Alexandria Rocha, The Examiner
2007-06-08 10:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

SAN FRANCISCO -

Although one critic called it a “grotesque plan,” city officials decided Thursday to allow beer and wine in Washington Square Park at this year’s North Beach Festival, scheduled for next weekend.

The San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission, which grants liquor permits for events in public spaces, voted 4-2 on Thursday to implement the same plan for this year’s festival that was followed in 2006.

Under the plan, adults can purchase beer and wine from booths on Union Street and carry them into a secured portion of the park. There will be no hard liquor.

The Recreation and Park Commission denied the North Beach Festival an alcohol permit last year because of neighbors’ concerns about noise, drunken fairgoers and minors being barred from the park.

Mayor Gavin Newsom, however, brokered a compromise with the commission that allowed people to buy alcohol from beer gardens on Union Street and drink them in a designated part of Washington Square Park.

The deal did not carry over to this year, and the alcohol permit was up in the air once again.

The same group that fought the serving of alcohol last year raised similar issues. They said allowing people to drink in a secured section of the park ruins the quiet neighborhood atmosphere. They called the event an “evasion of yahoos.”

“Why must we continually be referred to as the booze festival?” Nan Roth, who lives two blocks from the park, asked the commissioners.

The festival, centered in Washington Square Park and on four adjacent blocks in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, is The City’s oldest street fair. More than 100,000 visitors gather for the live music, poetry readings and art booths at the event each year.

In the last few years, there has been a growing movement among some neighborhood groups to dry up events where alcohol has traditionally flowed. For the first time, there will be no alcohol at Sunday’s Haight Ashbury Street Fair because neighbors complained about drunken people urinating in doorways and trashing the streets. The How Weird Street Faire, held in a South of Market neighborhood, has been canceled for the same reasons.

arocha@examiner.com

Each day until voters go to the polls Nov. 6, The Examiner lays odds on local figures beating Mayor Gavin Newsom. Check out our exclusive blog: San Francisco's Next Mayor?