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Once again a city’s whose left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing is trying to kill the goose that laid the golden art crawl. The City’s liquor control folks are once again in a snit about galleries serving booze on First Fridays. Last year they “discovered” the booze after it had been served for several years and tried cracking down. That resulted in a medium-sized row and a brand new ordinance for a special neighborhood liquor license.
Now the Crossroads Community Association has allowed the license to expire and the city has posted a bitchy notice warning folks to keep their drinks inside this weekend. And it comes just in time for the kick off of the Downtown loft/condo tour that could push the F.F. head count up towards 20,000 folks.
Update: DaveKCMO informs us that the CCA let the license expire on purpose due to too many folks showing for the free booze instead of the art. Individual galleries can get a license, but it’s now a no-no to carry your drink between galleries.
So the authorities are “bitchy” for asking that the rules be followed. Why was the umbrella license not renewed. Blame this on the Crossroads Community Association. Combine their success with such an expected increase in attendance, you would have thought that such things would have been taken care of far in advance. The city is just doing its job.
This was discussed at the last CCA meeting. Basically, the free-flowing liquor was starting to attract an element that was ONLY interested in “free” and causing problems as the number of attendees rose. Galleries can still serve, they just need to get their own license (plus there are *plenty* of bars nearby). One only has to look at a Saturday night in Westport or the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade for an example of how Kansas Citians handle their alcohol.
Why not block off the street and serve booze there? The galleries are spread out all over the Crossroads and the whole point of the art walk is to actually do the walking part.
This could have been taken care of easily by a simple license renewal. Don’t blame the city for the mistakes of others.
What is the point of licensing if we’re not going to enfore them?
Maybe all the black leather jacket wearing culture-sucking JoCo leeches will stay home.
Folks, the world won’t end if well-behaved adults consume some wine or beer on the sidewalk. I could care less about the suburbatroids in flip flops and striped shirts, I’m more concerned those of us that live in the neighborhood and would like some grownup entertainment options.
I was right. The “blame” *is* all on the CCA. Silly of us to think it was just about giving away free booze. Its about the art, stupid!
Thanks DaveKCMO for clearing that up.
helpful tip to first friday enthusiasts: get good and loaded first, then take the bus to the crossroads. the dolphin gallery’s “discarded water bottles as art” seems a lot more interesting after you’ve had a few AND you’re helping support mass transit.
of course, i kid the dolphin gallery. i kid because i care.
After living in a loft downtown for about a year, I can tell you that First Fridays bring out some real scumbags. One month I had a car window bashed in… nothing stolen, just vandals who felt like destroying property. Several neighbors had their windows broken as well. KCPD did nothing. Another First Friday, my fiance had his car parked at my place and the entire passenger side was keyed.
Maybe cutting down on the free booze will also help diminish these types of morons from attending First Fridays. It’s not that I don’t like the idea of the event, but it was quite a pain when I lived in the area.
I guess the KCPD should have dropped everything and formed a metro wide task force to find out who broke your windshield. If you park your car on the street vandalism is a risk you have to take. My car never gets keyed or smashed becuase it’s locked safley in my garage at night. I figure if i leave it on the street somewhere downtown it’s gonna get messed with.
Not everyone has a garage, Squidles. I suppose you never leave home at night to attend events downtown? Jeez! Have you no other way to respond except with such rudeness?
In defense of the police, I assume they took a report. Unfortunately, this kind of vandalism is hard to solve without any more evidence than a smashed window or a keyed car.