Descrição
The time has come to retire Larkfest. Anyone who walked the area today and tonight saw our streets, sidewalks, tree beds, front yards and stoops destroyed with trash, food, cigarette butts, broken bottles, spilled alcohol, etc. Other than the bars, many of the businesses say Lark Fest actually decreases their business and certainly does not result in increased revenue. On top of that, tax dollars have to be spent on increased police and DGS presence and overtime. The Executive Director of the BID does not live here, so makes decisions without experiencing the ramifications. Larkfest was intended to be a celebration of what we have to offer, but it hasn't been that for a long time. It merely reinforces the stereotype that all this area has to offer is alcohol which further injures the neighborhood economically and otherwise. Then, when the official "Larkfest" ends, even greater problems of noise, drunkenness, public urination, vomiting, fighting, property destruction, etc. go into full swing until after 4:00 AM bar closings. All told this event negatively affects the area for at least 24 hours. The people who live here, and invest in this community every day, are left to manage this mess with no balancing benefit. The BID needs to show the neighborhood, in unequivocal provable data, how this event helps retail businesses and restaurants (whose primary business is not alcohol, pizza, or ice cream), and how the cost for the event (in time, money, effort, manpower, damage, lost parking, lost street access, lost sleep and quality of life etc.) is worth what it does to the neighborhood and its reputation.
48 Comentários
City of Albany Admin 3 (Oficial Verificado)
ZingingCutie44 (Utilizador Registado)
StateStreetFighter (Utilizador Registado)
JohnnyTsunami (Utilizador Registado)
StateStreetFighter (Utilizador Registado)
basia (Utilizador Registado)
StateStreetFighter (Utilizador Registado)
412 Broadway (Utilizador Registado)
Neigh (Utilizador Registado)
Neigh (Utilizador Registado)
tomeasterly (Utilizador Registado)
StateStreetFighter (Utilizador Registado)
Display Name Blocked (125200) (Utilizador Registado)
dragonflower (Utilizador Registado)
Pint Sized (Utilizador Registado)
basia (Utilizador Registado)
ng (Utilizador Registado)
ZingingCutie44 (Utilizador Registado)
I agree with an increased police presence and possibly maybe DGS crews working during the festival. This brings in people from all over the Capital Region which spend money in our city at local businesses, which brings in tax revenue for the county which would otherwise be going to Rensselaer, Schenectady, Saratoga, etc.
If you're worried about public drunkenness, et. al., then why don't we also cancel all holidays, esp. New Year's and Thanksgiving? The bars need to do a better job keeping an eye on how much their customers are having and maybe the city needs to step in to ensure bars have and are enforcing policies to make sure people don't get stumble-drunk.
Naked Lady (Utilizador Registado)
ZingingCutie44 (Utilizador Registado)
TrashPickerUpper (Utilizador Registado)
Colleen Ryan (Utilizador Registado)
Hi all - Sorry I'm so late to this lively debate. Was busy cleaning blood off the corner of Lark & Lancaster where a guy got shoved through a window. So much FUN!!!
But seriously, having lived through some 15 Lark Fests on my block, it is getting worse, not better. Super cute that the new kids think we can "work to make Lark Fest better" but that ship has sailed. The property owners who live around Lark Street pay very high taxes and maintain a beautiful and safe neighborhood, so people can literally come in and POOP, PEE and VOMIT on it. (Not sure what kind of language gets banned from SCF.)
We are criticized for being "complainers" for asking for enforcement of laws on the regular - not just around Lark Fest (see ATV and Dirtbike complaints.) I am waiting for the "if you don't like it why don't you move" comment ... but you see, without us, the neighborhood is no longer desirable and festival-goers will have to find someplace else to destroy.
Display Name Blocked (125200) (Utilizador Registado)
ZingingCutie44 (Utilizador Registado)
Colleen Ryan (Utilizador Registado)
ZingingCutie44 (Utilizador Registado)
W (Utilizador Registado)
Wow I have a feeling that it's my Gen X generation complaining about all of this stuff. I went to Lark Fest from my teenage years and well into my 20's if not longer. Since my young years I've lived right off Lark.
I refuse to be the get off my lawn person. I had fun back in the day and I'm not going to stop other people. People using the streets as a bathroom happens every weekend so that's hardly the issue here. Yes you need to plan around it if you live there.
Let people have their one day. The hammer was already put down on the St Patrick's parade.
Colleen Ryan (Utilizador Registado)
ZingingCutie44 (Utilizador Registado)
ZingingCutie44 (Utilizador Registado)
MasterOfDisaster (Utilizador Registado)
MasterOfDisaster (Utilizador Registado)
W (Utilizador Registado)
I wouldn't go to Saratoga or anywhere else and do that. I'm betting some idiots do it every weekend though just like they do in Albany. It gets ramped up for one day for Lark Fest but I could walk around Center Square any weekend morning and find something disgusting.
That some people are raising disgusting pigs is another conversation. I don't see these things as any worse than they were in the past. I don't think as I get older that the neighborhood should age with me. Seems like there were actually a lot more hardcore things happening on Lark way back in the good old days. :) I'm sure people older than me were complaining about us.
I just don't get the outcry over one day when you're in the middle of a bar district. It's one day people. Go out, have a few drinks, grab some food and enjoy the music.
TrashPickerUpper (Utilizador Registado)
ZingingCutie44 (Utilizador Registado)
I just want to take a second to recognize that I posted my full name and phone number on this post. This is the second such post on which I have done so.
And despite all these "concerned" citizens, I have yet to receive a call or a text about either issue.
Colleen Ryan (Utilizador Registado)
412 Broadway (Utilizador Registado)
W (Utilizador Registado)
412 Broadway I'd say it's a societal problem but getting rid of Lark Fest doesn't change it. When I was young I used to hang out on Lark, Pearl or other bar areas. I've always been able to figure out how to use a trash can or go inside someplace and use a bathroom. Of course I worked starting as a teenager so I think I always had a sense of not trying to make someone's job tougher by making a mess.
I have no idea if things are really so much worse or if as you age you think they are. I go to the Corning Preserve every day and on the weekend I'm astounded by the mess left after people picnic all day. Ten trash cans and garbage all over. That's really an eyesore if anyone wants to enjoy that, although is probably over for the season.
There are great neighborhoods all over this city and they each have their pluses and minuses. If you want to live around Lark you have to deal with bar patrons and Lark Fest and Tulip Fest. If you want to live up in the Helderberg area you have put in a little more effort when you want to eat out.
I went to my first Lark Fest probably over 30 years ago. It was always crazy and fun and a drinking event and I'm sure that 50 year old people living there at the time were out shaking their canes at all the kids. :)
Now what they really should cancel is the July 4th fireworks. Holy cow talk about a headache. No parking, streets at a standstill, motorcycles parked on the sidewalk in front of the house. Get off my lawn! And the sound scares my cat! Chill out a little people. Life is too short.
Local Albany (Utilizador Registado)
Watching out for Our Citizens (Utilizador Registado)
"The Lark Street BID did an excellent job this year." How do you know just what they did? I assume you are on the BID and are being a bid defensive? How do you know that the complaints of residents are not valid? For every person who complains on a site like this you can bet there are many more who are similarly unhappy. Perhaps making the festival better is a possible solution. But that won't happen when the people expressing concerns are hammered for bringing it up.
09/23/2018 · Flag
Pint Sized (Utilizador Registado)
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