Bipartisan Block Party Poopers

"[District 2 city council candidates] Kevin Faulconer and Lorena Gonzalez say they are supporting [an end to the Pacific Beach Block Party], and I don't see them rallying around Kevin [Hellman]," says Benjamin Nicholls, executive director of Discover PB. The organization of Pacific Beach business owners is opposed to hosting the annual event. "The entire parking lot behind me is a giant public toilet," said businessman Marc Nussbaum after the last PB Block Party.

Hellman, executive director of the San Diego Music Awards and associate publisher of City Beat, selects bands and acquires the sponsors for the block party.

"Kevin is doing everything in a vacuum," says Nicholls. "That's why he has no community support.... Discover PB has a right to do its own street festival without Kevin. People want a street festival; they just don't want one that Kevin has cooked up in his basement."

Hellman has announced that he wants to organize a new PB street event on April 22. Nicholls says, "[Hellman] pulled that date out of thin air" and that the city has not granted Hellman a permit. Nicholls admits that there may not be enough time for Discover PB to organize a different sort of PB street festival for 2006.

Last week, Hellman said he was "not ready to talk" about future events.