Street Scene More Like Mean Streets

I was saddened but not surprised to read that three people were seriously injured at Street Scene (SS) (SD Union Tribune):

A rock-music fan seriously injured during a concert at this year's Street Scene in Mission Valley has “vastly improved” and is expected to survive, a police official said Wednesday. The man, whose name has not been released, was one of three people who suffered serious head and chest trauma when spectators rushed the stage during a performance by the band Tool on Saturday night.

I haven't been back since I was caught in a major traffic jam of people trying to get to the Jack Johnson stage. The year I went SS was held in the Gaslamp. We were boxed in by the trolley line that bisected the venue (one to file under "what were they thinking?!"). When the police tried to compress people to one side or other of the tracks on the road to Jack Johnson's area, hundreds of people were penned into a fenced patch of asphalt with no way out. We never even made it to Jack Johnson and took the trolley home. We had experienced a semi-traumatic event, but there was no mention of it in the coverage of the 'great Street Scene success'.

I love the idea of Street Scene, but I have too much to live for to die at a rock concert. With my luck it would be near a lame band stage I wasn't even trying to get to. My family and friends' grief would be mixed with stunned emotion as they pondered why I had died trying to see Yanni or Paris Hilton. (She is repackaging herself as a singer, no kidding). The Street Scene organizers have two duties. First, they need to work on crowd control and security. Second, the artists need to stay at a high caliber, so if people continue to be injured, they can say, "Ya, I lost a leg, but it was so worth it to see Tool, man!"