More on the Halloween Mess and the Dismal State of the Entertainment Commission

Yesterday's Bay Area Reporter has a detailed account of how the hand-off of Halloween to the Entertainment Commission failed in a huge, distressing way. Given the Civil Grand Jury report on the Entertainment Commission that came out in July, which I reported on here, this doesn't come as a huge surprise. The upshot of the article is that the Entertainment Commission doesn't have the resources to manage large-scale events, and that the Mayor's Office feels it should only concern itself with the regulation of nightclubs and nightlife (which it also hasn't done such a great job with). The solution proposed is the formation of an Office of Special Events that would deal exclusively and explicity with events like Halloween. I hope this would also extend to street fairs, since, as we've seen in the case of the now-defunct How Weird Street Faire, when it comes down to residents vs. event organizers, the police will always side with the residents, and that's the end of the street faire. However, unless an Office of Special Events turns out to be more effective, and pro-active, than the Entertainment Commission, I'm afraid it will just add to the bureaucracy and patronage politics that are already a maddeing part of The City's political life.