Why was the Chicago's Pride parade so...ratchet? (Montrose: buying, live)

[Huckleberry3911948]

i have seen the mardi gras aftermath in new orleans just before katrina. very scary.

[Chicago60614]

I've been to the parade for 13 years straight now, it was about 3-4 years ago that it started changing completely after the parade and turning into the disaster that it is today. Very sketchy, dangerous and shady at night. Tons of people loitering, TONS of fights and assaults. I think at last count there were 6-7 robberies that night along Halsted and Belmont, a shooting at Belmont. The police were out in full force trying to break up the fights and did dozens of arrests, kept trying to keep the streets cleared of all the people.

This is all well AFTER the parade, and really doesn't have much to do with people who were watching the parade. I don't step foot in the area after around 9pm on the night of the parade, and it really starts getting bad after around 11pm.

Very very trashy (and ratchet is a good word) around Halsted. Certainly not safe.

Never use to be ANYTHING like that. Normally by 6pm they were cleaning the street back up and it was business as usual. I never had the fear factor at night like there is now, although Halsted and Belmont in general are far more dangerous at night on the weekends than they use to be. I think that night had the 10th robbery around the 900 block of Belmont in just three weeks. Over 60 robberies for the year so far around Boystown.

Total 2013 robberies around there were up around 100% from 2007. That's what happens when you deplete the number of officers in the neighborhood by over 25% and don't backfill them.

[Drover]

Time to move the parade to Columbus Drive.

[Clark Park]

Originally Posted by ChiGuy2.5

Its my opinion that the parade has turned away from its original intention. The intention being awareness of equal rights and the acceptance of the gay populous as a whole. Instead the parade is just a wonderful representation of people who enjoy sex and getting drunk.

Originally Posted by PerseusVeil

What's changed is that there's less advocating for equal rights these days and more corporate sponsorship. The parades are basically just parties these days.

This year I was in St. Petersburg, Florida, and witnessed the St. Pete Gay Pride Parade. It began after sundown and was a night parade of electric and illuminated floats. One of the best Pride parades I ever attended. It was most enjoyable and the crowds, while exuberant, were not rowdy. I saw no arrests made.

The crowd estimates were put at 100,000 to 120,000 ... and this is St. Pete, FL ... not NYC, Chicago, LA, Atlanta, Boston, Miami, or San Francisco.

There were too many politicians there. It's an election year, so the mayor, a gubernatorial candidate, city and state office seekers were all out. There were some corporate sponsors, but also decorated cars and floats advertising local businesses, including a local roofer.

I agree these events have strayed from the original message of LGBT rights and equality. LGBT Pride Parades are supposed to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising of '69 and the quest for freedom and recognition.

[ChicagoMeO]

Originally Posted by Drover

Time to move the parade to Columbus Drive.

do you think thats going to stop the violence that the above poster mentioned (the person who said that he had been attending for 13 years and the last 3-4 years has changed to more criminals especially after 9:00 pm?) if so, what will moving it to Columbus Drive do?

[Drover]

Originally Posted by ChicagoMeO

do you think thats going to stop the violence that the above poster mentioned (the person who said that he had been attending for 13 years and the last 3-4 years has changed to more criminals especially after 9:00 pm?) if so, what will moving it to Columbus Drive do?

Have you ever seen what an absolute brodeo Wrigleyville is on the Saturday of the downtown St. Patrick's Day parade? Imagine how much worse it would be if the parade were actually on Clark Street. That is essentially what the Pride parade has become.

The neighborhood simply can't handle the volume of people the parade has attracted any more. The open spaces along Columbus Drive are much better-suited for crowds of that size. And if you moved the parade down there, you won't have close to a million people all hanging around in the same area for the next 12 hours after the parade is over because there's nothing to do there; and while many will make their way up to Boystown anyway, many will disperse throughout other parts of the city instead.

[ChicagoMeO]

Originally Posted by Drover

Have you ever seen what an absolute brodeo Wrigleyville is on the Saturday of the downtown St. Patrick's Day parade? Imagine how much worse it would be if the parade were actually on Clark Street. That is essentially what the Pride parade has become.

The neighborhood simply can't handle the volume of people the parade has attracted any more. The open spaces along Columbus Drive are much better-suited for crowds of that size. And if you moved the parade down there, you won't have close to a million people all hanging around in the same area for the next 12 hours after the parade is over because there's nothing to do there; and while many will make their way up to Boystown anyway, many will disperse throughout other parts of the city instead.

I dont go to parades, too crowded for me and too hot, but i believe you.

So you feel that having more room will alleviate some of the problems because of overcrowding and this causes violence? I dont know, it seems like it will just make the same criminals just go elsewhere. I think changing the route would end the traffic gridlock that infiltrates Lakeview,

I do know that boystown has been inflicted with more crime and stuff that never happened ago.. this I 100% totally believe.

I did not attend this years' parade for personal reasons, glad i did not go. that neighborhood is slowly going down the terlet from the way i knew it not long ago.

[Drover]

What causes most of the violence is having too many drunks too close together after several hours of drinking and partying. Moving the parade won't make the problem go away but it won't concentrate it so tightly into one area either.

[ChicagoMeO]

Originally Posted by Drover

What causes most of the violence is having too many drunks too close together after several hours of drinking and partying. Moving the parade won't make the problem go away but it won't concentrate it so tightly into one area either.

that makes sense!

[ForYourLungsOnly]

Originally Posted by A Gambler on the CTA

.

I didn't go to the parade so I don't know anything about it. But I have to say your user name is awesome.