Friday, January 5, 2007
Drinking and Downtown Development?
Since when is getting people drunk a viable strategy to downtown revitaliation? Evidently, Toledo believes it is the best thing for our community. I am talking about organized "pub crawls" that take people from bar to bar where they are encouraged to spend money on drinks. But it is "safe" because no one is driving, they are using buses to take people from bar to bar. Well this is all well and good until one of these new tools of economic development gets dropped off at their car to go home. Is this a value we hold true, has our community come to the point where we resort to getting people drunk as the only way to revitalize the downtown? Obviously Channel 24 in Toledo thinks this is a good idea as demonstrated through their promotion of the event, it was their "Big Story"http://http://www.nbc24.com/Global/story.asp?s=5899881. Is this really news? They tried to couch the drinking issue by saying the bus only runs until 9:00 "not late enough to allow people to get drunk, but eat" I did not know that over drinking was time sensitive. If the bus is designed to encourage people to stay downtown and eat than why is it called a "Pub Crawl"? This sends the wrong mesage to our children in our commuity What can you do? Call, write, e-mail our media and commuity leaders and let them know this is just not acceptable.
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4 comments:
If driving under the influence or while intoxicated isn't enough - there is another factor of concern --alcohol poisoning. Pub Crawls encourage the consumption of a lot of alcohol in a short time period which affects the brain's normal functions. Breathing, heart rate slows way down -- and blood pressure drops. People can lose consciousness and can even die. Pub Crawls are dangerous and create conditions for deadly consequences. Perhaps the community and Channel 24 specifically could reconsider -- as the next news could be the less-than-appealing consequences of accidents or alcohol poisoning or worse in which they will have played a contributing part.
I just read an article about Missouri legislature banning alcohol vaporizing equipment and use. http://myaapreventuad.blogspot.com/
Also on that site is an article that tells of the retailer Linens n Things removing all drinking games from their shelves. Hats off to Linens n Things!!!
I think the strategy of using alcohol as a way to spurr on economic development is a penny wise and a pound foolish. The concept will generate dollars in the short term until someone gets hurt or the crowds become so tainted that people stop comming.
Lets see what will happen when the fights become more prevelent or the patrons begin to display the activities that intoxicated people normally perform and run those that dont want to get into trouble away. How about dealing with the law suits that are sure to come because of the misbehavior of those who have to much.
All i can say is that drinking makes life worst.Habit of drinking
is injurious to health and takes
you far from the ladder of success.
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kate
Drug Intervention
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