Cruisin’ on Main Street tries to get in gear

The last time they dealt with Mesa’s city leaders, they were looked upon as a bunch of “snot-nosed kids” with a “mobster-like mentality.” Twenty-six years later, Mark Kwiatkowski and Larry Vela say they were “kicked off the curb and kicked off Main Street” simply for following their passion — cruisin’.

Yes, of the “American Graffiti” variety.

Now, Kwiatkowski’s cars enthusiast group — Concerned Mesa Cruisers — is banding together once again. Its members want to roll through downtown Mesa just like they did on Friday nights and Saturday nights back in the ’60s, ’70s and early ’80s — hanging out along Main Street, cruising in their vintage Mustangs, Camaros and Chargers.

And they want to make use of Main Street’s regular social events to roll back in without raising any eyebrows. It could start informally tonight, with the Friday night ice cream social in downtown Mesa.

Kwiatkowski expects about 30 members and some from other car clubs to show up. He says it’s the perfect way to bring cruising back downtown, once ranked as a leading strip in the country.

“Cruising is not just about driving a car up and down the street,” Vela says. “It’s about sitting beside the road, watching the cars, the guys and gals, meeting people.”

More than that, the group hopes to help revitalize downtown by bringing in family-friendly crowds that pay attention to the hot rods and then stick around long enough to drop by a local business for a cup of joe or a slice of pepperoni.

Cruising became a curse word in Mesa in the early 1980s after a rowdy bunch of teens did everything from using drugs and alcohol to urinating in public. That image, contends Vela, who was 27 when things screeched to a halt, ruined all the efforts by the rest of the folks.

“We were only interested in showing off our muscle cars and eyeing the girls,” Vela says, chuckling.

But the littering and noise and general misbehavior of a few stretched the police force and tested the patience of local business owners enough to make the City Council take some action. Eventually the city took measures including banning late night parking in certain parts of downtown, Vela says. That, in effect, prevented cruisers from parading along Main.

The city leaders back then even got a local pastor to help set the cruisers straight.

Now 78 and retired, Pastor Howard Hahn still remembers taking some drunk kids home and talking to their parents, and getting others to clean up the trash left behind.

Hahn also still praises the “fine” group members’ renewed efforts and sees nothing wrong with cruising, if done “cleanly.”

“It gives young people something to do — they like it, they enjoy doing it,” Hahn says.

The group, which strongly opposed the city’s efforts to stop cruising back then, doesn’t want to get into any sticky mess with authorities this time.

“We’re no longer going to be a political group that fights the city on whether or not there’s going to be cruising,” Kwiatkowski says. “We want to come down for the social event with our wives and kids.”

This group isn’t the first to think of bringing back the activity, however.

Linda Morrissey, founder of Memories on Main Street, brought cruising back, albeit twice a year, to Mesa, in 2007. But she doesn’t favor regular cruising in downtown Mesa.

She said she appreciates the sentiment behind the Concerned Mesa Cruisers, who’d like to cruise more often, but said doing it every week or every month would not be a panacea for the area’s revival, but the collective energy of different kinds of events.

“Downtown Mesa needs to become many things to many people,” Morrissey says. “There is no silver bullet that will restore the area...not the (Mesa) Arts Center, not (Downtown Mesa Association) Night Out Events, not cruising.”

If done too often, people will lose interest, Morrissey says.

Kwiatkowski says he appreciates all that Morrissey has done for bringing back cruising and that he would always support her “fantastic” efforts twice a year, but he still feels more cruises can be a success.

Some area business owners couldn’t agree more.

David Harris, who runs Queen’s Pizzeria and Café on Main east of Country Club Drive said the last cruising event in March was his biggest night ever, with business up 150 percent. He stayed open until midnight, three hours longer than usual.

Harris said cruisers in general have matured now that they’re older, so it’s unlikely they’ll indulge in vandalism.

“Is it a possibility? Yes. Do I mind it, no?” Harris says. “Kids are not like the greasers back in the ’50s.”

Anita Stapleton, who owns Jersey Girl Café, is a former cruiser. She also stayed open until late on the two recent cruise nights. And it paid off.

“Business was triple the usual,” Stapleton says. Moreover, she said it helps because it’s nice exposure for small outlets like hers.

“Let’s face it, a lot of people don’t have the money to travel, so this is nice and local,” she says.

The city’s leadership too has undergone enough change for there to be a chance for this to work.

Police Chief George Gascón said it’s difficult to tell how much of a pressure a large event such as this would put on the police department without knowing more details about the scale of the event.

“We’d have to talk to the organizers and see what’s envisioned,” he says.

Transportation director Dan Cleavenger said cruising is not illegal in Mesa. He said other than obeying the city’s parking signs, he didn’t believe cruisers would need a special permit, unless they planned formal events around it, for which permits are required.

Mayor Scott Smith went even further to say he welcomes any opportunity to help bring business to Mesa, although he knows there have been problems in the past.

“But everything deserves a revisit,” Smith says. “Enough time has passed since those issues and I’m open to any activity downtown that brings a wholesome atmosphere.”

Smith said there would need to be some discussion about the general rules for cruisers and if it works, great; if it doesn’t, then at least the city would have tried.

Dave Wilson, a spokesman for Downtown Mesa Association, a nonprofit group set up to promote local economic growth, said if it’s organized well, then the cruises could be a good thing for businesses by drawing more people downtown.

Anything generating activity in the downtown area is “certainly a good thing” from an economic development perspective, city spokeswoman Holly Walter says.

On a recent evening, Kwiatkowski and Vela parked their respective light blue 2006 PT Cruiser and cream 1979 El Camino across from the Mesa Arts Center. The setting was as different as the cars they had two decades ago — Vela’s orange ’69 Firebird and Kwiatkowski’s 1967 black Firebird hot rod.

It was so quiet you could literally hear the crickets — a far cry from when thousands of people thronged the area on weekends back then.

And their hair is grayer and their age clearly visible. But the chance to get back to their old stomping grounds brought a twinkle to their eyes.

Kwiatkowski says he’s aware of other car groups who are worried that going back to doing weekly cruises could bring back some bad elements.

“But we’re not going to do the things we used to do when we were 18, 19, 20 years old. We’ll still have teenagers cruising, but I think the maturity level is better and hopefully they won’t turn into a bunch of idiots,” he says.

What: A Night Out in Downtown Mesa: Ice Cream Social
When: 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. today
Where: Downtown Mesa, along Main Street between Robson and Macdonald