Why two big events in one weekend?
Sunday morning 13 September early, as is my annual habit, I drove downtown to the Arts & Crafts Festival at the pier to visit with a number of friends/vendors whom I have met over the many years, some of whom have traveled great distances to display and sell their wares.
At this time I was unaware there was also a sidewalk sale going on (which made no sense to me), creating some competition for the vendors at the Festival, but also taking up many parking spaces that otherwise might have been available to those who came down for the Festival.
This poor event planning and subsequent chaos has caused problems and more than a little “grumbling in the crew” among the vendors I spoke with. The sidewalk sale should be a separate event on a different weekend.
Their recommendations, hopefully to be implemented before Festival next year, are as follows:
• If there is to be an annual Sidewalk Sale it should never be scheduled on the same weekend as the Arts & Crafts Festival; re-schedule it to be the weekend following the Arts & Crafts Festival
• There was no signage (banner across Main Street and signs on PCH at either end of town) for the Arts & Crafts Festival; however there were plenty of advertisements for the sidewalk sale.
Recognizing the city wants to support local merchants, which indeed they should, in this case it was done in a manner that totally ignored the Festival which has been with us for as long as I can remember; this is not good public relations.
Parking is the big issue (I arrived at 8:15 a.m. so I had no problems at all) all the way from the pier up to PCH; people can’t easily find parking spaces so they continue driving around the block and up and down Main street, even making illegal U-turns in the middle of the block to grab a spot—there was no SBPD presence on Main Street during the two hours I was there (does SBPD not have any uniformed foot patrolmen?); the traffic was a nightmare backed up all the way to PCH at times.
Some of the visitors who were able to park were browsing/shopping both sides of Main Street and never made it down to the Festival, meaning potential lost sales for the vendors.
For whatever reason each vendor was charged a “tax” and was required to display the certificate to prove they had indeed paid the tax.
What is this all about? Is our city so pressed for revenue of any kind that we now have to levy a “tax” on these vendors who only come into the city once a year for the two-day Festival? Really? The vendors I talked to see this levy as a slap in the face, and perhaps the last straw.
Bottom line: The three vendors I spoke with at length are seriously considering making 2015 the last time they will be involved with the Seal Beach Arts & Crafts Festival unless changes are made and announced ahead of the registration cutoff date for next year:
No Sidewalk Sale the weekend of the Arts & Crafts Festival
Banner signage across Main Street and on PCH at both ends of town advertising the Arts & Crafts Festival starting a week prior to the event.
Eliminate the tax on the vendors.
Robert L. Mason
College Park West
(resident of 39 years)
Good to give students credit
It’s amazing to note St. Hedwig Catholic School’s varsity volleyball team won the Queen of the Court Crown. Winning the crown against teams from 22 high schools is a giant honor to be proud of. These dynamic students are full of vitality and have good competitive spirit.
I also noticed these enthusiastic students volunteer to serve water, tea, coffee, lemonade to seniors and young adult guests at any given church function.
They are friendly,cheerful with courtesy and respectful when they are serving. Very commendable.
Spectacular students like those mentioned deserved a front page of the prestigious Sun News. I doff my hat to the champions and their excellent coach.
Lisa A. Dickson
Leisure World
A neighborly gesture
Many thanks to the alert neighbor who noticed and reported a possible gas leak on our property. The Gas Company responded, and the leak was found and repaired. We can all take a lesson from this thoughtful and caring individual.
Marcie and John Blumberg
College Park East
Kudos to Seal Beach Police
On Sept. 19 at approximately 3 p.m. on Seventh Street in Seal Beach, Herb Groom (an unemployed schoolteacher) was parking his car when he observed something strange. He saw a woman standing on top of my Honda’s roof with a chord tied to a pipe on one end. It looked like she was in the process of tying the other end around her neck.
Herb suddenly jumped out of his car, realizing what he was about to witness and immediately his suicide prevention training kicked in. He began talking to the stranger, telling her how precious life was and that he could help her. At that point she untied the chord around her neck and climbed down.
Herb then called our building manager, Shelly Bolander, whom I was visiting with, and we responded to the situation. The woman was sitting at this point inside an open vehicle when Shelly and I arrived. She was telling us that her life was terrible and that she wanted to die.
Shelly and Herb were telling her how precious life was and talked her into getting out of the vehicle.
The Seal Beach Police showed up and did a fantastic job talking to her in a very nurturing way and got her to open up and tell them what her plan was. When they learned she was suicidal, they called for a medical evaluation (which confirmed her suicidal wishes) and she was taken for observation to a local hospital.
The Seal Beach Police handled the situation as though they were family members of the woman and showed great concern.
Richard Glassman
Seal Beach
