Each year, the South Side Irish St. Patrick's Day parade draws about 300,000 spectators—all of whom will have to find another way to celebrate the Irish holiday in 2010, according to a press release the parade's host committee put out yesterday. "Let this serve as notice," said the document, "that the South Side Irish St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee is not planning to stage a parade in its present form in March of 2010."
So what are the problems with the event's present form? "What began as a neighborhood parade is now an event of international proportions," said the release. "The sheer volume [of the crowd that it draws] has become more than the neighborhood can reasonably accommodate," and has become "a strain those individuals charged with effectively manning the crowd."
Though the press release neglected to delve into the gory details of the crowd's behavior, The Chicago Tribune offered some insight. The article cited underage drinking, fights, assault on police officers, 54 arrests, and "drunken revelers urinating and vomiting" on neighborhood lawns as some of the problems that plagued this year's parade.
In light of all that, "the committee feels that suspending the South Side Irish parade in its present form is the just and responsible thing to do," yesterday's press release said, adding that the committee will "work to create a series of alternate events that will return us to what the parade's founders had in mind—a neighborhood-friendly celebration of Irish heritage." Details on the revamped celebration will emerge later this year.
