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I am one of the members of the volunteer Save Our Downtown group referred to recently by the Shredder as “curmudgeons” (“Who you gonna save?” Nov. 8). This by the writer who cowardly hides his own identity behind a pen name presumably to disguise his own degree of curmudgeoness.
The Shredder wrongfully describes Save Our Downtown’s concerns. We are not concerned that San Luis Brewery is moving from its present location to Higuera Street at the insistence of developer Hamish Marshall. We are concerned that this move will result in a much-enlarged liquor establishment with a capacity somewhere between 600 and 900 people. We are also concerned that the movement will result in the addition of two new liquor licenses in the downtown area.
We are also concerned about the influence this developer has over the city staff and City Council, as revealed by the process. In short, the staff knew that this developer would get whatever he wanted out of the City Council.
Save Our Downtown is concerned about the increase in capacity of this venue to some 950 people wherein patrons, mainly from Cal Poly, would be sometimes be required to line up along the creek while waiting for access. Save Our Downtown would like to ask the City Council whether we really need more liquor establishments downtown.
When I moved here many years ago to raise my family, I would not have foreseen how this downtown has developed. Indeed, if I were looking for a place to raise a family these days, I would not come to San Luis Obispo, recognizing that the core of the town is mainly an entertainment center for students. This is no longer a town where you can comfortably take your family to the core downtown after 10 at night due to the rowdies and drunks regularly on the street.
If this makes us curmudgeons to be concerned about this drift of our city, so be it. If this is the kind of city that our elected officials and the citizens want, so be it. I might suggest, however, that we consider a name change for San Luis Obispo. Perhaps we should call it Boozerville or Cal Poly East or, why not just say it, Marshall Town.