Hawa, thank you for your excellent article on the importance of sports to lots of folks. Also, thanks for your reconition that when some things are done hastily and not thought out well, that there can be serious consiquinces.

Excellent point Mark. Totally designed to draw people who don't live here or could care less when they trash neighborhoods. How would this go over in Land Park or East Sac? or anywhere other than Midtown? Nice to know Midtown residents are disposable and unimportant in the eyes of city leadership and some in the business community. .

These events aren't taking place on private property, they take place in public parks and plazas. In order to put on such events, private parties receive permission from the city. I do agree that if people have concerns about an event on a public park, they should address the private parties who put on the event. The problem, and the reason why the aritcle's author addresses city government, is because city employees have failed to enforce city rules and regulations at these events--parking enforcement, fire safety, required notification, etcetera. If the city government is not willing to enforce its own rules at public events, event organizers will feel like they have free rein to run roughsod over neighborhoods.

This park is targeted because it is adjacent to a row of bars and restaurants. The owners of these restaurants are the organizers who put on the parties. They would not want them moved to another park or property because they want to generate traffic for their own business. While businesses have to generate this sort of traffic to make money, it crosses the line when events damage neighborhoods and harm the quality of life for neighborhood residents. If owner-occupied homes become rentals and rental properties can't rent to decent tenants because the neighborhood is the site of nonstop chaos, property values will drop, which means property tax revenues will drop. The costs of dealing with all of these street parties is starting to weigh heavily on law enforcement--two POP officers working in the Oak Park neighborhood were recently transferred to Midtown, because of increased problems in the central city due to the number of public events! Are decreased property tax revenue and increased costs for law enforcement and cleanup going to cost even more than the generated sales tax revenue can justify?

The city receives sales tax revenue from alcohol sales at privately produced events.