The original intent for the open container law was awesome, and I liked it. BUT its had unintended consequences. People are showing up and not spending any money in the cotton district. That leads to problems. This weekend isn't the first time either.
This is usually the answer when places rein it in, and still keep what they have. It's still a delicate balance to get it right.
Its definitely not true.
Any time you have a large group of people congregating and drinking and doing drugs and not going into the businesses around them is going to lead to a problem.
Youd be wrong.
The cotton district was perfect safe for a 21 year old female about 6 years ago. Damn sure was in 2007 to 2012.
No its not. The problem has been growing since football season of last year. Maybe before.
They can do all of this. They just don't for some reason.
The loitering and drinking in the parking lot was happening at the sprint mart by the highlands and at the sprint mart by Harvey’s too. They certainly don’t have open container laws. I promise you that’s not in the thought process
I promise you it is.
There’s no need in changing the open container law, I really enjoy getting a draft beer from boardtown and walking to the stadium. All that needs to be done is enforce the loitering laws that are already in place.
Basically what you want to do is to do away the entertainment district. That's a legit opinion but say so. That was the way it was for decades.
That's possible, but even if it's true, that doesn't mean the open container law didn't help create a problem. Social behavior of groups can be unpredictable and small changes can shift the equilibrium a good bit. Before allowing any open containers on the street, there was basically no reason to come hang out in the District outside of the bars and so nobody did (granted I have huge gaps in experience here). You'd pass people walking to and from a place, and maybe stop for a minute or two, but you wouldn't spend twenty mintues hanging outside while people nursed drinks before going to the next place. Once there are some people hanging out outside, even if it's generally just groups finishing a drink, then it becomes more attractive to some people to come and hang out on the street and not spend any money. And for a while, every additional person that comes to hang out and not spend money makes it more attractive to the next person that wants to do that.
I don't want to change it either but if that works i'm all in favor of sacrificing a small thing to get rid of the mess that was this weekend.
No I want to get rid of pieces of $h1t in the entertainment district. Thats easy to do.
spot on and you could see this problem growing.
Yes. All you really need is a place with generally decent people with good foot traffic and they will be safe. Hell, I think that would have been true in most places in our major cities until the most recent defund the police insanity. NYC, Boston, Seattle, Chicago off the top of my head I have been to and been places where I wouldn't have thought anything about a 21 year old walking for an errand from 10:00 to midnight.
Ok, how? How are you going to identify those people? That is how the LEOs and the city have to look at that.
Get rid of anyone loitering outside a bar and not going in.
Easy start would be to stop and frisk everybody around an area that smells like weed. But I'd also bet police could identify the likely problems just on looks alone. It's not like most antisocial people don't basically advertise it by the way they dress and act. You see either of these guys, you watch him like a hawk and stop him if he creates probable cause and just generally make him uncomfortable. Worst case scenario you've annoyed somebody that was just going to slightly degrade the experience without actually committing a crime other than possibly loitering. Best case scenario you snag somebody with a gun or encourage somebody with a gun to not come back. That seems like a decent enough tradeoff.
Ok, so you just basically ended the entertainment district and turned back the clock a couple of decades. As I said, why don't yo just say that. It's a legit opinion. Let's be clear about what you just called for. The only legit reason for being outside a premises is walking to and from your car or home. That isn't a legit entertainment district.
Looks? You gonna pony up when the city loses every single case and lawsuit over it? That is exactly what would happen.
So, say that I park my car in the Cotton District, get out of my car with an unopened bottle of Jack Daniels, walk over to the sidewalk in front of Two Brothers, and just crack it open and start sipping it right there.
But that’s all we are saying. Holy shít. No one is bashing Starkville but simply pointing out that this doesn’t need to get out of control.
