Just days after authoring a piece celebrating the craft beer scene forming here in Encinitas, I stumbled across an article in City Beat calling attention to some opposition forces trying to undermine the source of my excitement. Now, let me state for the record I’m a strong believer in the democratic process and certainly everyone has a right to be heard. That doesn’t mean that some of what I heard (read) doesn’t just piss me right the fuck off.
“…the most dour note came from one speaker, Pat Crilly, who was representing several local families. After lamenting about the loss of his ‘family-friendly community’ and citing the ‘sad situation’ caused by establishments that serve alcohol which leads to “dirty streets, dirty sidewalks, and chaos,’ he implored the Commission to deny Culture’s application.
‘All culture is not good culture. I hope we can keep Encinitas the way it should be.’
Excuse me? Pardon the language but who the FUCK is Pat Crilly, and who appointed him arbiter of what Encinitas “should” be? I’m usually on a pretty even keel but when I hear people speak in this manner, with the presumption that they’re qualified to dictate how things “should” be for others when what they’re actually talking about is what they want, I go from zero to apoplectic in about two seconds.
As a semi-professional musician who has been gigging with local bands around San Diego for about the last 15 years, I have been directly and adversely affected by these NIMBY’s (not-in-my-back-yard) as they’ve infiltrated North County. You see, what happens is, these people (usually with money) move in, and rather than becoming supportive members of an established community, they actively seek to reshape it on their own image. Often costing people like me revenue in the process.
I’ve seen people like this Crilly character (if not the man himself) attack the local music scene here to the point where they’ve driven live entertainment almost completely out of business. One of my bands used to have a steady gig at 1st Street Bar until douchebags like Crilly moved in and started complaining about the “noise”. Here’s an idea: If you don’t like the “noise”, don’t fucking by property next to a club that features live music.
When you consider the fact that 1st Street alone featured a different band every Friday and Saturday night, that’s eight different bands on any given month. Now figure an average of four members per band and that’s thirty-two musicians whose income has been adversely affected by a Crilly’s selfish desire to change the neighborhood into something they think it “should” be. Now add just The Bar Leucadian to the equation and you’ve effectively screwed sixty-four musicians, in a less than two mile stretch of the 101, out of a weekend paycheck.
Is this really the kind of country we want to live in? One where a couple of Crilly’s are going to be allowed to move into an area and take revenue away from hard-working citizens because they don’t want to put up with music (or craft beer) a couple nights a week? Here’s another idea… Put in triple pane glass and get a fucking air conditioner and just close your fucking windows.
I really hate dropping so many f-bombs in one opinion piece but these NIMBY’s and their bullshit entitlement complexes really chap my ass. These people are revenue killers who want communities to exist for their pleasure and they don’t give a damn about anyone else. They can cloak their psychotic need to control others under the guise of wanting to maintain a “family friendly” community but what they really want is to force their values on us knuckle-draggers who like to enjoy ourselves with a frosty beverage and God forbid, a little live music.
To the Crilly’s of this world, we craft beer folk are all Deplorables…
