Riot In Riverside! July 4th 2008! riot brings mayhem.

[north miami]

Recall also JSO public meeting later called to order.Or perhaps a regularly scheduled meeting,overflow crowd there on The Riot.

[north miami]

Cooly

Yeah, thats the thing.  It was a dance event not the dreaded evil 'hip hop' event.

I spoke yesterday with two of the three promoters, and they seemed like extremely nice guys, a little sheepish about the weekend events.

If you can seperate the storyline given by the people who were there from the three or four people who are trying to prevent this conversation from happening at all, it sounds more and more like poor planning and crowd management.

There is a concern amongst the Five Points Merchants, privately expressed, that the riot has set back the area, and especially the First Fridays event by years.

In my experience, I think that these fears might be a little premature.

First of all, its ridiculous that after 15 years and tens of millions of dollars of money spent creating a cool bohemian district out of a slum----one clove cigarette pack and betsy johnson dress at a time----that the indie/alternative shops and kids are still on the defensive in that neighborhood.

Its their goddam district.  It sat rotting for decades until the kids moved in and made it worth having.  There has been a whole lot of chatter over the past couple of years (with myself being one of the main chatterers) that gentrification is setting in, and anticipating a general movement to the cheaper rents of springfield.   Added to the purchase of Club Five by Jack Shad and the raising of the rents, I think there has been raised anxiety.

But I don't think there is anything to fear for the alt/indie kids in Five Points because we are in and going into a deeper recession.  For the next five years or so, there will be no psuedo posh boutiques just waiting around to take your spaces at a higher rent, and the landowners will once again be glad just to have your tenancies.

San Marco was the old punk rock hippy district.   When we all left San Marco to do Five Points,  San Marco went through some gentrification but it didnt stop being an artsy district.

The Davises did the same thing the Shads are doing.  Bought centerpiece property, renovated posh, and presided over new sidewalks and landscaping.  15 years later, San marco is still home to the San Marco Theatre, Theatre Jacksonville, Jackrabbits, Uncommon Grounds, and the same mix of pot smoking universalism that defined the neighborhood in the first place.

Its the old neighborhood plus two more parking lots full of imported cars and more breast implants.

Its the model to expect with Five Points.

On a side note, its kind of irritating that while a lot of the old horrible people that opposed the five points kids in the first place have died of extreme old age, that no one seems to have gotten around to thanking the indie kids for making the area worth two shits with the wreckage that they had to start with---over the stated objections and harrassment of the neighborhood.

Its been a rough place over the years you know.  Its hard to believe how hostile Riverside has been to the groups that have defined it over the years.   When I think of what Christy Clark went through with that bank over on King Street, or what we went through with the old republican lesbian harridan, and the prehistoric arrests of Tom and Gunnell for selling post cards with naked women on them, or the Lockdown of the Lee Harvey Gallery for a painting of Adam and Eve, or even something as recent as refusing to allow Jim to open the second floor of Fuel for relatively bullshit reasons, its a wonder anything has every happened in the neighborhood at all

That it has, is TOTALLY due to the tenacious, hard headed, damn the torpedoes characters of the leaders of the alternative community.  Luckily that tradition doesnt seem in any danger of subsiding.

Anyways, a piece of advice, especially to the organizers of the First Fridays Event.   When it comes up, just refer to the whole debacle as the 4th of July riot and never connect the First Friday to it again.

Cooly is right about the number of kids on the street being key.

Ever since Fuel closed regular operation, the street life has diminished.  Events like First Friday are EXACTLY what the neighborhood needs to revive it.  Hopefully the addition of the Steam Bar will help out with that.

But don't get too discouraged over the event.

Five Points has a pretty solidly established image, and its one that everyone can be proud of.