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Several establishments have announced alternate hours or complete shut-downs this weekend, due to the Texas Relays. No specific or unified reason has been offered, but all the entities have mentioned safety concerns, poor revenue in past years, and post-SXSW economic blues. According to the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau in 2007, the Relays generate $8 million for local business (via), compared to SXSW, which pushes into the hundreds of millions. Judging by this video filmed by a Highland Mall employee, there's no shortage of money being tossed around at the mall during Relay weekend.
Highland Mall is closing its doors early on Saturday, and Emo's and Flamingo Cantina will close entirely for the weekend. Though The Statesman reports that police aren't claiming any crime increases during relay weekend in years past, Flamingo Cantina owner Angela Gillen told Joe Gross that the atmosphere is dangerous enough for her employees to not want to work. Highland Mall did close its doors in 2007 thanks to some fights (watch some here, as well as related content), and there were documented instances of outbreaks last year, but most businesses stayed open, and no official crime increases were acknowledged by local police.
The Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays are an annual track and field competition hosted by the University of Texas, and -- as you might have guessed -- draws thousands of African-Americans to Austin's clubs, shopping centers, hotels and restaurants. For more details on this story, visit Joe Gross and Tony Plohetski's piece.
Highland Mall is closing its doors early on Saturday, and Emo's and Flamingo Cantina will close entirely for the weekend. Though The Statesman reports that police aren't claiming any crime increases during relay weekend in years past, Flamingo Cantina owner Angela Gillen told Joe Gross that the atmosphere is dangerous enough for her employees to not want to work. Highland Mall did close its doors in 2007 thanks to some fights (watch some here, as well as related content), and there were documented instances of outbreaks last year, but most businesses stayed open, and no official crime increases were acknowledged by local police.
The Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays are an annual track and field competition hosted by the University of Texas, and -- as you might have guessed -- draws thousands of African-Americans to Austin's clubs, shopping centers, hotels and restaurants. For more details on this story, visit Joe Gross and Tony Plohetski's piece.
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"Those damn darkies with their pants slouched down with the belt around their butts don't have any money to spend because they're all stupid and poor. Sure some of them can run fast but most of them are just violent criminals and should be shot!"
Read the comments sections of any Austin news org. to get a healthy dose of racism.
I think this has always been a sore spot for this town - It's a place that prides itself on acceptance, but seems to have a hard time with it in practice.
in other news, emos announces new additions to its 2009 schedule: hitler hoot nights, honkey happy hours, and will unfortunately be closed for renovations during the chinese new year. this was announced today, by the new GM at emos, clayton bigsby. this is all for financial reasons of course.
I can understand the safety concerns for staff. Last year I had two separate groups of friends encounter guns pulled on Red River over a drink being spilled and then shots actually fired at 5th and Congress around midnight. Unfortunately, there is a huge gang contingent that comes into town for the event, or at least those claiming and acting like it.
Mr./Mrs. Beware,
You need to style and profile that moon shot like Manny Ramirez, dust your shoulder off, do a slight 360 spin-hop like Sammy Sosa and round the bases. You just went yard.
Having had the misfortune of playing at Emo's during relays week a few years ago, I don't blame them one bit for closing. After our show ended at 2 AM, the club advised everyone to stay inside after closing down including regular patrons, not just bands and staff) until after 3 AM due to huge, unruly crowds, scuffles and rumored gunshots.
I don't know too many local musicians who are willing to play downtown during relays weekend anymore, between the parking and the crowds (I'm sure there are some, but none that I know).
There's all this bitching about low profits during relay weekend, but aside from Spiro's, is there really anywhere else these kids would want to go? They seem to hit the places they hear about, which apparently boils down cruising the actual street on 6th St., Spiro's, and Highland Mall. A couple of hip-hop shows at a few clubs every few years isn't going to make them feel welcome or spread revenue-generating buzz.
That said, I'm not going anywhere near downtown this weekend, because I don't want to be around that many teenagers. I'm ageist, not racist!
Maybe the response to why are you closing should have been:
"Well, for one, middle class black youth don't really listen to the type of music we play here and 2, most of our regular customers and bands are afraid to be around large numbers of young black men."
Shocking, but would have been much more honest.
this is a load of crap. i've worked downtown and yes a bunch of drunken college kids downtown (texas relays) definilty sucks, it doesn't suck worse than any weekends like it (longhorn/okc gamenights, new years eve, etc). especially these supposedly liberal venues like Emos or Flamingo Cantina (a 'reggae club')...let me put it this way, those 2 rooms have NEVER been close mardi gras weekend, but do close texas relay weekend?....it's ALL about race...the biggest riot/police breakout i saw was madri gras weekend with white frat boys, but highland mall still opens. texas isn't used to this amount of black college kids (try moving to DC for a summer), so it freaks these businesses out. And besides, the "hurt on business" doesn't come close to the "hurt" being closed all weekend does on bar/food sales. Load of crap.
in other news, genes poboys announced that they will be closed for ACL.
emo's GM clayton bigsby also announced that as a community gesture, and in response to the recent confusion in the press, they just booked tyrone green and his reggae band for mlk day. mr. bigsby was quoted as saying "i think the blacks will really like what we have done here today, and i hope this will show them how much we like certain black music."
sho nuf "this is a load of crap" I worked at the Flamingo Cantina for over eight years, and I saw that club try several different things to cater to the crowd coming in for relay weekend. It has never been successful no matter if the act playing was reggae, hip hop, rock or electronic music. That fact is the staff sits around not making any money. They have had some minor success with Mardi Gras weekend. Other weekends are hassles, too. Biker weekend sucks, too. I wouldn't be surprised if they adopted the plan for that weekend. The fact is that the people coming to this event are not really all that interested in going to a show that weekend, and I don't blame them for closing one bit. On a personal note I sat waiting just to pull out of my parking spot for tweenty minutes once after a relay weekend night. If I am not making any money and then also have to deal with the hassle of the increased crowds what is my motivation for wanting to be down there? I have not worked for Flamingo Cantina for three years, and don't claim to express an official opinion for them in any way. If you think the Cantina is motivated by race come to a regular show there some time, and meet the people that work there and make that decision yourself.
when the owner of Flamingo Cantina describes the scene on 6th street during Texas Relays weekend as being "more like a gun party" then one can only conclude that the decision to close was only about race. Comments like those only perpetuate old stereotypes. White folk like guns too, hell we're in Texas, we're all pretty fond of our guns here. I don't see Flamingo closed during the summer months when students are gone and most folks spend their time out on the lake. The same goes for the holiday season. I don't believe the whole staff at Flamingo is racist. A lil ignorant, maybe. I have seen quite a few fantastic hiphop shows there. Why not book Zeale, Bavu Blakes, or Overloard? Not all black folk like listening to screw hip hop. Hip-hop has quite a range in styles.
Seriously, isn't this just indicitive of a larger problem, that Austin really has no venues that cater to the existing African American residents, much less those that show up for a special weekend? I've lived in Austin for 20 years, but I'm still struck how socially segregated Austin is. This is not a problem that will be solved by Emos or FC booking the right band -- it's systemic. Let's be honest, we'll have broad and robust discussions on the merits of density vs. sprawl, the architecture of a building or the nuance of particular development, but no one wants to talk about how we move beyond the talk and truly become an inclusive, diverse community that respects and embraces all.
To the author, your description of SXSW as generating income "pushing into the hundreds of millions" is misleading -- even more generous numbers show SXSW topping out at $130M. This is not "hundreds of millions" -- that would be an amount that exceeds at least 200M, hence the plural of "hundreds". It also seems to imply that we shouldn't treat all visitors to Austin with the same level of hospitality, dignity and respect.
I hope we'll soon be showing the same level of concern about the drunken brawls on 6th, random gunshots and hazing incidents (deaths, even) from the children of privilege annually pledging fraternities here in Austin as some seem to be wanting to put on "gangs" of young African Americans in town for a party weekend.
Just a few facts that should be included in this discussion
- I know of two accounts of multiple guns being pulled over a spilled drink and shots fired at 5th and Congress just because
- SXSW has many more people, yet there is less of a police presence needed
3- No malls are overrun with people who are not interested in shopping during any other large event in Austin (and I've never know of Burlington coat factory having to call 911 because of too many people outside)
- Cops stand nearest to the walls as they can downtown to avoid stray bullets in the case of shots fired
- The closing aren't bout race, it's about safety
- In all of the videos about Relays, it's always about the fight or the party, not about the event itself
- I've never seen an athlete in any of those videos
- I guarantee if there was a huge gathering of unruly white people with guns and random fighting at intersections every year that it would get the same kind of attention and police presence
Fact is, there are many reasons why people may have closed, but when you have personal accounts of having to stay in side a club after closing because it's too dangerous outside or that you have seen guns drawn over petty shit and shots fired in one of the busiest intersections in town for no reason and all of these things happen during relays and not during other events tells you something. It has nothing to do with the majority of people being black, it has to do with the behavior.
Grape Ape -
APD says there is no more reported crime than normal. I know of annecdotal evidence of crimes being committed at Mardi Gras, too, but everyone seems relatively at ease with that event.
I'm not saying we should be ok with random acts of violence. but singling out this event looks pretty fishy considering 1) the underlying race issues in the town and 2) the fact that the majority of attendees are black.
Ultimately I think many people in this town are uncomfortable with large numbers of African Americans being around. All the time I hear people say one of the things they love about Austin is that it isn't "ghetto". And unfortunately people's definition of "ghetto" isn't limited to slums, but black culture that they are uncomfortable with. The scenes at Texas Relays aren't any different that what you'd find in Main Street Houston, or any other city with a large African American population. Maybe black people remind too many Austinites of the cities they left.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/05/0405relays.html
This statesman article had a quote that I found funny it is stupidity. It's the type of crap an old white woman says when trying to prove she's not a racist:
"A security official reported no problems. A colorful scene played out in the mall's parking lot as souped-up cars, booming music and decked-out young men and women held court."
Ha.
The lengths that some white people will go to avoid being labeled "racist" is hilarious. The decision to close it purely economic. If I owned a shop in Highland Mall or a club on 6th street I'd close it during Relays too.
imagine being a college student coming to austin for the first time to party on sixth street and you're met with businesses closing their shutters implying, "we don't serve your kind around here."
emo's, flamingo cantina, or highland mall won't be getting one cent from this person of color. i encourage others to boycott racism with your pocketbooks. i'm embarassed and ashamed by this whole controversy.
If by "your kind" you mean minors, that's right. They don't serve minors & 90% of the crowd on 6th. St. at Relay time is under the legal age. Wake up, will you? This is not a racial issue. The media has gone way out of it's way to make this into one. It's really about the bad behavior these kids display in way too many instances. If a business cannot make money, should they be forced to stay open just to appear PC? The owner of Flamingo Cantina has put more money in African, Jamaican & local black entertainers pockets that any of you ever will. Calling her a racist for this BS is criminal.
Wes, to say that the reason Highland Mall closed early during the relays is economical is ridiculous. Most people are at the Highland mall during the relays TO SHOP FOR THE RELAYS.
As far as clubs closing down, i suppose its up to the discretion of the club owner, but I won't be spending any more money in either of those venues, so I hope it was worth it for them.
Personally I think all this talk of heightened violence is a load of crap. The police have repeatedly said that there is no increase in crime during the relays. In past years I, a single white female, have walked from downtown to my home on East 11th street at 2:00 AM (easier than driving and getting stuck in traffic) ALONE for the Texas relays and have not been hassled any more than I would be any other night.
Think about what you just posted GheeLaLa: Would the store owners at Highland Mall have closed their shops if the people were actually buying merchandise?
Do you think that the store and club owners they said to themselves "Gee, we could make a helluva lot of money today but since we don't like black people let's close up shop and go home"?
The answer to both questions is a resounding "No" and it's foolish to even entertain the idea that this was racism.
hey moe, so you know, emo's is one of the few all ages venues on 6th street where minors are allowed and often pay a higher cover charge to compensate for lack of bar sales. flamingo cantina 'periodically' has all ages shows.
so minors are usually welcomed...unless you're in town for texas relays.
Dear ShadyLady, in the past, Flamingo Cantina has let underage kids into shows along with adults. However, at this time they no longer allow minors into the club. This started last fall when the TABC started sending minors into the club to try & buy alcohol. So minors are not welcome at all there....relays or not. Look, you can spin this BS any way you please, but the fact remains that Relay Weekend is not profitable for these businesses. Highland Mall could not even hire extra security because EVERY APD officer they tried to hire turned them down flat. Spiro's stayed open & said they had a crowd. OK, but what they didn't say was they had to hire TWENTY extra security people. They were probably lucky to break even on that. Many other businesses were closed & not mentioned (Hollywood's & Death Metal Pizza to mention a couple)& they aren't even clubs. Do you really think all these places closed because they dislike black people? All I hear is this crap about people being afraid of or disparaging of "black culture". If you act rude in public, cause traffic problems on purpose, shoot guns downtown & harass people I don't think your "culture" covers that. It's just bad behavior & you can't expect people to like it.
you're digging yourself deeper with every comment moe.
apd has already proven that there is no increase in crime as compared to other special events and there is no increase in gun-related crime. i see frat types acting stupid downtown, but bars don't close when the white college kids are celebrating an athletic victory or game or whatever.
spiro's DID mention they added security, and only kicked out two people from their club. they also broke sales records despite having to pay for extra staff.
according to flamingocantina.com, they 'periodically' offer all ages shows. if you have information proving otherwise, obviously you are affiliated with the club and are defending them because of your own self interest. and you're a racist.
it's not their age, as these clubs usually welcome minors, it's not safety, as spiro's and the apd have substantiated, and it's not money, since many clubs did very well over that weekend. it is the color of our skin.
it's really sad that all this negativity has completely overshadowed the fact that world class athletes came to our town to compete and this is how we welcome them and their 8 million dollars in revenue.
You're right, shadylady. They're a bunch of racists. Enjoy your pity party.