My colleague Mike Oz just weighed in on Mardi Gras, and I want to, also, on this "morning after."

As a resident of the Tower, I'm always a little skittish about Mardi Gras. Not because of the noise, or the traffic, or the infernal chop-chop-chop of that annoying helicopter. What makes me nervous is the anticipation that something bad will happen -- and that the Tower will somehow get blamed.

Well, it did.

And it will.

I'm sure that in the coming weeks and months, there will be renewed calls for clamping down on Mardi Gras and other large gatherings in the Tower.

What happened was terrible. No doubt about it. And if we lived in a draconian state in which all festivities except Christmas Tree lightings were banned, we wouldn't have to worry about such threats to public safety.

But here's the deal: We live in a free society. What's more, we live in a CITY. Like it or not, Fresno is an urban space. Part of the social compact for living here is a tacit agreement to mingle and gather in large crowds -- or at least to allow others to do so freely. Not only is it healthy, it's normal. For as long as humans have gathered in societal clumps, they have partaken in events involving large crowds. It's part of life.

Too often in Fresno, however, I get the feeling that people (and especially the powers that be) would rather just skip the crowds. No political demonstrations, because that can get messy. Make it hard for live music to succeed because of the "dangerous element" it attracts. Send your kids to the "good" part of town with the fancy chain stores; nothing bad could happen to you inside a Banana Republic, right?

We're notoriously tight-fisted in Fresno when it comes to allocating resources to civic, open-access places such as parks. Just look at the lack of public spaces that are of sufficient size for people to gather in this city. It's why we're treated to the somewhat sad sight of protesters demonstrating at the corner of Blackstone and Shaw.

Most of the so-called "social centers" in this city that have evolved in the past few years -- the places where people are most drawn to mingle -- are private. River Park can throw you out if they don't like what you look like or what you're saying. (And they do.) Most people don't care that River Park is private. But, believe me, you would if you were the one getting thrown out.

The incident last night in the Tower was, from what I can tell from this morning's sketchy, pre-press conference details, a drunken-driving arrest that turned deadly. It could have happened anywhere. Before we start blaming the Tower and Mardi Gras, let's approach this like the big city we are.