WILMINGTON — After a successful pilot program and months of clearing the framework for social districts to be accepted citywide, one area of Wilmington now has a permanent footprint to allow of-aged drinkers to open-carry.
READ MORE: Parking a main concern for residents when it comes to permanent BAD social district
ALSO: Council sets framework for citywide social district considerations
On Tuesday evening, Wilmington City Council passed the Brooklyn Arts District social district in a 5-2 vote, with council members Kevin Spears and Salette Andrews dissenting. The social district will take place the first and third Saturdays monthly, noon to 5 p.m. — not every Saturday as the Brooklyn Arts District Collective at first requested.
However, the goal is to reassess the program in six months and consider amending the ordinance to become an every-Saturday event.
The first official date is scheduled for Oct. 4, according to Tara English who helped lead the BAD Collective throughout the approval process.
BAD first launched three pilot social district days in February to test the waters on people being allowed to openly carry alcohol purchased from area businesses within a 10-block footprint. Roughly 20 businesses participated along the Fourth Street corridor, from Walnut to N. Front streets, with a small offshoot onto Third Street to encompass Eagle’s Dare. Over the course of the three days, it brought in 8,000 people.
The goal of the district was to boost business in the area — including restaurants, breweries, bars, art galleries, retail shops and more. Many reported record-breaking sales, and also hosted local musicians and vendors to sell art, wares and other handmade items that support grassroots commerce.
Christiana Stroud of The Kitchen Sink said food sales outpaced her alcohol sales all three days and referred to the event as basically “an art and food crawl.” She said it defied any descriptor of welcoming untoward, drunken behavior. This was confirmed by others who spoke during public comment Tuesday night, describing the social district as family-friendly.
“It promoted a real sense of community,” said Anne Hogan, a resident on Pender Avenue in the BAD.
She applauded how well-organized the pilot was and supported its continuation.
Pizzeria Don Luca owner Alex White echoed a similar sentiment and added with more than 50 cities in North Carolina now hosting social districts, it felt like the state’s prime tourist destination was “behind the eight ball.” He told council while his business benefited from increased sales, the program also boosts sales taxes and parking deck fees for the city, as well as enhanced tourism appeal.
“It will catalyze investment,” White further predicted. “There are several vacant lots over there on Fourth Street that are prime … and that somebody is going to jump on as soon as this thing passes.”
But not everyone who spoke agreed. A few members from Fourth Street’s Bethesda Christian Life Church were in attendance and worried a permanent social district would promote more of a party-goer atmosphere in their neighborhood and become a gateway to alcoholism.
Church member Norris London said while he didn’t have anything against drinking, he thought allowing it publicly threatened moral safety, among “opportunities for strife, violence, [and] corruption of others.”
Vera Shaver, administrator of Bethesda, said the church owns multiple properties in the block.
“We were a little gobsmacked when we found out about this in mid-August,” she said, adding they weren’t aware of the pilot program either but strongly opposed it.
As part of the permanent social district’s requirements, the BAD Collective had to notify all property owners within 500 feet of the district footprint, which came out to 575. Only 28 letters were returned, according to the city.
The group also had to host a community meeting. BAD Collective held two — on Aug. 12 and 19 at the Brooklyn Arts Center Annex. Church-goers turned out to speak against it at the latter meeting.
“My primary concern is the potential cost to lives, particularly the impact to young people,” Shaver continued, adding that increasing business sales isn’t worth the risk. “You cannot put a price tag on them.”
Shaver detailed this was personal to her as well; coming from a family of multi-generational alcoholics, she saw firsthand how young people can be compelled to drink. More so, she thought promoting laws that allowed open-carry went against decorum and public safety.
This also was a concern of nearby resident James Stokes.
“Alcohol doesn’t make anything better, it makes it worse,” he said, calling it poison that alters one’s brain and actions. “It’s a drug — just like cocaine or marijuana.”
Mayor Pro Tem Clifford Barnett asked if the collective considered working with the church to host alcoholism-education classes or partnering in other ways to build a better relationship. Though it hadn’t, Commodore Kitchen owner Brian Westlye said earlier in the meeting his crew underwent mandatory ABC training with the ALE recently, and Scott Wagner, owner of the Goat and Compass, added his staff is seasoned and appropriately trained, particularly when it comes to preventing underage drinking and cutting off people who have reached their consumption limit.
“I’d be willing to bet that WPD, ALE, ABC, and the downtown task force can count on one hand how many issues they’ve had with Goat and Compass in 18 years,” Wagner said.
Deputy Manager Chad McEwen clarified the BAD social district ordinance could be amended at any time, including suspension by the city manager if anything happens that threatens public safety. Then it would appear again before the council to decide how to move forward.
This was championed by Wagner and White, who encouraged council to utilize the measure should anything become unruly.
“We’re just asking for you to allow adults to act like adults,” Wagner said, before reiterating not one complaint was made to police, fire, EMS or otherwise during the pilot.
McEwen confirmed the program would not burden resources further on the city. In fact, the collective agreed to decrease the number of days it hosted a social district for the first six months due to trash pick-up concerns the advisory committee had. The committee met twice ahead of its approval suggestion to council.
“The city provides trash for six of the businesses in the district and everybody else has private trash services,” Wagner told council.
The BAD Collective and WDI will handle all extraneous trash collection, as they did during the pilot.
Parking has been scrutinized most by area residents and was the main issue raised at the collective’s Aug. 12 community meeting, as reported previously by PCD. Some detailed having to park blocks away to reach their homes, as the district has on-street parking for most condos, apartments and historic residences.
As part of the permanent social district, McEwen revealed during those Saturdays, the 700 block would be sectioned off as a loading zone for residents. He added the city and participants would also promote a heavy campaign to direct social district participants to area parking decks, such as Skyline, and away from the BAD.
Still, resident Ty Greene told council with 100 residential units in the immediate vicinity, there should be a more permanent fix, having suggested at the August meeting a historic district parking tag program. Parking on Fourth Street remains free, though downtown’s parking advisory committee has considered adding meters there — which Greene also opposes. Nothing has been pushed forward one way or another.
“You can see here,” Greene pointed at the council meeting to the presentation and petitions that came in. “That’s a lot of people coming into our neighborhood to park.”
The city received four petitions regarding the social district — two against and two for. Those opposed garnered around 250 signatures altogether, while those in favor received almost 1,300 signatures cumulatively.
“I’m not opposed to the social district plan at all,” Greene clarified. “All we need is parking for our maintained success.”
Greene hoped to see signage posted in the vicinity that forced social district patrons to park elsewhere than along Fourth Street and suggested also utilizing the area’s empty lots.
Mayor Saffo said he supported hearing back from the collective and city after six months about how the parking was working. But also he wanted to know if concerns expressed by the public overall would come to fruition.
“Based on what we have seen in the trial period, it doesn’t seem like there were problems — all of you have done a phenomenal job,” he said. “But our biggest concern is that when we do have activity, sometimes it gets into the neighborhoods and people do have a concern about that. And rightfully so. … Areas become popular, people come here, and we should at least reevaluate in six months with you guys bringing back a report publicly. I think that’s fair to everyone concerned here.”
Some of the social district days will coincide with large events planned in the Brooklyn Arts District, according to English. This includes Day of the Dead Festival on Nov. 1, Downtown District Day on Feb. 7 — to envelop multiple downtown districts with shuttles and trolleys moving between them — and the annual Coffee Crawl on Feb. 21.
English said more events will be announced in coming weeks.
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