Sacramento leaders count first to-go drink events as wins, approve more
Civic leaders, this week, chalked up Sacramento’s first two to-go drinks events as early successes, and paved the way for more.
The events were organized after California lawmakers passed legislation allowing cities to establish so-called “entertainment zones,” wherein bars and restaurants can sell open containers of alcohol which patrons may enjoy outdoors during designated events in designated locations. San Francisco was an early adopter, and businesses there reported early success with dramatic increases in sales during block parties and holiday celebrations.
Sacramento’s City Council approved a pilot program to create entertainment zones in June. Under the common alcohol regulations, some small businesses had complained that they were boxed out from festivals, and attendees who chose to drink outdoors were shuffled into small, fenced-off areas. Still, local and state officials had to allay fears that they were opening the door for out-of-control revelry.
“We’re not trying to become a Mardi Gras city,” Tina Lee-Vogt, Sacramento’s nighttime economy manager, said in April, as elected officials considered establishing the pilot program.
The city’s first two “entertainment zone” events were the Rainbow Festival in August, at 20th and K streets, and the Terra Madre Americas food festival near the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center in September.
Lee-Vogt said Wednesday that there were no major public safety incidents. The Rainbow Festival reported an increase in attendance compared to the previous year, and businesses reported higher sales. (Attendance for the festival in September, she said, was not comparable to previous years, because it combined with another event.)
“I think the events were really well-managed,” Lee-Vogt said.
Organizers felt some sense of trepidation before the first entertainment zone event, acknowledged Sacramento Midtown Association Executive Director Emily Baime Michaels. But it appeared to go well. The association would now like to see the area around 24th and K streets become an entertainment zone, too.
Sacramento’s City Council on Tuesday passed an ordinance creating two new zones, in the Ice Blocks shopping district on R and S streets, and a section of the Handle District bounded by 18th and 19th streets, and Capitol and L streets.
Dion Dwyer, managing partner of MMS Strategies, which administers the R Street Partnership, said it hadn’t selected an event to pilot the “entertainment zone” designation. The Ice Blocks district tends to host smaller-scale events, he said, like night markets, gallery walks and maker’s fairs.
But the group already has ambitions beyond 15th Street. The first map it proposed to the city, he said, stretched practically to the freeway.
“If they allowed us one big district, I’d love it,” Dwyer said.
