Old Sacramento

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by wburg

Bourbon Street wasn't designed to be a nightlife district--it is first and foremost a neighborhood, and the nightlife appeared organically. While I agree that Old Sacramento could use more housing and stores to serve residents, I don't see much point to tearing out the sidewalks and covering the cobblestones. Old Sacramento succeeds as a tourist destination, whether or not you like it, Chimerique. It also succeeds as a location for all sorts of festivals and public events, all year long. Could it be better? Sure. If you don't like it enough, tough. There are plenty of other places for you to have some nightlife, not every inch of the central city is your personal playground and vomit trough.

There are around half a dozen nightclubs in Old Sacramento right now, not counting Fanny Ann's and the random old Irish pub (and it was a nightclub not too many years ago.) It's not Bourbon Street, but really nowhere else on Earth is Bourbon Street, and Louisiana has very different laws and attitudes about things like mass public drunkenness (they have drive through daquiri places, for crying out loud) and a much greater tolerance for that level of mayhem. There were times over the past 40 years when there were bigger efforts to turn Old Sacramento into a more dedicated nightlife area, but the results were not very successful, in part because a dedicated zone like that turns into a mayhem zone. Case in point: New Year's Eve, 2012.

I'm not sure why you are directing this post at me. I only asked if there were better ways to get to Old Sac besides the path under I-5. Are you drunk?

[wburg]

You and CeJeH need to get more dissimilar handles! Fixed.

[CeJeH]

LOL at bars and nightclubs turning Downtown into a "Vomit Trough." It's almost as if you don't even realize how dead Downtown and Midtown would be if it weren't for all the nightlife dragging people back to the grid over the last decade.

[wburg]

Actually I do, I'm part of that nightlife community and have seen the ebb and flow of these venues over the past 20 years. It brings economic activity and opportunity for those in the arts, but it also bring fights, muggings, and yes, vomit. Those can be managed if club owners have some measure of responsibility and things aren't just allowed to degenerate.

Although I should mention that over the past 20 years, the central city actually lost population. What is making the difference now is housing, not necessarily nightlife. Nightlife is a bonus, it is part of the greater arts community but it's not the savior of the city's economy.