This morning the Sacramento Bee writes, “To preserve what’s best about Picnic Day and to secure its long-term future, Davis leaders need to give it a break.”
They continue, “The timeout – a year or two – would give campus and city officials in Davis the freedom to find ways to control the drunkenness marring the annual open house at University of California, Davis, without ruining its family-friendly atmosphere and school spirit.”
The Bee gets this part. They write, “After the violence and debauchery during Picnic Day 2010 threatened its cancellation, officials took many of the right steps. They deployed more police, increased fines and persuaded many bars and restaurants not to open as early or offer cut-rate drink specials.”
They continue acknowledging marked improvements.
“And there were some marked improvements Saturday for the 97th annual edition, which drew about 75,000 people, about the same as last year. Downtown was safer and calmer. Private house parties were less raucous. There were more arrests and citations, most alcohol-related, but that appears to be the result of more officers on the streets.”
So what is the problem? “But the harsh reality is all the changes were not enough to solve the real problem.”
Really? If there were marked improvements, why not take further measures next year to improve it further? This whole idea that somehow we need to scrap Picnic Day, despite the improvement over the last year, is rather remarkable.
But here is their case: “A choice between widespread inebriation and a suffocating police presence is not much of a choice at all. There has to be a better way, but it’s going to take some time – a cooling-off period – to figure it out and institute needed changes.”
This is a good point that I have made earlier in the week. But where I disagree is that there can be a middle term. The police presence calmed things down. Now the opportunity is there to build on the improvements rather than scrap them.
They continue, “Among the state’s campuses, UC Davis certainly has plenty of company in struggling with the overdrinking, partying culture, which helped doom Pioneer Days at Chico State and Poly Royal at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.”
Let me tell you, I was in San Luis Obispo, a junior in high school when the Poly Royal riots hit and first of all, it was far far worse than anything we saw at Picnic Day last year. We are talking real riots with riot gear and everything. What happened at Picnic Day 2010 would have hardly registered.
But here’s the think. They brought back a scaled-back open house at Cal Poly after I graduated from there in the mid-1990s, and I have never been to one. It is not the same. That is a serious consideration, that a pause may not preserve the good things about the event.
I still think Cal Poly overreacted by canceling Poly Royal rather than working to reform it, and UC Davis made the right decision. The fact that they did not get it 100 percent right immediately should not lead to pausing it.
The Bee continues, “For UC Davis, the deliberations come amid the deep grief over the death of Scott Heinig, who played baseball at UC Davis and graduated last year. The 22-year-old, an assistant baseball coach at Davis High School, was at a private party Saturday night several blocks from downtown when he fell and hit his head.”
What does Picnic Day really have to do with a person suffering a horrific accident at a private party? Something that could have happened regardless? Not much.
They admit that as well, “Like the fatal shooting in September of a 24-year-old student in the hours after Second Saturday, Sacramento’s art walk and street party, it’s arguable whether there was a direct link between the death and the event.”
They conclude, “Picnic Day is a wonderful tradition, one absolutely worth saving; temporarily suspending it is a painful, but necessary, step.”
The problem with the editorial is that they never really make a compelling case as to why it needs to be paused.
First, the problems are down from last year.
Second, what is the compelling problem that arose this year that necessitates Picnic Day ending or being put on hiatus? A few drunk people who were arrested? Really?
Were things perfect out there? No. But there were not drunk people running amuck in the city either. Violence was down. The people arrested for drunkenness were often not causing problems.
I guess having been out there, I wonder how many people who are actually complaining about Picnic Day actually were out there.
There were a couple of good points raised in a letter to the Enterprise yesterday. I understand the concerns by neighbors that the problems spilled from the downtown to the neighborhoods.
Wrote one person, “Zero tolerance for alcohol on campus and imposing martial law downtown this year was like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall; the revelers simply spilled out into the neighborhoods.”
That was always a risk.
He continues, “This year the bars really weren’t the problem. They opened later and, unlike other venues, they have to limit access and control behavior. But we’re never going to get ahead of this thing as long as Safeway sells ping pong balls in the liquor aisle. I wonder what the suits at the corporate office would think of that if they were aware of the discussions we’re having in this town.”
“This year there were hundreds of drunken revelers roaming Sycamore Lane, Anderson Road and streets in between,” he wrote.
Now, we drove around the town a few times and did not see a lot of out of control parties. I understand there was property damage, I am not trying to minimize that.
Again, I completely see the arguments to tweak the approaches we take, but I do not see anything that happened that necessitates making Picnic Day completely dry (which is impossible), or putting it on hiatus.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
“There has to be a better way, but it’s going to take some time – a cooling-off period – to figure it out and institute needed changes.”
Yes it could use some tweaks, but not a cooling-off period. Heck, it’s a year away, isn’t that enough time to institute a few minor changes? I was downtown for a few hours that night and things seemed to be under control at least from my vantage point. Sure there were some problems, there always will be with big crowds, but you also have the Picnic Day haters who will complain no matter what.
Important to remember how wonderful all the diverse campus activities are and have historically been part of Pucnic Day. It does not appear that the Bee mentioned this.
Think about it. Sacramento is a cesspool… Terrible schools, ridiculous crime, gangs of bums camping all over town, drugs anywhere you look, real estate values worth a fraction of what idiots paid for them, most of the “productive” labor force work for state government instead of having real jobs, they have one actual team and its trying desperately to leave.
Across the causeway sits a city with great schools, solid real estate, wealth, a well educated population and one of the best universities in the country… of course the Sac Bee is eager to solve our “crisis”.
I suppose its fair given the fact that about 90% of the problem guests in Davis for Picnic Day bring their tramp stamps and gangsta droopy pants over in their lowered hondas with spinners from Sacramento.
I think Sacramento should celebrate Picnic Day as at least one day a year when they don’t have to deal with a big chunk of their delinquent population or as they call them their- “the best and brightest of sacramento”…
Sac sucks. The Bee is a jealous rag.
Ignore these losers and move on.
dmg: “I guess I just do not get it. I was out there on Saturday night. I did not see mayhem. I did not even see huge crowds. It was boring for the most part. We went home earlier than intended because there was not a lot happening.”
Why was it “boring”? Originally Picnic Day was about campus events to showcase the University. Now the “purpose” of Picnic Day seems to have expanded into a drinking orgy, particularly in the evening. If you are one of the ones engaging in drinking, you may be “having fun”. But the people that have to put up with/clean up after the drunken revelers are not having so much fun. Honestly, and I’m saying this a bit tongue in cheek, if the drunken revelers had to clean up after themselves/be truly responsible for the damage they cause, perhaps they wouldn’t think Picnic Day was so much “fun”! For instance, who paid for all the extra police presence? Who cleaned up the vomit in the bathrooms? Who paid for the broken merchandise in stores? Who paid for damage to homeowners property? Whether Picnic Day was “fun” largely depends on your perspective – whether you are looking at the issue through the lens of being a drunken reveler, or whether you are looking at the issue as a person who had to clean up the aftermath of the drunken revelers in one way or another.
I was saddened by picnic day. I had a bunch of people hanging out in front of my home smoking and pissing in the alley.
Picnic day seems to have lost its charm. I agree a hiatus is one good option but I would prefer a campus only alcohol free event. Keep the parade out of downtown and all the activities on campus. Maybe even move it to Sunday. Ask the bars and alcohol merchants not to have picnic day specials. Obviously resetting helped but didn’t fix the issue of an out of control scene. Discounting the fatality that occurred is too dismissive of the concerns about safety.
Again: there were nine DUI arrests. How many DUI arrests are there typically in Davis on a given day, week, or month?
Again: there were many more cops in town which lead to many more arrests. Also why is it a surprise to have more arrests than a given day in Davis when you swell the population by 2 to 3 times normal? All in all it was a good picnic day and a lot better than last year. I think the picnic day haters will look for anything as an excuse to try and do away with it.
It’s weird, because Rusty and I never really see eye to eye on anything. And frankly, David and I often don’t as well.
But I can’t agree more with the comments they’ve made. I think the outrage and negative press about Picnic Day, frankly, is a bunch of crap.
[quote]I guess I just do not get it. I was out there on Saturday night. I did not see mayhem. I did not even see huge crowds. It was boring for the most part. We went home earlier than intended because there was not a lot happening.[/quote]
Yup, it was a lot quieter out there this year. Downtown was a little… boring. There were lines to get into everywhere and less people out than previous years. Still, I enjoyed the civility of it, so it struck a balance I was okay with.
I’m skeptical folks like Bob Dunning (or other concern-trolls on Picnic Day) even showed up to the event, at least for the whole time. Comments like “the campus’ alcohol ban made picnic day the family event it is intended to be” (paraphrased) show a complete ignorance to the actual day’s events. There were a LOT of drunk kids out there, and I saw quite a few students puking their guts out. More than downtown, in fact.
As Rusty pointed out too, more cops does indeed equal more arrests, especially when you have more people. I was really stunned that two thirds of them were for public intoxication. I sincerely hope these folks weren’t arrested for simply being drunk on a celebration day in a college town.
It really feels like attacks on Picnic Day by a lot of the media has come down to older folks complaining about young kids being drunk and loud on Picnic Day. It’s a college town, it’s just one day, and it’s a lot of fun for those participating.
Justin,
I love the downtown parade and would hate to see it go. Three of my kids and their mates graduated from UCD and they come back almost every year for the festivities, but now they’re bringing their kids. It’s a family tradition to sit out in front of Posh with our bagels and coffee in hand and watch the parade go by. When night comes my wife and I watch the grandkids so our kids go out on the town. Sure there are a few problems but nothing big enough to cancel the event. If you let the naysayers always have their way you would never be able to do anything.
I’ll drink to that.
I agree with Rusty and Justin. Picnic Day is so fun! In fact, in the Downtown it tended toward the boring this year.
In my part of town, however, the fun just wouldn’t quit! Some of my favorite memories include the drunken “call to arms” we got at around nine. Followed by the colorful excess speeding and the delightful drunken brawls (boys will be boys!).
Adding to the diversity of the day, it was anybody’s guess as to whether the females were crying because they were being raped or because they were just drunk. We started a betting game to see who could hold out the longest before somebody gave in and decided it was time to actually call the Police! We didn’t want to be old fuddy-duddies and spoil all the fun!
One of my favorite contests turned out to be the pissing match held on my front lawn. One of the contestants was able to maintain a steady stream for at least 45 seconds even after he saw me watching him. Now that’s bladder control!
One thing is for sure, when beer pong is made into an Olympic sport, UC Davis should really think about having its own team.
When the nursery industry has faced existential threats, such as new pests, that might lead to prohibition on the movement and sale of nursery stock, we have established voluntary inspection and management programs. We fund the inspections through assessments paid to the county ag commissioner. What we did not do was assert that there was not a problem.
Bar owners, as I understand it, are responsible for drinks served to people who are inebriated. If there is a threat to cancel this very profitable activity, I’m sure the bar owners can work up a system for limiting the drinks served to any individual who might be moving from one bar to another. Increased security costs can be borne by those who are profiting from the event. But it may take the continued threat of canceling Picnic Day to get action. Otherwise people will just assert that 9 DUI’s are a reasonable amount to expect and that high levels of downtown inebriation are acceptable.
Sarcasm and a lack of grounding in reality seems so much more artistically interesting than actually examining the facts around community news and acting rationally. Maybe Glenn Beck has an internship available, mouatmine.
Don: I don’t really know how much that matches with the practices of people on Picnic Day. I was in a few bars, and as I mentioned in the other thread, the conduct of the business owners was actually pretty impressive. They had what felt like a fair threshold for dealing with disorderly people. I don’t really think you can expect much more out of them than what you got this year.
The fact is there were a lot of trashed students. The majority of them probably got drunk off campus. I remember the first Picnic Day I attended when I was still in college… we all finished a bottle of 1800 before coming to campus. College students find any excuse to drink, and most of them do it at “home” where it’s cheaper. I think we had parties for Flag Day when I was still in college. We all do reckless things and look to blow off steam as young adults.
Obviously, police are needed with that many people around to prevent more serious offenses and to maintain civility. Maybe certain things should be policed more heavily. I certainly would support doubling fees on DUIs instead of some of the varied activities that were targeted.
I’m tired of the blame game. This is about college students, their friends, and some alumni being drinking on one celebration day a year. I hear people talk about cancelling it altogether, banning sales of alcohol, etc. Should we just ban parties after finals too? Should we prohibit sales of alcohol on the Fourth of July, Halloween, and New Years too? Lots of alcohol-related problems happen on Thursday nights at bars and Ketmoree, should we ban it then too?
[quote]”But here is their case: ‘A choice between widespread inebriation and a suffocating police presence is not much of a choice at all. There has to be a better way, but it’s going to take some time – a cooling-off period – to figure it out and institute needed changes’.”[/quote]Wow, I didn’t see (and hadn’t before heard of) “a suffocating police presence.” You complained about out-of-town-cop rudeness and gave a couple examples of what you saw as too much response. Anyway, I’m glad you’re taking on the unconvincing [u]Bee[/u] opinion. Their editorial sets up two undesirable options–of course, they’re not attractive choices.
I can foresee two undesirable results from an hiatus. First, in two years, no one will have the courage to restart Picnic Day for fear of the second-guessing that would follow any problem-plagued open house. Or, if it is brought back, what’s to say that its reincarnation wouldn’t attract a gigantic gathering of drunken hoodlums bent on [u]really[/u] having a good time celebrating its return.
Better to keep Picnic Day as routine an event as possible, and keep doing the things you’ve suggested to realign it the right way. “Continuous improvement” is needed now that we let it get out of hand last year.
DS: “Bar owners, as I understand it, are responsible for drinks served to people who are inebriated. If there is a threat to cancel this very profitable activity, I’m sure the bar owners can work up a system for limiting the drinks served to any individual who might be moving from one bar to another. Increased security costs can be borne by those who are profiting from the event. But it may take the continued threat of canceling Picnic Day to get action. Otherwise people will just assert that 9 DUI’s are a reasonable amount to expect and that high levels of downtown inebriation are acceptable.”
Excellent point. The real problem is the perpetrators of the problems are not the ones paying for the mess they leave behind. Cleaning up your own vomit you left behind in a store’s bathroom kind of takes the “fun” out of the experience. Making purveyor’s of alcohol pay for the extra police presence required seems reasonable to me. Students arrested for being intoxicated can come clean up the mess the next morning as “punishment”. The problem is the way it stands now, it is the people who were not drinking that are paying for and cleaning up after the ones who were drinking. So who is have fun at who’s expense? The people causing the problems need to take responsibility for making the mess that results – the cost of cleanup; the cost of extra police; the actual cleanup of vomit, trash, urine…