There is an interesting article in the L.A. Times regarding the transformation of Fullerton’s downtown into a raging nightclub scene. Apparently the changes have not exactly been entirely positive. On the one hand the restaurants, bars and nightclubs in downtown Fullerton are a huge hit with O.C.’s young people. On the other hand, the city is having real problems with drunk drivers, fighting and vomiting in the streets. Sounds like New Orleans’ Bourbon Street.
The city tried to fix the nightlife issues by assigning four police officers to the area and by enforcing a moratorium on new liquor licenses for six months. But, as the Times reported, these fixed did not work. Even worse, for O.C. snobs, it turned out that the problem people are NOT from Fullerton, or even from the O.C. in many cases. They hail from the 909 and L.A. Who knew?
Here is the interesting part. All of these troubles are now costing Fullerton $1.5 million a year for fire, police and maintenance. The sales tax revenue however is only $560K. Where I live, in Santa Ana, our city officials tried to pull a Fullerton by establishing an Artists Village. Of course they undermined the scene they were trying to create by making tattoo parlors, massage parlors, and hookah bars illegal. Nevertheless, now we have empirical proof that changing a city’s downtown along these lines is not always worth it to the bottom line.
Recently the Fullerton City Council decided to get a handle on things by passing a new ordinance that “calls for noise limits inside and outside establishments, tighter security, shorter wait lines and conditional-use permits for restaurants that transform into nightclubs after 10 p.m.,” according to the L.A. Times.
The unintended consequence of this ordinance is that it will likely kill the Fullerton nightlife, or at least put a serious hurt on it. I supposed that is the goal. I have a feeling that the party crowd will just go somewhere else. Maybe Anaheim? Or Brea? Certainly not Santa Ana, unless they are either very brave or very foolhardly. Who wants to brave gangs, carjackings and drive-by shootings just to have an evening out?
Maybe Fullerton needs the Orange County Sheriff officers from Mission Viejo be re-assigned to the Fullerton downtown area. They “see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil.” After all Mission Viejo is “America’s Safest City.!!
They will not stop car thefts, but they will shoot to kill.
“Nevertheless, now we have empirical proof that changing a city’s downtown along these lines is not always worth it to the bottom line.”
Does your conclusion REALLY need to be that absolutist? Is it possible that Fullerton just overcooked the idea a bit? Yeah.
What’s the alternative? You could always move to South OC and cloister yourself behind your gated entrance all weekend.
And we all know that the tattoo shops, massage parlors, and hookah bars are causing all those problems in Fullerton!! Right??? Good thing Santa Ana outlawed all those things, now the same thing will NEVER happen here, right???
What kind of half-baked argument is that?
Chris-
You need to go back and read it again. He said that NOT having tattoo parlors, etc ‘undermined’ the scene in SA. He’s saying they SHOULD have been allowed in the Artist’s Village, because despite its creation being a questionable move to begin with, they ironically played it too conservatively with the details for the crowd they were trying to attract and much too liberally with the location. I think by now the question of the Artist’s Village has been answered. It was a waste.
For Fullerton, an ‘Artist’s Village’-like area seems to make much more sense for numerous reasons, especially location, so I think they still have time to turn it around. Plus, it’s beautiful there. It reminds me of home. 🙂
SMS
Ok, I went back and read it again.
It still doesn’t make sense.
Santa Ana didn’t ban those things in the city until recently, so to say they did it to undermine the “scene they were creating” is a strange thing to say. Furthermore, while Downtown Fullerton might have a couple tattoo parlors, I don’t really see any massage parlors or hookah lounges. So I really don’t see how that applies, either.
Saint Chris,
The point is, the nightlife in Fullerton does not mean much in terms of tax revenue for the city, but it does cost a lot, in terms of police services. Santa Ana wants to be Fullerton, but is it really worth it? And how can Santa Ana have a nightlife scene when the Council keeps making everything illegal?
I don’t agree with the city outlawing all those things. Id like to be able to get a tatoo in my city while enjoying a hookah and a happy ending, thank you very much.
BUT!!! Thats NOT the reason there’s no nightlife downtown. They need a MOVIE THEATRE, for one. They need more contemporary shops, and more casual eateries for two and three. Will these things ever happen? Im not holding my breath. But I can dream.