Who Should Pay To Clean Up The Mess in Downtown Fullerton?
Surely not the businesses that don’t sell booze.
Last year a few downtown Fullerton property and business owners lobbied the City Council to impose an tax assessment on downtown Fullerton. The purpose of this “Business Improvement District” was to raise money to clean up the mess introduced into Downtown by the numerous booze joints and illegal dance clubs.
The first step was predictable: hire yourself a “consultant” who will tell you what you want to hear. But the price tag was too steep and the promoters couldn’t get a clear majority of the Council to go along.
But apparently now Councilwoman Sharon Quirk-Silva has changed her mind about hiring a consultant to meet and greet and spread the BID propaganda.
The direction here is all too clear: build up some momentum toward the idea and then rely on the self-interested parties to vote their interest and hope that the other property owners don’t catch on.
Well I think this stinks. Why should all the downtown property owners pay to fix the problems caused by the bar owners and their out-of-control customers, not to mention a City policy that has enabled all these problems? And let’s not forget – former police chief and council candidate Patrick McKinley who liked to look the other way.
And why should the taxpayers keep footing the bill?
What, exactly, will this extra tax pay for? Does it have anything to do with the nightlife in downtown?
I did some reading and they gave some examples of adding shade to the plaza playground and a few benches. What does any of this have to do with vomit and the occasional broken window?
The downtown “costs” that are often quoted by the city manager are mostly for police services. Are the BID taxes going to reimburse the city for the police costs? I doubt it. Why would any of the downtown business owners push for that if they’re already getting those police services today?
Has anyone determined which bars cause most of the problems? There are clearly a few bars that are pretty quiet and many which are over serving.
The FD reports all sorts of activities in downtown related to fights and assaults. Then read the PD blotter and there were two thefts on the east side. No reports of violence in the parking lots or rapes or drunken stupidity…
Good question Bob. Would you be willing to get the info from the police dept. and report back on this subject?
Would love to know the answer to which bars have the most calls / police problems. Pretty easy to figure out which ones it is though….
Who gets to vote on this thing? Is it business owners, or only property owners?
My understanding is that the property owners vote to establish the BID and then they are supposed to pass the new taxes on to the business owners through higher rents, who are then supposed to pass the costs on to the public via higher prices.
It’s a win, win, win situation!
West side guy, to answer your question:
The Echo Team maintains statistics on Last Known Drink (LKD) based upon the information received from individuals during personal contact or through report by other police officers. For purposes of this update each report area (assaults, disturbances, public drunkenness, etc.) recorded by the Echo Team was reviewed using calendar year 2009 as the evaluation period. A minimum threshold of 5 incidents in anyone area was considered a concern. Under these parameters four problem areas were identified. These areas are public drunkenness, driving under the influence, fight calls, and public urination.
Revolucion had the only level of public drunkenness meeting the criteria with (9) incidents. The highest numbers of driving under the influence incidents were associated with The Slidebar (18), Ziing’s (10) and Revolucion (8). Revolucion had the only level of fight calls meeting the criteria with (7) incidents. The highest numbers of public urination incidents were associated with Revolucion (12), Ziing’s (11) and The Slidebar (10).
So how is the Revolucion not getting any guff from PD / Council on this? They sound like a HUGE problem for Downtown…and now I see Zing’s is expanding to add to it?
Same with Slidebar — when does the city finally step in?
Those are interesting statistics about Revolucion and the like…. Its so obvious the places that are masquerading as restaurants but are really operating as night clubs and dance clubs!
There is so much room for improvement in the Fullerton restaurant scene…
Would you ever even think of going to Revolucion for dinner???
Get a life people