Quote Originally Posted by Bham1982 View Post
Definitely not true in Lincoln Park/Lakeview. They hated that weekend stuff like the air show, fireworks, concerts, road races, bike races, etc.

They would regularly shut down LSD for "special events" meaning the surface streets were traffic hell, and my sister couldn't get downtown for work [[had off hours at a hospital). Alleyways would be blocked off, so people couldn't get their cars out, and street parking would be temporarily banned. Lincoln Park was frequntly unusable because the broke city rented it out for weekend events.

The nighttime drunken horde passing out on her building stoop, feet from where her baby fitfully slept, was an added "bonus", as were the regular muggings from troubled gay youth from the South Side, who congregated nearby.

She did like the neighborhood block parties, which were small-scale and locals-only. The big lakefront events suck, though, at least if you live nearby.
Roads getting blocked off, allies getting blocked off - these were not an issue with the Downtown Hoedown. In addition, at the locations of the downtown Hoedown - Hart Plaza, Comerica Park, and the West Riverfront Park - there are not that many nearby residents [[especially West Riverfront Park, which is surrounded by the river, parking lots, vacant lots, and industrial/small office buildings).

This is a loss for downtown.

The Woodward Dream Cruise is irrelevant to the Hoedown, because they are completely different logistically. The Hoedown takes place in a defined downtown location and took place over a weekend, while the Dream Cruise takes place over a 16 mile long stretch of Woodward Av adjacent to residential neighborhoods over a whole week.

You say the economic impact to Downtown is minimal, but I remember hanging out on a Saturday at the Craft Barrel House when the Hoedown was taking place last year, and a ton of people from the Hoedown came to that bar, and I am sure many other drinking establishments downtown. You could distinguish them because a lot of those people were wearing cowboy hats and cowboy boots.