Northgate, Nerds, and Nincompoop Legislatures...

Okay, so just a quick post of outrage.

So I'm a nerd. And the other day while flipping channels, I stumbled across a rebroadcast of our city council discussing the drinking ban in the Northgate promenade. Yes, I stopped and watched, for a good while I watched. I am a nerd.

Now here's the quick deal about Northgate and the promenade...

Northgate is the main bar district in College Station. Oh, we have restaurants and a few retail shops there as well, but its known for its beer. Ever heard of the Dixie Chicken? Its there. So a few years ago, in order to move drunks off the sidewalks in front of Northgate (one of the busiest streets in town), as well as for economic development and to just make the place look pretty... our city council spent $18 million dollars...still not sure how they did that...creating the Northgate promenade. This is a nice little place behind the bars with brick pavers and benches and whatnot. And its nice. They did a nice job building it even if they over-spent by about 17..5 million

Point was, on a nice night, you could walk out with your beer or drink of choice and sit with your friends in the night air and be safe and joyful. Now, some dipwads started bringing their own booze and blah blah blah, the police claim there was an escalation of crime and so on. Now, I dunno. I'll accept their word.

But how does the city respond, and this is where I get ticked off, by banning drinking in the promenade. Great, they just created an $18 million dollar park that no one would visit unless they were drinking, and they ban drinking there. Brilliant.

But to their credit, its not all their fault. The state regulation on liquor licenses is so bought and paid for by lobbyists, and thus SO complex that the city really didn't have much choice anyhow. It seems there every bar could agree to pay for licensing part of the promenade, so long as they barricaded between these. However, the state is okay with that barricade being cheap orange construction fence, of course...

Basically, its ridiculous. I'm pissed at the city council for wasting $18 million dollars without bothering to even look into legality, I'm pissed at the legislature for making such ridiculous laws, and I'm pissed because writing all of this is making me mighty thirsty for a Killian's, and its only 8:43 am.