Quote:
Originally Posted by NME22
Sounds like Rob wants a Gold Rush Amusement Park. Which actually sounds like a great idea for the area. Just not in Old Sac.
A city can't manufacture culture. They can only help to provide the impetus behind it. Old sac already has musicians on the corner, sparingly. If there is to be more, then there has to be more foot traffic and profit to be made by the artist. You can not place city paid street performers out there. Same with actors in period piece costumes. If the city would like to do period re-enactments once a week for an hour, that is fine. But it can't be a constant thing without it feeling contrived and forced.
The only way this gets off the ground is with more housing in old sac and around it. More foot traffic. Loosening of some restrictions, such as hours of operation and noise restrictions. The citizens and supply and demand will take care of the rest.
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Indeed. Let street buskers operate independently, it seems silly to suggest that they be required to stick to a particular genre, or have to jump through all sorts of hoops just to play music on the street. Or set up a very simple system like that used on the 3rd Street promenade in Santa Monica--they pay a small fee ($20-30) and read a little booklet with the basic rules for street musicians (where you can and can't play, etc.) and here's your permit.
In terms of loosening restrictions, some new rules introduced in the zoning code last year make it easier to put residential units into historic buildings (including ignoring maximum density limits as long as it's within the old building envelope) mean it's theoretically easier to put housing into Old Sacramento and other old, vacant or underutilized buildings nearby (legislation that SOCA advocated for, along with reduced or eliminated parking minimums for projects in old buildings). Residents create foot traffic and become the core customers for neighborhood businesses--visitors add to that number, and tourists add even more. Of course, not everyone wants to live in that amusement-park atmosphere, but you don't need an enormous population in that six-block area. Restrictions on hours have more to do with the local business community than city regulation--heck, a couple years ago I went to a Planning Commission meeting to advocate in favor of having a proposed downtown 7-11 remain open 24 hours, while representatives of the Convention & Visitors Bureau and the local hotel association spoke in opposition to allowing it, because having a late-night business next to the Convention Center and a downtown hotel would give the "wrong impression." Their actions, and their discomfort with late-night businesses, residential and 24 hour uses, are a major reason why downtown Sacramento has so few late night uses--such as the Perko's on 3rd and J which has to close down between 2 and 5 AM, unlike pretty much every other Perko's.
There's also plenty of room for organized public programming--from reenactors and interpretive events to public-funded music events and concerts. Why not? It's part of the appeal and people like it. A lot of those folks are volunteers, like the volunteers who operate the Railroad Museum's passenger trains, while others are paid staff, like the tour guides who run the Underground Sidewalks tours. But there is no inherent contradiction between interpretive/historic functions and more contemporary entertainment, or street buskers playing music that isn't 100% authentic Gold Rush era music (which dixieland jazz, as I mentioned, absolutely
is not.)
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