Normally, a title like that would indicate some sort of pub crawl, or party bus, or something fun like that. This time it is a follow up on "‘Party Houses’ in the Fan", a posting from this blog dated 9/13/06, that highlighted the Fan District Association’s self-appointed mission to monitor the public nuisance from private parties in the Fan.
The FDA’s website has announced that the Party Patrol is back, although I’m not really sure where it went in the first place… I know that I consistently get hits from web searches looking for information on the Party Patrol, even though the blog I posted was over a year ago. So, I thought it was time for an update.
To start with, you should probably visit the FDA’s official history and background of the Party Patrol.
Here is the announcement from the FDA website (minus the contact #’s…you can get those from their website):
The Fan District Party Patrol is Back
The Fan District Party Patrol returns, effective immediately.
The patrol is a joint sponsorship by the FDA, City of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University.
The patrol’s goals are to help reduce both under age drinking and binge drinking.
One of the by products of the patrol is to increase the probability for a good nights sleep
for both home owners and renters
in the Fan District.
The patrol will be running Friday and Saturday nights and other nights during the week.
There is also the matter of the "Fan Party Map". Notice any favorite haunts there? (I’m way out of the college party scene, so I don’t expect that I would recognize any of the addresses.)
Again, I’m not really sure if this "Party Patrol" and the ensuing map is a good idea or a bad idea. I’m not here to discount the efforts of concerned citizens, but it does raise some questions. (yes, the same questions I had before — because I haven’t seen any truly insightful answers as of yet)
*Once a property is listed, is there a procedure for getting a property removed from the list once there is no more problem — or does it stay on the list forever?
*How
will this list stigmatize an area? (i.e., if I am a property owner a
half a block removed from a heavily "infested" area, how will this public info affect my property
value?)
It is telling, however, that all of the chatter I’ve seen online about
the Party Patrol over the past year has been negative, or at least
mocking. I would be interested to see what effects it has had, good
and bad.
