44 arrested at impromptu car show

[charles roybal]

For all the "Car & Coffee" gathering's, I think it is important not to do what this group was doing.


http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_17640389

[Ron61]

What they were doing makes it bad for all places that allow car enthusiasts to gather. We had three places here that let them get together in the evenings but there is none of the burn outs and all of that stuff. Unfortunately the oldest place went out of business after 54 years last Summer and now there are just two left. We don't have that many cars either and they clean up anything they drop when everyone is ready to go.

Ron

[digginfool]

The Tower Shoppes in the Town of Davie, Florida took a different approach. They realized that cruising and hanging out in parking lots is an American tradition. Towns like Elkhart, Indiana have cruising traditions dating back to the '30s. With these cruise gatherings come consumers. For the past 20 years, every Friday night you will find hundreds of cars with several thousand participants and spectators in the Tower Shoppes' parking lot. They generate revenue by charging $3.00 per car and the Davie Police Department ensures safety. In the meantime, the restaurants and other shops in the center enjoy a concentration of people that spend money. Sometimes you have to think out of the box and turn aggravation into income. Maybe the City of El Paso wouldn't be chasing these gatherings from parking lot to parking lot if an enterprising shopping center owner would embrace the gathering and enlist the local PD to assist in maintaining control.

[DAVID GAGNARD]

Somewhat similar thing down here some years back....There was a "cruise nite", first saturday night of the month at an outlet mall,sponsored by some old car clubs. not unusual to have 300 to 400 cars when the weather was good....one side of the parking lot was occupied by the street rods/hot rods/muscle cars/antique car, opposite side by the "ricers"....
As you would guess, "our" side was the older crowd that had manners and behaved in a responsible manner,just the opposite for the ricer crowd. once it got dark, they started with burnouts and donuts, music blairing soo loud,it would hurt your ears, after they left, their side of the parking lot looked like a trash dump, bottles and cans and debris everywhere....
Finally the owners had to shut the "cruise nite" down for safety reasons......
The local Corvette club then started their own "cruise nite" at a local chevy dealer,only street rods/muscle cars and antiques allowed. Within 2 months the ricer crowd came and tried to "crash" the event and the cops had to be called in, now we have NO cruise nite, thanks to the ricers...................

David

[Joe Wicked]

More than a few got shut down here too because of the ricers. We had a real nice one in a Walmart parking lot that was good until some idiot on a motorcycle kept going in front of the doors and doing wheelies. At that point Walmart shut it down and informed the organizers that they would be charged with Criminal Trespass if they came back.

[SP01715]

We have a whole street that does cruise nights in the summer on fridays. They have vendors, music etc... When I was a kid this same city used to write us bogus tickets and tried to run off the car guys. They got smart and figured out that they make money off us, and now they embrace it.