There may have been 100,000 people along the parade route on Saturday. How many people is that? It’s more or less the entire population of Richardson lined up along the route from Blackwood to Yale. And this doesn’t include the after-parade party or the free-form drinking on lower Greenville throughout the afternoon and evening.
In other words, this is a major civic event crammed into a bunch of residential neighborhoods that requires almost 100 extra cops, a mobile command center, a squad of motorcycle officers, and a variety of closed streets and no-parking zones. And that doesn’t include the money and time to clean the mess up, which gets more messy every year. Walk around the area on Sunday, and you’ll see what I mean.
At what point do we say, "Enough is enough?"
And no, I’m not a party-pooper, and I’m not the only one who feels this way. It’s a question of resources: Do we have better things to do with our money than cater to a bunch of drunks? The parade has come a long way from its beginnings, when it was silly and unorganized and held more or less on a whim. There were 100 floats and participants this year, which is more than the Cotton Bowl parade had. Attendance has continued to increase (up 10 percent from last year), and that means more aggravation. Anyone who tried to drive anywhere west of Matilda on Saturday, above or below Mockingbird, knows what I mean.
If we’re going to do the parade next year, these questions need to be answered. If we agree, as a community, that we’re willing to put up with the inconvenience, that’s one thing. If we end up doing it because we’re supposed to do it, that’s another thing entirely.
Take a look at the video, and see if that’s what we want next year.
