Louisville wants to bring area residents back downtown and attract tourists. Part of this is the development of an area called Fourth Street Live! (The exclamation point is part of the name, not indicative of my enthusiasm for it.) The new businesses there include Red Star Tavern, Hard Rock Cafe, Rascal's Comedy Club, McFadden's Bar and Restaurant, Red Cheetah, Parrot Beach, and T.G.I. Friday's.
I haven't been to visit it yet but from what I've heard it's been attracting good-sized crowds. Bringing business back to downtown sounds like a good thing, but there are already complaints. Not about the crowds, about the dress code.
Controversy continues to swirl over the dress code at the new Fourth Street Live. At issue is whether or not a seemingly arbitrary dress code can be enforced on public property.
Arbritary - Determined by chance, whim, or impulse, and not by necessity, reason, or principle or Based on or subject to individual judgment or preference.
The dress code allows women to wear sleeveless tops but men cannot. Nor can men wear sports jerseys. Baseball caps, if worn, must have the bills turned to the front.
Louis Coleman and others plan to protest the dress code Monday at noon. Coleman says jerseys are a staple for young men of every race. "It's what they wear."
The young men Rev. Coleman speaks of want to dress as though they are spending the day at the park. When I was very young, people dressed up to go downtown. Men wore suits and ladies wore dresses. Ladies were usually expected to wear hats and gloves also. As a child, I had to wear a dress, white gloves, and dress shoes. The blisters I got from wearing patent leather shoes to walk around downtown is still one of the things I remember most about those trips.
Things changed in the late 60s and early 70s. People wore what they wanted and downtown became someplace you didn't want to be after dark. I'm not saying that dressing down made it a bad place, rather both are results of a lack of respect for oneself and for others.
Beard, who was visiting Louisville from New Orleans, says "I don't understand how Kentucky can let these people come in here and dictate their tourism. According to Christ, we're dressed right, so if I'm dressing all right for Christ, what everybody else think don't matter to me."The dress code is enforced Wednesday through Saturday nights. The Mayor's office says because Fourth Street Live has an arena liquor license, the blocked off area basically becomes private on those nights, and they aren't sure anything can be done.
Her group was stopped because one of the men was wearing a jersey. I'm no New Testament scholar, but I'm pretty sure there is no mention of sports jerseys anywhere in it.
I enjoy dressing in comfortable clothing as much as the next person and I don't want to return to the days of having to wear a dress, hat, gloves, and high heels to go downtown. I believe the dress code is neither arbriary nor unreasonable...it sounds as though it's a step below business casual. If you want to dress like a slob comfortably, there are plenty of places you can go. If you want to complain that women can wear sleeveless tops while men can't, I'll go along with you if the women are wearing tops with armholes that come half way down the shirt and they don't shave their armpits. That's not a sight I want to see during a meal (or anytime) either. Otherwise, shut up about it. Men's and women's clothing are different, or should be, get used to it.