The steel skeleton of the new library looms over piled construction materials alongside Breckenridge Street.
We have listened and listened and listened to the debate about Alive After Five and beer sales and consumption on city property (an issue we’ll comment on at another time). But we fear that the City Council overlooked a more immediate problem than alcohol Monday night.
The council voted 5-3 to let the Henderson-Vance County Chamber of Commerce close Breckenridge Street from Garnett Street to Chestnut Street for much of the day June 23 so the Chamber can hold its second Alive After Five of the year on the city street. Liquid Pleasure will provide the music; Harris Inc., as usual, will sell the beer.
What no one mentioned in Monday’s debate is that while downtown is the ideal area for Alive After Five, Breckenridge Street is a lousy place for 1,500 to 2,000 people to gather for dancing, eating and drinking (hard or soft drinks) four weeks from today.
The stretch between Garnett and Chestnut has problems as a concert setting in the best of times. While it’s not as narrow as the glorified cart paths that wind through some of the older residential neighborhoods of Henderson, Breckenridge isn’t a wide boulevard either. And buildings — the Vance County Senior Center on one side, the Wildflower Cafe on the other — squeeze the block between Garnett and Wyche streets.
That first block is a familiar gathering place for the annual St. Patrick’s Day festivities downtown, and it works well when 100 to 200 people at a time are moving through to get some chili or play on an inflatable slide. But we can’t imagine packing a band, stage, speakers, other equipment and several hundred dancing fans of all ages into that tight space for three hours.
That’s unfortunate because the block between Garnett and Wyche is the closest thing to flat ground on Breckenridge Street. Stand at the corner of Wyche and Breckenridge and look down to Chestnut and you’ll see how steep the slope is. It’s fine for walking but not so much for standing around and socializing or even for setting up a stage for Liquid Pleasure’s performance.
The circle that will be the aesthetic highlight of Breckenridge Street awaits brick pavers this week.
Normally, the crowd could adjust by spreading out along the Embassy Square property, but the area is an active construction site. The building materials and equipment involved in erecting the library aren’t going to vanish overnight. They will pose a hazard June 23, both to tipsy adults and to curious children who get bored with the food and music and lack the kid-centric activities available to them when Alive After Five is at the Operations & Service Center. Unlike every other Alive After Five, parents will be wise to leave children at home this time.
Starting at the Breckenridge Street intersection, Wyche Street poses its own hazards.
And we can’t be certain Breckenridge Street will be ready even for adults in four weeks. The Embassy streetscape project has dragged behind schedule through a wet spring. A two-lane trench runs along Wyche Street between Breckenridge and Montgomery streets; imagine the lawsuit if someone slipped into that pit after a couple of beers on city property. On Breckenridge itself, the medians with much of their landscaping are in place, but still to come is the most labor-intensive part of the project, the placement of brick pavers in the central circle between the entrances for the police station and library. City Engineer Frank Frazier said the weather will have to cooperate for that work to get done.
Having failed to sway the City Council, perhaps the Rev. Frank Sossamon and his anti-alcohol supporters can use their home-field advantage to appeal to a higher authority to stop Alive After Five. They don’t even need to pray for 40 days and nights of rain; half that much should leave Breckenridge unusable June 23. services aes loan student203k loanaes-nct loan andto loans quick a homeowner guidepersonal with 1500 loan bad creditloans home mobile 1974college loan acsloans 2nd mortgagehome affordable loansday 90 loans payday