Officials are hoping for a less rowdy Boston St. Patrick’s Day parade this year with a plan that includes an earlier start time and a different parade route.
“Boston’s a wonderful city. This is a tradition in our city for a very long period of time and we’d like to keep it a very nice tradition,” Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox said during a press conference Wednesday to lay out plans for Sunday’s parade.
“It was not as well behaved in the past last year, particularly driven by young intoxicated people in general and the fighting associated with it and we’re just not going to tolerate that,” Cox continued.
The parade will begin at 11:30 a.m. this year, according to a city traffic advisory, which Cox said should “make it better for folks to get in and out of the city a little easier.”
Bars and restaurants in South Boston will stop admitting new patrons at 6:30 p.m., alcohol service will end 30 minutes later and customers will be required to be out of the business by 7:30 p.m., Cox said. Package stores will close at 4 p.m. “Youngsters” are to be accompanied by adults. Towing will begin at 3 a.m., two hours earlier from last year.
“This is a family-friendly event. This is not a drinking fest. And so we will be enforcing all alcohol laws pertaining to illegal substances and drinking in general,” Cox said.
The MBTA says that “driving is not recommended” due to street closures and parking bans in the neighborhoods.
“Southie traditionally doesn’t have a lot of parking spaces in general and it will have even less for this event,” Cox said.
The parade will start at Broadway Station, go up West Broadway and then onto East Broadway, will turn right onto P Street, right onto E. 4th Street, left onto K Street, right onto East 5th Street, left onto G Street, stays to the left of South Boston High School onto Thomas Park, left on to Telegraph Street, left onto Dorchester Street and will end at Andrew Square, according to the city traffic advisory. This is a change from last year which used the “historical” route.
The stricter rules has to do with what several elected Boston elected officials called “the out-of-control behavior that the people of South Boston endured last year” in a letter to Rob McCarron, the president of the Associated Independent Colleges & Universities of Massachusetts, and Mary Bourque, the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents.
“Our focus has remained on addressing the public safety and quality of life issues that created the unacceptable ‘anything goes’ atmosphere last year” said U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, City Councilor Ed Flynn, state Sen. Nick Collins and state Rep. David Biele in the missive sent on Friday.
The group of officials then chronicled a litany of offenses, “including public drinking, disturbing incidents of violence and assaults that went viral on social media, people on rooftops without a roof deck, overcrowding on roof decks, beer cans thrown at parade marchers, and public urination on resident’s (sic) property/”
“Our message to visitors of South Boston’s parade is simple: please show some common courtesy and respect for the residents, veterans and military families, our dedicated first responders, and our nation’s history,” the letter continued. “Operate under the golden rule and if you wouldn’t do it back home, don’t do it here.”
Boston EMS Chief James Hooley also recalled the proud history of the event in asking for basic decorum during the Wednesday press conference.
“It is an event that commemorates General Washington driving the British out of Boston, and it’s a civic holiday,” Hooley said. “It’s not Mardi Gras and it’s not meant to be that way.”
Hooley said his department has assigned additional ambulances, put in contingencies for shutting down roads to get to South Boston addresses for calls, will employ EMTs and paramedics on bicycles, Gators — which are like rugged golf carts — and “mini-ambulances” in and around the parade route to quickly get to calls.
Cox said that the BPD and other agencies have been planning for the weekend’s event for the past year. The BPD will be aided by a contingent of State Police troopers.
Massachusetts State Police Col. Geoffrey Noble told the Herald after the press conference that his agency will be “providing additional manpower and resources.”
