the extent that I can have anxiety attacks or migraine from unwanted noise, so I'm very interested in this concert issue."
Event organizers and the City should follow a preceeder to let folks know about large events months before they happen and follow good neighbor policies like monitor sound levels, parking, trash, and behavior.
I am all for a good time but also recognize that events that are popular can impact those nearby. I hope everyone can settle this issue. I would love to see more festivals or current ones continue. I don't mean just music and beer oriented festivals but other ones for kid's, artists, and whatever you can dream. Our parks don't get used enough in the Central CIty.
These events have the capacity to gain traction virally online, through mobiles and of course word of mouth. We do need to all think about event planning and promotion with an eye toward the unexpected.
The problem isn't festivals as a whole. It is the intensity and size of particular festivals, in particular places. This is not an all-or-nothing deal--there is a lot of room between "no festivals" and "no rules." Somewhere in between we can have lots of public events without trashing neighborhoods.
Since the Citizen Hotel was built with our tax dollars by the crook David Taylor & CIM Group...who are business partners with Paragary...They could care less how much it would cost to but up 500 people in the Citizen Hotel...after all the money would be coming out of tax payers pockets...
What an effen racket Paragary & Taylor have going on in this city.
Put simply, if someone lies to people and betrays their trust repeatedly, they should not be surprised when people start treating them like an untrustworthy liar.
Oracle: Having experienced city and suburban living, I prefer the city. But living in the city does not mean surrendering one's rights, well-being or safety. I like having festivals in my neighborhood, I just want them to be run responsibly and professionally. Part of why people choose the suburbs over the city is because they want to feel safe in their homes and neighborhoods. That can happen in the city, but only if the city is managed responsibly. Giving a green light to rowdy neighborhood parties and turning a blind eye to problems only reinforces the negative image of the city and discourages people from living downtown.
I also like being able to walk to live entertainment venues, restaurants and nightclubs (and do so often) but "mixed use" shouldn't mean exclusively bars and nightclubs. It also means grocery stores, hardware stores, laundromats, retail of all sorts (from used books to designer clothes) and professional offices. We already have a lot of that in the central city, but the current trend seems to promote chasing those businesses (and residents) out in favor of creating a sort of drunken Disneyland in its place.
In agreement with Zen, any event that is being held within a residential neighborhood should have to comply with "good neighbor" policies (i.e. monitor sound levels, parking arrangements, trash-pickup, and behavior monitoring). Everyone has been commenting about the Bloc Party on Cinco de Mayo- I myself was appalled to ride my bike by Zocalo on May 6th to find that there was still trash and street closure remnants lingering well into the afternoon.
I would love for Sacramento to have more outdoor events and street festivals. However, the organizers need to held accountable for the cleanup and responsible management of the event. Simply offering the residents a hotel room is not a responsible way to handle situations such as these- like William said, who wants to leave their home succeptible to unruly patrons from unorganized and poorly managed events?
To their defense, it sounds like MidFest organizers are trying to be mindful of the nearby residents with earlier end times and resident notifications. If they weren't before, than they sure are going to need to ramp up their plan! Otherwise, it's going to just get harder for the next one...
It is my opinion that David Taylor is a crook...please explain to me how this is in any way slander. It is unfair to point out that I think he is a crook by corrupting our city council?
Unfair? you want to talk about unfair? Are you kidding me? How about getting hundreds of millions dollars in NO BID contracts because Taylor donates heavily to campaigns...how about having City leaders steal $23 million dollars from the tax payers and give it to David Taylor...How about having the city take three properties, at gunpoint, from good people and giving that property FOR FREE to David Taylor...How about giving over $10 million of our tax dollars, taken by force, at gunpoint, to Taylor & Paragary so they could build martini bars, pizza joints and cougar bars....you mean that kind of unfair? The News & Review is a liberal rag..and they have enough guts to write about Taylor's dealings.
If you want to stop people from openly stating their opinions, this site will wither away.
update:...oh..right....just figured it out... you guys get advertising from Paragary's...Taylor's partner....so typical it's boring.
I just have to think... neighbors should be compensated in some way if there is an outdoor concert blasting noise near someone's home for a long time.
If there isn't any permit process (involving neighborhood input) or compensation, then I should have every right to stand on the corner of J and 27th with my 50W megaphone and sing karaoke all day long.
"savemidtown"'s point was not that Sacramento isn't a 'real city,' but rather a response to people's statements that in "real cities" (whatever those are) there is constant noise and nobody minds or complains, and the only recourse is to move to the quiet suburbs. Well-run big cities have public festivals and events, and trash trucks, but they have strict rules that limit bad behavior, and annoyances like loud partying neighbors, leaf blowers operating too early in the morning, and trash trucks operating at 4:00 AM.