SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – After being canceled for the final two years because of the pandemic, the enjoyable is again on the California State Fair however with a deal with security.
California State Fair CEO Rick Pickering has a giant declare forward of the Fair’s large return.
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“The safest place you can be and the safest square mile in Sacramento this summer is the California State Fair,” he says.
After a pandemic-related hiatus, the Fair can be again on the Cal Expo this coming Friday with new security and safety measures. With covid numbers rising within the capital area, Pickering says there can be an added emphasis on prevention.
“There’s more handwashing stations, there’s more opportunities for hand sanitizer there’s more things being wiped down after you touch it,” he explains.
New safety measures will even be carried out. The Fair has a transparent bag coverage much like these seen at sporting occasions just like the Sacramento Kings, Rivercats and Republic FC.
“I don’t have the security guard digging through your purse,” says Fair Police Chief Craig Walton. “They can just pick it up and take a look at it. And the second thing is that it speeds up the line.
If fairgoers are arriving via rideshare, a bag check for $5 will be offered. Fair workers will also be passing out clear bags for attendees to use as replacements if they did not bring their own.
But one other safety policy comes on the heels of violence at other capital region events and major events across the country. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the Fair there will be a curfew aimed at unaccompanied minors. Any minor trying to enter the park after 6:00 p.m. without supervision will not be allowed into the park. If an unaccompanied minor is already in the park after 6:00, they will be allowed to stay until close.
“A lot of times we have problems towards the end of the fair where kids don’t get picked and they’re just left in the parking lot after hours and are trying to find a ride home,” Walton explains.
“We believe that our approach now is gonna be the same,” Walton says of his division’s improved method in the direction of fairgoers. “My goal is for us to have less arrests than we did in 2019.”
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That 12 months solely two folks had been arrested within the 18 days. But neighborhood activists fear the curfew might have hostile results.
“This is a great solution in a sense because you are eliminating a piece of the problem but you’re not eliminating the whole problem,” says youth chief Tyler McClure.
“This isn’t strategic planning,” Voice of the Youth founder Berry Accius provides. “This is throwing something out there hoping it sticks.”
One of the first considerations is the message despatched about what sort of demographics are coming to the expo on weekend days that aren’t on weekdays in addition to the potential marginalizing of these with out the means to reach on the park with supervision within the specified timeframe.
“If you’re telling me I have to have a parent with me but my mom is at work all the time or I don’t have a father figure in the household or my grandma is only able to drop me off or I have to catch the bus because nobody’s here, then they’re gonna rise up and cause havoc,” McClure mentions.
Accius himself worries that simply because youths are being barred from coming in later doesn’t imply they’ll depart earlier.
“They’re still gonna hang out,” says Accius. “If you come in earlier they’re still going to hang out. ”
He additionally says that within the absence of neighborhood leaders and volunteers to assist out within the late night hours, children should still get themselves into bother.
“If you don’t have people that they recognize, they respect, that they know — ‘that’s my football coach or that’s my mentor or I was in his program or he works at my school’ — you’re gonna have these kids doing whatever they’re gonna do,” Accius says.
Chief Walton says that the Department did seek the advice of with some youth advocacy teams within the space, and help for the curfew was reached by a consensus.
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“It was unanimous including the emails on the public side were all positive,” stated Walton.