Get Down Downtown Holiday Celebration Approved 3-2

BRADENTON – The Bradenton City Council was torn on whether to change the date for the city’s monthly gathering, Get Down Downtown. A conflict with an adjacent church concert is expected to cause major parking issues on Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. The variation passed 3-2, with council members Marianne Barnebey and Harold Byrd. Jr. opposing.

”We wanted to make it more of a holiday extravaganza than regular get down,“ said Cork Miller, president of the Old Main Street Merchants Association.

December’s Get Down Downtown event will take place on a Friday, rather than the normal Thursday with hours extended until 11:00 p.m. Attendees should be prepared for parking difficulty since the Baptist Church is hosting a Diamond Rio concert from 6:00-9:00 p.m., which will overlap the downtown holiday event.

It has become a recent pattern to have the better part of city council meetings spent on issues regarding downtown. Monday’s long discussion prompted staff and officials to question protocol.

”Public events are taking a toll on city meetings,“ said Carl Callahan. ”We need to find a better way internally to handle these because it’s getting to be an issue. On an executive level, the process needs to be streamlined.“

Callahan recommended forming a second committee to handle fully-completed event applications, but council member Gene Gallo warned of consequences.

”Before you make comments like that, you better be prepared to hire someone to do these events,“ Gallo said. 

It was a blame game in the Chamber on Monday. Fingers pointed left and right over solid waste concerns, enforcement issues, open containers and glass on the street.

Enforcement issues came down to manpower. Police said they may start issuing more tickets for open container while before people get to know the rules. But what are the rules exactly? Even some council members seemed to be unfamiliar with common downtown practice.

Downtown Alcoholic Beverage Rules

1. On normal nights when Main Street is not closed, customers may sit outside certain bars if they dump the contents of their drink into a plastic cup. If they travel with their open container to another bar, they could face a fine of $500.
2. On nights when the road is closed, consumers may travel from bar to bar or drink in the street as long as they don’t have glass bottles.
3. Anyone wishing to sit outside of a bar at anytime is required to dump the contents of their beverage into a plastic cup before going outside.
4. No glass is allowed outside -- ever.
5. No outside alcohol is to be brought into an event or bar -- ever.
6. No one under the age of 21 can drink at any bar or event – ever.
7. No alcohol can be take outside the coned-off designated event boundaries – ever.

”We’re just never going to be 100 percent successful – it’s realistically not going to happen. As awareness goes up, we will have fewer incidents,“ said Mayor Wayne Poston.