bars and nightclubs that have police stationed outside their venues are required to pay for the services. i think it makes sense to charge the midtown businesses to utilize police services since they are profiting from the event. how to facilitate what to charge and to whom is a bigger question.

Nobody is claiming that Second Saturday isn't any fun (although some of the folks who live in the neighborhoods that get overrun by Second Saturday visitors might disagree) but in order to have fun events like this, we need crowd control and public safety, and someone has to pay for that. The city is broke and has made it clear that they can't subsidize the event anymore--thus the call for volunteers. But will volunteers want to take on this rather thankless task, and will they do a job equal to the police?

Second Saturday is great - agreed. However, it has grown to the point of not being sustainable with the current allocation of resources. I'm worried that not enough people will volunteer to make a dent ( I will indeed try to volunteer sometimes as I love this event) but I know I am no replacement for an officer and I certainly will not get in the middle of a potentially dangerous situation. I'm only saying that those who benefit from this event need to step up and help pay for the needed security.

If I were KIng I'd do it.

Maybe midtown/downtown businesses should chip in for paid security then--there are certainly people out of work, and the offer of getting paid to be a crossing guard probably has more appeal than asking volunteers to do the same work. And there is no shortage of people looking for work these days!

Considering that Sacramento's fashion community is about to start a "Third Saturday" fashion-focused monthly event in July, and MBA is promoting their "Midfest" with live music on the last Saturday of each month, maybe all we need is some creative group to take on the first Saturday of the month and we'll finally be able to go downtown on Saturday night and be sure there is something to do without having to check the calendar to make sure it's the right week. If music, fashion and gallery art are already covered, why not have Sacramento's theater community do a "First Saturday" city-wide theater promotion, with productions in the park? Or a "Fourth Saturday Film Festival" featuring the work of local filmmakers, projected on the side of buildings or stand-up screens in community parks, with features in local theaters, formal and informal--from the Tower to the Crest, Movies on a Big Screen, and a drive-in movie at the Towe Auto Museum?

The radical idea that art and culture can happen every weekend, not just once a month, will be the ticket to replace Sacramento's feast-or-famine festival atmosphere with a permanent cultural renaissance. The idea is already happening: Saturdays these days look like Second Saturdays did ten years ago, Tuesday nights look like Saturdays did ten years ago, and Second Saturday looks like New Year's Eve did ten years ago, and New Year's Eve looks like V-E Day. All that means more activity, more business for local merchants, more people wanting to move downtown (and hopefully much more incentive to build more downtown housing) and maybe a need for full-time crossing guards at busy intersections!

Not necessarily. By drawing a smaller crowd but more frequently, the total number of people who come to visit downtown/midtown would add up to about the same, but instead of long periods of relatively empty streets and short periods of huge crowds, you'd build up a more constant flow. Moderate-sized crowds don't generate as much trash or need crossing guards/security as much (since those big crowds require lots of car traffic to come downtown) which reduces the need for crowd control. However, I don't think the crowd would be split. Adding more events, even though they might individually be smaller scale, would attract more artists and performers to move here, who will put on more events, who will attract more audiences--you would end up with a greater total visitor count, greater total dollars spent, greater total number of creative people lining up to move into the central city.

I'm absolutely for having volunteer crossing guards. Just offering additional thoughts as well. ;)