The People's Guide is Curbed SF's tour o' the nabes, led by our most loyal readers, favorite bloggers, and other luminaries of our choosing. This week, we welcome Jackson West on board as a guest contributor; Jackson has been blogging in and about San Francisco for nearly five years, most recently gossiping about the technology industry at Valleywag. Join Jackson every day this week as he says his piece about the NB. Want to say yours, blogger? Holler!
It's getting to be that time of year again— the time of year when everyone has an opinion about the North Beach Festival. Two years ago the event was almost canceled because of concerns over alcohol and whether or not the event was "family friendly." This year, instead of "think of the children!" the anti-festival party line seems to be "think of the grass!" Yes, the fight over the fest has devolved into an actual turf war. And as if to make it perfectly clear what's at stake, fencing has surrounded the park for weeks, installed to protect newly laid sod.
I'm not really sure where the antipathy originated. North Beach puts up with thousands of tourists every day, and every weekend, thousands of drunks at varying levels of belligerence. Local merchants reportedly do quite well, with every bar and eatery packed for blocks. The only thing I can imagine is that it's in keeping with a certain level of NIMBYism that's begun to infest San Francisco city life and politics, from the Haight to the Castro, from Folsom Street to Washington Square Park.
Continue reading "The People's Guide: North Beach Blogged, Day 4"
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At this year's North Beach Festival, the nabes wants to make the park a sobriety zone. Why? Well, because they see the square as "the neighborhood's backyard." (Aren't backyards traditionally places where people gather, eat, drink, and generally partake in communal merriment?) A couple of years back, Washington Square was divided in a decision that could have been made by Solomon himself: Drinking was made legal on one half of the park, while the other was reserved for those throwing vitriolic stares at drunks on the other side. All the park was pissed off. Brace for this year's plan, up for review this week: It calls for vendors to stop selling beer in the park, which will instead become an "all ages beer garden." Washington Square Park: Zeitgeist for the entire family.
