One of the most controversial issues in recent Fayetteville history has ended with the resignation of the Advertising and Promotion Commission’s chairman.
Pat Gazzola, a commission member since 2001, stepped down as chairman effective immediately, according to an announcement released this morning.
To say that Gazzola’s comments at a recent A&P meeting in which he referred to a “not all that safe” Dickson Street area were not taken lightly would be a monumental understatement. Instead (and to their credit), the commission chose the words “came under fire” to describe Fayetteville’s reaction.
As chairman of a group tasked with promoting and encouraging tourism and conventions in the city of Fayetteville, Gazzola’s public questioning of the safety of the location of one of the city’s most valuable assets was considered irresponsible to some and completely unacceptable by many others.
“I will always be proud of this city and I am taking this action so that the commission can continue its job without distraction,” said Gazzola.
The discussion of a new commission appointee and a new chairman will begin at the regularly scheduled meeting next month.
For those unfamiliar with the chain of events, here’s some further info:
- “Gazolla questions the safety…” – Skip Descant’s Twitter message (5/11/09)
- “Commission Discusses Walton Arts Center” – The Morning News (5/11/09)
- “What ‘darker side’ of Dickson Street? – Fayetteville Flyer (5/11/09)
- “The Damning of Dickson Street” – Fayettevillage Voice (5/12/09)
- “Safety of Dickson Street Called Into Question” – KNWA (5/13/09)
- “Time to for you to go, Pat Gazzola” – Street Jazz (5/13/09)
- “Chairman Clarifies Comments” – KNWA (5/15/09)
- “Pat Gazzola Must Go” – Fayettevillage Voice (5/16/09)
- “Gazzola Resigns From Commission” – Press Release (5/18/09)
We’d ask you what you think about all this but judging from a poll of 230 of our readers in which 92% disagreed with Mr. Gazzola, it’s pretty clear what the answer would be. Feel free, however, to let us know.
[Photo by thapgood via Flickr and Creative Commons 2.0.]
…don’t let the door hit ya…
I can’t help but think that if the Double-F hadn’t run the “What ‘darker side’ of Dickson Street?” article this probably would have gone relatively unnoticed. Honestly, how many of us would have (A) Read/heard the comment (B)Bothered to voice our opinion or (C)Truly had our opinion count (numbers get noticed).
Fair warning to city officials. In today’s world you may actually be held accountable for the things you say and do. Better curb the personal agendas and stick to responsible community-based decision making.
I’m surprised. That Junior Chamber usually sticks together. Maybe the heat just got to Pat. Thanks to the Flyer.
It’s because the Fayetteville Flyer raised this issue that so much public pressure was applied to Pat Gazzola.
It’s nice to have a deeply interactive forum for discussion on city events that invites readers to participate in substantial ways.
Wow, I cant believe he retired! Sounds like its probably for the best. Dickson is plenty safe for anybody. Whats with people’s obsession with sterilizing the entire world? If it were any safer it would be boring Taking WAC off Dickson would only serve to make Dickson more like they fear. It needs WAC, because without it Dickson would be light on culture, and still heavy on drunkeness.
Kudos to the Flyer. This is what free press is all about. It cannot be said better than what George has said above.
Viva la Flyer!
[...] resigns A&P Chairman Pat Gazzola resigned this morning over the controversy created by comments he made regarding the safety of the Dickson [...]
Also, I’d like to point out that I was the first one to suggest he step down.
You’re welcome, Fayetteville.
You’re welcome.
Now, who’s a hip young restaurant owner who will step up to the plate to serve on this Commission?
Jerrmy Gawthrop from the Greenhouse Grille, I’m looking at you.
Good ridance!
Well, he said something that he probably shouldn’t and now he steps down. That is about how everything is supposed to go in politics. Wish he wouldn’t have said it, but I’ll forgive the guy. I’m sure I will say something stupid in public and will hope to be forgiven for it.
In the meanwhile, I’m gonna go get some Catfish.
Thanks to the Fayetteville Flyer for being a great way to keep up with what folks in Fayetteville are talking about.
Carley Gordon will be covering the story tonight for KNWA at 10 and Fox News Edge at 9. (She’ll be on around 9:30 actually) She spoke with Pat Gazzola over the phone today, as well as Dickson Street owners. Gazzola seems to be in good spirits, and ready to move forward with his resturant business. Dickson Street owners, as you can imagine, are pretty happy too.
Our next question: Who should take over?
nice work fayetteville (flyer)
yeeeehaaw!!
I don’t take my children to Dickson after dark.
Matter of fact, I have wanted to take them to several of the shows at Walton Arts Center, but if they end late, I don’t want them around the drunken population of Dickson.
And I also know for a fact that I am not the only one.
It’s not that I’m worried about getting mugged on Dickson…for that, I think the police do a great job. But it’s the exposing the children to the scantily-dressed women and the drunk and loud guys. Personally, I think WAC should have gotten out of there years ago…it would do better (more attendance) if they would move to another part of town. There’s a place for everything…Dickson is not the place for WAC.
I think that Dickson St is a safe place. I have no fear when my wife and I (without kids) walk up and down the main strip or a couple of blocks over at any time of night.
But I do not feel that it is the place for WAC. Most people who go to Dickson don’t even want it there. It’s taking up space that could me more bars or more desperatly needed parking. With WAC where it is, bar hopers just have to walk that much further to get to Grubs.
Beside the fact that there is never anywhere close to it park, WAC is opposed to Dickson in the types of people it attracts. You wouldn’t set up a pie-eating contest at a weight-loss convention. So why is there a high culture beacon located in the heart of where college kids go to get hammered. I think that WAC is shunning a lot of potential art-goers (including me and my family) simply because if I want to take my family to a play I don’t want to go to the party on the street.
I think the WAC is right where it should be. A bunch of my girlfriends & I got the Broadway series this year from the WAC and have enjoyed being able to go and get a drink, a bite and have some conversation all within walking distance before and after the show. I also know that a lot of the touring casts that come through Fayetteville, go out to Common Grounds, Bordino’s Theo’s etc. after the show to relax and meet the locals. I have yet to see “scantily-clad” women on many of the nights and Sunday matinees that our series is available.
@ SAM: You state that you are avoiding the WAC, yet claim to have the pulse of the people on Dickson and that you know what they want. I call bull####.
Since you don’t know what you’re talking about, let me help: Stop labeling everyone who steps foot on Dickson a drunk — it’s insulting and ignorant. And despite what you think, you don’t represent the entire theatre-enjoying population. Plenty of people (who don’t live in bubbles) like to attend a performance at the WAC and have a coffee, dinner, dessert, or –egads!– a cocktail before/after the show somewhere nearby (thereby extending their social outing and benefiting local merchants). That’s right, one can actually purchase food at many of those establishments! This same experience could not be had in another part of town.
The power of the InterWebs means no one is safe from a “Macaca” moment.
@five by five: Look, you can debate whether the street is “dangerous” or not since that has some kind of (fuzzy but objective measure. You can confirm or refute that idea. But if someone says that they’re not comfortable someplace, well, writing a paragraph yelling at them doesn’t win the argument. SAM isn’t claiming to have the pulse of the street, he’s saying that it isn’t his scene. what are you gonna do, call him names until he feels like taking his family to a show?
I don’t feel the same way he does about mixing “high culture” (really more like fancy middlebrow stuff)with college kids getting hammered, but it’s not like college kids getting hammered isn’t a huge part of the economy and the atmosphere of the street. This has been true, to varying degrees, since the early 70s, and it’s been a larger-than-ever part of it since the mid 90s. This is probably something that you just feel comfortable with. One person’s “college kids getting hammered” is another person’s “people like me,having a good time, having a few drinks.”
@SAM: the WAC is on Dickson because a bunch of people saw it as a way to change the profile of the street, make it more upscale and profitable, raise the rent, etc. At the time it was built the street was more townie-oriented, but it was also in an economic slump. Part of how the decision to locate the WAC there was sold to the community at large was based on the idea, circulated in the local media, that the street was “dangerous,” and needed to be “cleaned up.”
After it was built, there were competing visions regarding how this resuscitation/makeover was going to work, and I think that many of the folks involved wanted or thought that the bar culture on Dickson might go away entirely and that it would become a shopping district with maybe a quaint tavern or nice cocktail club here or there. Others I think wanted a more eclectic public arts presence to take hold. Instead the dominant force since the late 90s has been a more upscale and college oriented version of the old bar culture, with some of the shopping and other stuff here and there. It;’s what ended up paying the bills and making the landlords who owned the biggest hunks of the street happy.
Because I liked and felt more comfortable on the funkier, hippier, more punk-rock, cheaper, more local version of the street, the one with smaller buildings, I’m kind of cranky about the new version. I spent a while in the last thread arguing that Dickson was _even more_ not dangerous before it got cleaned up. I still think that’s true, but I also know that part of why I think about it like this is that I’m not crazy about seeing the street as defined by either college kids on cocktails or the countywide gentry come down to some broadway smash. Polite society isn’t ever going to beat the bars down on Dickson, but it is going to keep on making them more expensive.
@Urk: My comments to SAM had nothing to do with the great ‘safety’ debate, and I wasn’t trying to force any opinion on him. Heck, I’d be thrilled if all the fratties got padlocked inside Stir. I simply pointed out that he was unfairly stereotyping (name-calling) a lot of people & using generalites to try to make a point. And, yes, “Most people who go to Dickson don’t even want it there” equals said ‘pulse’ claim.
I guess I view Dickson and the WAC as just a part of the larger downtown area that we should all support.
I prefer spending my dollars lately at Fake JR’s on Block Street. The crowd is less transient and I am the probably the yuppiest person in there. Also, the gays from Tangerine next door always make for an interesting mix of people and conversations.
I don’t view Dickson or downtown as having to choose what it is or isn’t. I think there’s plenty of room for all.
I really think the arts community could band together, or even just a few like-minded entrepreneurs, and re-create some more funky Fayetteville either in Midtown or in the Mill District.
There’s no reason why there can’t be awesomeness spread all over this town.
OH NOES scantilly clad womenz???? WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN!
What is fake JR’s on Block St?
Fake JRs is the bar that is called JRs but isn’t the real JRs.
The Real JRs is now a gay bar. The two are side by side.
How about this…let the stuffy ass WAC leave Dickson and go to the stuffy ass Benton county and bring in some type of community based theater to Fayetteville? I mean WAC isn’t exactly keeping Fayetteville funky is it? If it’s that big of a deal (which it may not be to them I actually haven’t heard much of their side, this may be us all fueling ourselves here) then I say good riddance. Would it really be a huge detriment to lose them? (I honestly don’t know the answer to this as I haven’t seen stats etc.)
P.S. is it ok to say ass FF?
Fake JRs is also my preferred hangout. I like the vibe.
If there was a bonafide cool bar in the Mill District, and then another one popped up next door, I could see never hanging out on Dickson at all.
Fake JRs appeals to me because, while there are no doubt some BAMFs who hang out there who are fully capable of badassery, I’ve talked to a few of them and most of them are either gay, or just really laid back intellectual cool people.
It reminds me of Real JRs minus the bands, and fraternity take over from time to time. I hope I’m not lame-ing out Block Street by telling people about how much I prefer it to Dickson lately. I just thought I’d let you all in on the secret.
Block > Dickson. People actually go to the bar, sit, have conversations with strangers, and there’s not a constant stream of douchebags walking thru, looking for all the sorority girls.
All these comments and complaints about parking and no one bothers to mention that a Arkansas & MO RR train runs 1 block from the WAC, there is even a convenient place to stop it for passenger travel. The thing goes through all of NWA, jump on in Bentonville and don’t worry about any driving, or parking, or having one too many glasses of the wine that the WAC serves (how modern!), aside from WAC shows how much would it cost to charter the thing for a tipsy taxi for celebrations and such?
The train can fix the parking problems, it has before.
@ TB (and all): “Fake JR’s” is actually just named (like legally and everything) “Lightbulb Club”. My partner and I dropped the “JR’s” portion from the moniker after our old partner (J.R.) bowed out of the bar business and we leased/renovated the room next door (the old “American Deli”). My partner and I were both longtime employees & co-owners of the original JR’s Lightbulb Club. So, although there’s been a facelift and a 12′ move to the left, we feel pretty “O.G.” about it all. Anyway, I’m glad you like it. The things you’ve pointed out (ex. less transient locals bar) are the things we’ve tried to preserve for those like us (but younger) now that we’re too old to keep up the pace ourselves. For what it’s worth, we’re still very much interested in the live music that most are oblivious to and have looked at several potential rooms over the last year. Unfortunately, nothing has made good sense yet but hopefully it will soon. I think I hear a 10oz High Life callin’ your name. GO!!!
Wade:
I hope, hope for something to happen in the Mill District. I would give it my full drinking attention if it was simUlar to Fake JR’s.
Oh and good work on Lightbulb Club. I honestly didn’t want to like it, but I do. A lot.
Hey Wade, when you guys get a space, you should name it “fake JR’s.” And then you should hire me to quit grad school and come back and run sound there.
Fake JR’s is actually an ok name. It rolls off the tongue…which is important for a name.
Others that I like are:
Total Bastard’s
Bastard Bar
Bastard’s Pub
The Bastard
@ Urk: bar soundman gig vs. grad school. I wouldn’t do that to ya :)
@ TB: How about “Fake Bastards”?
Urk to Wade: Please, please, don’t throw me in that briar patch!
[...] Commission while applications are being accepted for new leadership. Former chairman Pat Gazzola resigned last month after making statements that were not appreciated by local [...]