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After numerous issues over the past few months the Blackhawk Museum has elected to end its “Cars and Coffee” car show, at least for now.
In a statement released July 20, Blackhawk Museum officials announced the end of their popular morning car show after numerous issues and complaints resulted in the decision to cancel the event.
“We have made the difficult decision to end Cars & Coffee as of now,” museum director of operations Jon Snyder said in a statement. “We love the spirit of the event and the opportunity it has provided for the Museum and its volunteers to interact with the local automotive community, but the event has grown beyond our ability to actively monitor with our volunteers and staff.”
Snyder cited several reasons for the decision to cancel the event, including hazards caused by traffic congestion within the area, noise complaints from the surrounding residential area and other “concerns” by local law enforcement, as the main factors in making the decision.
He added that the museum has plenty of ideas for future events that he hopes will keep residents coming.
Participants may not be surprised by the decision given the emphasis on specific rules, stressed by event organizers at the March Cars and Coffee event. The theme for that month’s show was “Keep it quiet. Keep it slow. Otherwise we’ll lose our show!”
How disappointing to read this!!
Having been both a participant and a guest, this has always been a fun, low key event that myself and my family have always enjoyed.
I live practically across from BH plaza and I do occasionally hear cars on the one Sunday a month but it’s no more disturbing than the constant and daily drone of leaf blowers and other gardening machines.
I’ve never noticed traffic being a problem even when driving past the event. Certainly much less of a hassle than the many downtown events that close off many streets near downtown. (Which I don’t mind either).
My sons grew up attending this event and had special times with their Dad (and myself) and now that they’re old enough, they go with their buddies.
What more can I say than a fun social event will be lost. (Let’s go eat at yet another new restaurant….)
It’s so sad that the actions of a few has ruined it for all. Residents surrounding the BH Plaza must not be car enthusiasts which is sad because Danville/Blackhawk are riddled with nice cars.
It was ONE DAY a month! I’m shocked folks were upset about noise/traffic For a ONE DAY a month event. Too bad as it was an affordable family-friendly event. Even going to Blackhawk for ice-cream now is over $35 for four people!
BH plaza was there long before any of the adjacent neighborhoods existed. The museum is the cornerstone of the entire complex, being the only entity I know of that’s original to the property. Some people will complain about anything and others just have to push the limits on everything.
The museum should make it a car club only event where you have to show a membership card to get in. Too many violations for any particular club, and all of its members are banned from attending.
D-ville police hate any event where they can’t have total control over the participants. Perhaps the event could hire Sheriffs to patrol for the day so the DVPD can get back behind the bushes where they can create the revenue the town so desires??
I loved these events. California has a history of car culture that goes back at least to the fifties. Why just put your hands up and say its too difficult to maintain. Ask all attendees to do their share and spread the word to keep it calm and civil.
There would be minor traffic getting thru on Camino Tassajara and parking issues (hard to get to the gym) during this monthly event, but it is a great community gathering and seeing people connect over their love of cars is worth it! I hope to see it back again.
Wow! As a classic car owner this makes me so sad! This was a great show! This wonderful event that also promotes the museum loses out. All of us that own classic cars love the hobby. We have thousands of dollars invested in our cars. We love to show our cars. Many shows we raise money to give back to the community (food banks, Boy Scouts, children’s hospitals etc.). During and after the shows many participants support local shops and restaurants.
Progressives strike again to ruin a good thing, much like our Republic. #walkaway
This is so disappointing. My husband loves going to this.
It doesn’t make sense that they are stopping Coffee and Cars, but yet they keep the Blackhawk Friday night concerts? I would think the noise from that would be much louder than the cars. Plus the concerts have turned into a drunken divorcee pick up night. You cannot even bring your kids to the concerts anymore.
I live in Bettencourt Ranch and although I am not a car enthusiast, I LOVED knowing this event took place once a month at the car museum. Driving from my house to Sunday Mass passing all the “cool” cars along the way was something I looked forward to. Just like the oak tree downtown, the car museum and this event are unique to Danville and has brought much business to the Blackhawk Plaza one Sunday a month. We have never been late for 7:30 am Mass and feel the traffic is controlled as best that it can be. Whoever is deciding to stop this wonderful event should reconsider. I find it interesting that “popular” events like this are the first to go because of a few “Scrooge’s”. It is very sad.
Cars N Coffee was one of the best car shows around. It had the most diverse and interesting cars of any show.
A bit of history may explain why it was squashed. The original “Hot August Nights” car shows in Danville we’re organized by the late Tony Carnemala, then owner of Dad’s Locksmith. Even though the show was hugely popular, Danville city officials tried to shut it down multiple times. At one time, Tony almost moved it to Modesto out of frustration with all of the constraints and obstacles the city of Danville put in place. Ultimately, the show did survive, but as many of you know, they moved it away from the popular Thursday night shows to the scorching hot mid day shows on Sundays. At the same time, the city has kept their snobbish Danville d’elegance show in place as they believe it attracts a more elite crowd which won’t cause issues. Another interesting fact is the open container law was put in place after an under age kid got drunk at a Hot August Nights car show and had to be dragged off the street after midnight. Therefore, alcohol is no longer allowed to be carried in open containers for the shows. There is an exception and that is the city sanctioned Art and Wine Festival.
The conclusion is that the town council don’t like cars shows for regular people and only favor the events they created. I hope people with nice cars will continue to come to Blackhawk Plaza on Sunday mornings. It doesn’t need to be a sanctioned event for us to enjoy the cars.
This is ridiculous I live here and know 5 other nearby neighbors, none of them are complaining. We love the car shows! Only problem seemed to come at night when there would be some burnouts…Only happened a couple of times though and not a big deal. I think it was getting too big and needed additional help coordinating.
A beautiful fun event cancelled?? Hum.
Wonder if the real reason was that the man who organized it is no longer at the Blk Museum?
As a regular at the show as well as a person who would go to Crunch Fitness at that Sunday time, never have I seen a problem. Well organized and carefully monitored, the cars and people who went were terrific.
What about the drinking and driving after the evening concerts ?
It was rampant.
Conservatives strike again to ruin a good thing, much like our Republic. #walkaway
I took my son for the first time about a year ago. Yes I won mom of the year, we had such a wonderful time. The cars on TV finally came to life for him and he was super excited almost to tears to see all of the Luxury Cars that he could name and price out. He begs me to get up to take him on first Sundays. Oh to hear of this will break his heart.
Blackhawk Plaza is not in the town of Danville. The nearest neighborhoods to Blackhawk Plaza are not in the town of Danville – therefore, the complaints received were from unincorporated residents, and the police department most affected would be the County Sheriff.
Once again, the loudest most aggressive and obnoxious liberals get their way. I do agree, on occasions these cars would wake me up or that one or two bad actors might make a bad choice driving, but the majority were family friendly. I only attended once with my father, who loved it. Wish I had the chance to attend more.
Went to the movies yesterday and saw some sort of car event taking place in the parking lot directly in front of the BH museum.
We noticed a directional sign but since our movie was starting shortly (12:35), we didn’t have the time to investigate.
The event was cleared by the time we got out of the theater.
Does anyone know what the event was? Looked a lot like an informal car show.
Once again the loudest and most aggressive conservatives get their way and ruin a good thing
Lol, conservatives don’t get loud and aggressive! Conservatives might sometimes feel the need to defend themselves, but usually are the ones that walk away from loudmouth aggressive obnoxious liberals. Liberals are the ones that have a lot of hatred and like to create trouble. Liberals like to exaggerate and lie. For example, conservatives are usually patriotic and religious, but liberals will turn our beliefs around and say that because the Bible says marriage is between one man, one woman, and God, that we are against a certain type of people, but that is not true. We don’t want to stop anyone from living their own life, but we do believe Holy Matrimony should only be performed by a priest. Just as Jesus has taught us, we must love everyone and treat everyone with respect. Lastly, I do not hate liberals, but I do not like when someone gets loud and pushes their viewpoints on someone else. Peace!
Marie, BooHoo, conservatives don’t need to defend themselves. They just need money to defend their president. After all he doesn’t pay for anything out of his own pocket. Peace out
This is just horrible.. but that’s ok. If the city of Danville wants too lose income then we can always host it in a nearby city. Walnut Creek, Concord, Martinez
I am a docent at the Museum. Cars and Coffee was an event all of us loved and eagerly anticipated every month. When it was first suspended Fall of 2017 the reason was automotive misbehavior not limited to the immediate area of the Plaza. At least that was the word from our management. I personally am pretty blown out by the overwhelmingly positive opinions of the Blackhawk neighbors. The final cancellation in July was a result of a meeting with our President and the docents. He cited the impact on the community and the edict from (I assume) the Town of Danville to maintain a limit of 800 cars. We timidly agreed we couldn’t do that without a radical new plan. Nobody had such a plan that morning, so we (sort of) agreed to immediately declare the July edition as the last. And yes, our Executive Director and Serious Car Guy was recruited by Monterey County to lead Laguna Seca Raceway. As a well-known figure in worldwide motorsports, he is exactly the person to bring the track up to the standards needed to be a first-class facility. He was the guy who started Cars and Coffee, and oversaw it every Sunday that it happened. His departure created somewhat of a change in focus away from the automotive activities that we now sorely miss.