Anyone who wants to look at a parallel example of what our own downtown is becoming need look no further than … well … Rome. An article in the New York Times on Tuesday paints a picture of the historic medieval district of Trastevere—just south of Vatican City on the west bank of the Tiber—and other ancient parts of central Rome around Piazza Navona and Campo dei Fiori, just a “stone’s throw from where Julius Caesar met his treacherous end,” as being under siege by “booze-soaked” tourists (mostly from America and Northern Europe) that have made these areas living hell for residents, some of whose families have been there since Christians were fed to lions.
According to professor, architect and Rome historian Giuseppe Strappa, “the trouble started more than a decade ago when the city decided to transform the historic center … into an entertainment destination, leading many ancient palazzos to be gutted and turned into restaurants and bars. If it continues like this for ten years, we will no longer have a historic center.”
One resident, Ms. Flaminia Borghese, a member of the famed noble family and the president of a homeowner’s group, describes the situation as “unbelievable” and says that “there is a total lack of control. The foreigners come here because they know that they can do whatever they want.” A Trastevere bookshop owner who lived in the area until recently says, “There’s been a change in the style of drinking. It is now socially acceptable to walk around with an open bottle of beer, and that was not the case five years ago.”
The troublemakers have been enticed to Trastevere and central Rome by nightclub/bars that sound like branches of our own downtown San Jose group. Places with names like Sloppy Sam’s and the Zeta Lounge advertise “ladies nights” and have come-ons like all you can drink for a low fixed price. The result is a clash between the quiet, civilized culture of the ancient neighborhoods and boorish visitors looking to party and drink the most for the least, leading to night after night of loud drunken behavior, and trashed streets and piazzas. The photograph accompanying the article says it all. It looks like San Pedro Square early on a Sunday morning.
Ms. Borghese’s group is demanding greater noise control measures and police patrols. The city says it has enacted various measures such as limiting traffic, installing surveillance cameras, increasing police presence and requiring that glass bottles be replaced with plastic cups late at night. None of this seems to have had any affect whatsoever and some residents are starting to leave the areas affected for other, quieter parts of the city.
Many of the visitors come on cheap package tours organized by specialty tour operators shamelessly promoting pub crawls and exciting nightlife experiences. With 20 million tourists a year passing through Rome, it is easy to see how this sort of thing could happen quickly. But the crux of the matter is that the situation has been created by a city government pandering to the desires of those who care for nothing except profiting from selling large quantities of alcohol to any and all comers who are then allowed to cause disruptions and misbehave in a manner that they would not do in their own homes.
Does any of this sound familiar?
We bitch and bitch and bitch while offering “solutions” like profiling to target trouble-makers. Oh, but now a famous city with ten times our history seems to have the same problem and suddenly our bitching is justified, no matter if it solves anything.
I think Dale Warner has the right idea: EXPAND DOWNTOWN. Hell, call it Uptown if you want to. I don’t care. If everyone has room to do their own thing, nobody has to cry.
Look at East San Jose. People aren’t here complaining about any issues there because it’s not a place these bloggers desire to spend their time. It never occured to people that our nightlife could exist beyond the one block or so we currently have.
Leave it to my fellow San Joseans to think small-time. I didn’t realize this was Morgan Hill Inside…
Can’t do any better than the originals.
“There’s no there there”
– Gertrude Stein
(Referring to Oakland, of course.)
“You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.”
and,
“If you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.”
-Yogi Berra
(Overheard while visiting the planning department?)
“Nobody goes there anymore; it’s too crowded.”
-YB
(He must have visited downtown SJ.)
#4- For once I agree with you. Downtown doesn’t need to be the focal point of entertainment. There are lots of areas where these clubs could be relocated and spread through out the city. Personally, I don’t like downtown, and don’t go there much any more, too gross for me.
I agree with Jack, we are reaping what we’ve sown. So now what do we do about it?
What’s wrong that? The party revelers have fun at night and make Rome vibrant just like the rest of European cities. Rome just freaks out because they don’t know how to handle the scene. Just check out Toronto, Montreal, Sydney and SF. They’re vibrant and rowdy, and they all these kind of problems. Another choice is being like downtown LA or Fresno, where it’s like being in a ghost town. You don’t want that, and we can find a way to mitigate the problems of drunkness, unruly people and thug-types hanging out in the area.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the Mafia controlled the nightclubs in both Rome and San Jose.
Jack…. Do you think it would help if a dozen or so affected downtown residents offered to do a 30 day home-exchage with Council members and Police Cheif?
I am glad to see that understanding is dawning on fans of downtown that all is not well. Yes, downtown is being metastasized into a 24/7 entertainment center (a kind of urban core playground) with lots of “bustle,” a favorite term of the planning department.
But not to fear, a respectable serious downtown is being rebuilt along streets that serve as “transportation corridors” to and from downtown. For an example of this, go to:
http://www.sanjoseca.gov/planning/nsj/
The first picture shows North First Street along with its fabulous light rail as it is today. The second picture is the goal of the planning department and clearly shows a mature, businesslike, and serious downtown albeit expressed in a linear fashion.
The decisions by the city council to make this happen were taken during the first half of 2005.
Our troubles can be traced to 1776, when we tried to go it alone. We had a choice:
King George III – British accents, James Bond, Spice Girls, Shakespeare, Forrest Williams, Churchill, Isaac Newton, 4 o’clock tea
or
George Washington – Bronx accents, Milli Vanilli, Watergate, Chuck Reed, meth, LSD, Vietnam War, 1929 stock market crash, SJ Downtown Association
Brother, we made the wrong choice.
Jack, I live four blocks from the epicenter of the San Jose Grand Prix, and under the constantant aircraft curfew violators landing at SJ Mineta International airport.
I can decide not to venture into downtown bars, but I have to accept the rest, or move out of the area. Our neighborhood is trying to keep order of what enmities we have left. However, just like a lynch mob at the gates, it’s only a matter of time before they break through. Until then, I will continue to enjoy everything else that’s good about San Jose and my neighborhood.
Maybe they need to build city-operated parking garages in Rome and charge $5.00 after 10:00 p.m. on weekends. That’ll surely solve their problem.
So, Kathleen #6, you want to spread the pain to all areas of SJ. That’s equal opportunity for ya. Under your plan, all the neighborhoods get to be disturbed by drunken rowdys. HHHmmm, you must live downtown.
I agree with sentiment that there should be other areas outside of downtown where the citizens of the city can go for entertainment. The one commonality between the best cities I have ever visited is that each of those great cities had numerous neighborhood business districts that were vibrant, walkable, and welcoming. Districts with retail buildings with their entrances on the sidewalk that made you feel that the business were actually part of the community. Neighborhood residents could easily walk from homes to these places where they could shop, get groceries, eat out at a restaurant, sit in a cafe or coffee shop, get a drink at the local bar, etc. These area areas where the majority of the businesses are locally owned and operated and tightly integrated with the local community.
This is where San Jose is lacking. The only places that even slightly resemble this type of area is Lincoln in Willow Glen, The Alameda, and Japantown. IMO, San Jose should focus on developing these existing business districts and create others around the city. One of the reasons that downtown has so many bars and clubs is that there aren’t too many places within San Jose, outside of downtown, that even has a decent bar. I live in Willow Glen, and whenever I meet up with old friends for drinks we always end up in DT San Jose, DT Los Gatos or Campbell. It would be nice to have a local watering hole in my own neighborhood.
#10- Not all clubs are for the young and drunk! I’ve been to some nice clubs for older crowds in SF, Half Moon Bay (They have a lovely Jazz night in a restaurant on the main strip), in Carmel, and in Los Gatos. San Jose is really lacking NICE clubs for we older types.
God no I don’t live in downtown! You couldn’t pay me enough to live there…. :-(