Beer will be allowed at Sim Scott Park during Juneteenth.
Mayor Robert Smith broke the Columbus council’s 3-3 tie vote following a long, contentious debate Tuesday evening, voting to give festival goers the right to consume beer on park grounds during the festival on the condition that they drink it in plastic or Styrofoam cups.
The 19th Columbus Juneteenth Festival, a celebration of African-Americans’ emancipation from slavery, is set for June 19-20 at the park. The festival committee sells beer at the event, and festival goers for the last 18 years have also been allowed to bring their own.
Two weeks after the council denied the Juneteenth committee’s request to sell beer at the park, event chairperson Cindy Lawrence appeared before the council again on Tuesday so they could deal with consumption at the park separately. Councilmen Gene Taylor, Kabir Karriem and Bill Gavin (of wards 1, 5 and 6) favored the measure, while Joseph Mickens, Charlie Box and Marty Turner (of wards 2, 3 and 4) opposed.
The festival committee plans to sell beer from private property near the park from 6 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. on June 19 and from 5 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. June 20.
After the meeting, Smith told The Dispatch he broke the tie in favor of beer consumption because it avoided a potential headache for law enforcement.
“I thought it was in the city’s best interest at this time,” Smith said. “It was going to be difficult for the police department to control it. We just don’t have the manpower to control it if we disallow beer consumption.”
Issue sparked debate
During Tuesday’s board discussion, Lawrence verbally sparred with council members, and council sparred among themselves. Much of the debate saw council members and the mayor draw a clear distinction between a “neighborhood park” and events like the Market Street Festival downtown or events at the Riverwalk where beer is sold.
Smith told The Dispatch after the meeting that he did believe “neighborhood parks” were different from public streets and even the Riverwalk. Firstly, he said the Riverwalk was not under the authority of the Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority like the neighborhood parks are and therefore not necessarily subject to the same guidelines.
“You don’t play ball on Main Street or at the Riverwalk,” he said.
Gavin made clear he voted against the committee selling beer on park property because Sim Scott Park, Townsend Park and East Columbus had been deemed “high crime areas” and he had attended city-led community meetings at each location aimed at reducing crime. He said residents in those neighborhoods wanted to reduce alcohol consumption and litter — such as beer cans and bottles — and he supported that.
However, he echoed the mayor’s opinion about beer consumption at Sim Scott during Juneteenth, saying it would cause a “nightmare” for police to enforce.
Box initially agreed with Gavin and openly said he would “probably vote for” alcohol consumption — citing specifically that the council had allowed it every year since the festival began in the mid-1990s. But Mickens challenged him on the merits of his position, pointing out the two had consistently voted against public beer sale/consumption measures for years on moral grounds.
“If you say they can’t sell it, but (they can still drink it), what’s the difference?” Mickens told Box in open forum. “I have a problem with that … it’s still going to be around the kids. And I’m not picking on Juneteenth. This is for every park.”
Box told The Dispatch after the meeting that Mickens’ words resonated with him, causing him to change his vote.
“The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced it was the right thing to do,” Box said. “Councilman Mickens convinced me that we didn’t need to have beer around the kids. I wanted to be consistent with what I had done in the past.”
Karriem, who represents the ward where Sim Scott Park sits, moved to approve the beer consumption measure. He was also the lone vote two weeks ago to allow the festival committee to sell beer at the park.
He chided his fellow councilmen for picking on Juneteenth and said since the council had “already infringed” the festival’s potential bottom line by forcing beer sales to take place on private property, the least it could do was allow the same beer consumption policies it had in the past.
He also dismissed the notion of creating hoops for the festival to jump through because it’s in a “high-crime area,” citing the festival has been in the same place every year and hasn’t produced any major problems.
“Why are we singling out this particular event?” Karriem asked. “The whole city has crime. I think it’s disingenuous of this body to make excuses of why we’re not supporting this event after 19 years. I don’t know what’s wrong now.”
Karriem also wanted to amend his motion to include a council policy to make every event committee appear before the council to obtain approval for beer consumption on public property. That effort failed.
The council unanimously approved assigning police officers to secure the festival. There will be two officers on duty the night of June 19 and during the day on June 20. The force will rise to six officers after 6 p.m. June 20.
Lawrence said Tuesday’s council vote was a victory for the Juneteenth festival.
“It means a great deal to the festival,” she said. “I’m praying it will be a success. Juneteenth is about freedom and unity. We’re asking everyone to come out and celebrate.”
In other business
The council appointed three new members to the Historic Preservation Commission to bring its roster to nine members. Jim Borsig, Chance Laws and Barbara Bigelow will replace John Hudson, Mike Lowery and Betty Miller, effective immediately.
Ruth Berry, Julie Tompkins and Blaine Walters also applied. Longtime member Miller applied for reappointment upon request but withdrew her name since other applicants showed interest in serving.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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