Merchants See Downside to Old Pasadena’s Success : Business: Concern about crowded sidewalks has led to calls for regulation of street performers. The possibility of licensing or other restrictions has some entertainers worried.

A light breeze carries the tropical beat of a steel drum and the strains of an old Beatles classic through bustling Old Pasadena, where throngs of people are out on the town on warm summer evenings.

The large crowds and the street performers entertaining them are a testament to the success of Old Town, but some local business owners are beginning to wonder whether it might be too much of a good thing.

The problem, they say, is that the sidewalks are not big enough for the merchants, the crowds and the street performers.

A variety of remedies have been proposed, but there is growing support for plans to somehow regulate the musicians and magicians, artists and clowns sprinkled along Colorado Boulevard.

“We’re kind of going through growing pains, and this is just one of them,” said Jack Daniel Smith, president of the Old Pasadena Business Assn. “I don’t think anyone planned on the area being as successful as it is.”

Old Town blossomed into an entertainment mecca over the past few years. More than 15,000 visitors come to the area on Friday and Saturday nights, drawn by its selection of more than 60 restaurants and bars, several theaters and art galleries, and dozens of trendy stores.

But according to Smith and others, Old Pasadena is so popular that it might be unsafe. Too many pedestrians are forced to step off the sidewalk and walk in the street to get around a crowd surrounding a South American folk band or a crooner with a guitar, they said.

Although talk of licensing performers is only preliminary, it already has some of Old Pasadena’s regular acts worried.

“I just know it’s going to happen, and it bothers me,” said Tony Parker, a 36-year-old Pasadena songwriter performing in front of a closed antique store. “It detracts from the spirit of it. I don’t like the feel of it at all. I don’t like the idea of any kind of regulation that could cut my income off.”

Parker, strumming a guitar and singing a James Taylor song into a microphone, said he is also afraid that officials will pull the plug on amplified speakers.

That is just one step that restaurateur Chipper Pastron and other business owners want the city to take.

Pastron, co-owner of the Market City Caffe, Rose City Diner and Jake’s Billiards, also wants to audition would-be entertainers, charge them a small fee for licenses, designate specific spots where they may perform, and require them to display permits.

“We need enforceable guidelines that would create a hassle-free environment here,” Pastron said. In addition to the sidewalk congestion, Pastron said the performers and their audiences often block store entrances and windows. Some make too much noise.

“Anybody can grab a guitar and just start screaming, and that doesn’t add to the environment,” said Pastron, who agrees that street performers are an important part of the Old Town atmosphere.

Some have suggested closing the central four-block strip of Colorado Boulevard to traffic on weekends, but city officials say diverting traffic might be too complicated.

Many of the street performers welcome the idea of guidelines that would ease sidewalk congestion. Most of the entertainers already have good working relationships with the businesses where they perform.

John Henry, a 53-year-old guitarist who wears sandals and smokes a pipe, has volunteered to serve as a liaison to the street performers and is excited about the prospect of guidelines that will bring the community together.