When about 50 Hyde Park residents gathered last week to hear back from city officials and event planners about changes in the Gasparilla Parade, they heard enough to feel that their voices of concern hadn’t been summarily dismissed. They had complained passionately, articulately — and often angrily — six weeks prior about anarchy in their midst.
They now heard about police re-deployment plans, more port-o-lets, additional water-side viewing areas, educational initiatives and an extended parade route down Ashley Drive for Gasparilla 2010. They also listened as Tampa Police Major Marc Hamlin informed the gathering that TPD will be enforcing a “no tolerance” policy for the day’s traditional outrages: ranging from underage drinking and private-property trespissing to assaultive behavior and public sex.
Two points.
First, the city and (promoter) EventFest should be commended for having made a good faith effort to make next year’s Gasparilla Parade better – as in safer. For attendees and for residents.
Deploying more officers into the alleys and using remote booking facilities to expedite arrests will help. As will signage that underscores the message that TPD is serious about enforcing a “no tolerance” policy for underage drinking and the usual variations on an uncivilized-conduct theme.
Second. In reality, Gasparilla 2010 may be merely less anarchic, hardly a standard to aspire to. That’s because some 1,400 police, including Florida State Beverage Division personnel, will still be overwhelmingly outnumbered by hordes in excess of 350,000. Extending the parade route and carving out public-viewing access on the Hillsborough Bay side of Bayshore Boulevard will only impact those who actually care about viewing a parade. More port-o-lets might be a moot point for most of the bladder-challenged fueled on something other than bottled water. And those who face legal extortion each year will still have to fence off their properties and hire private security.
That’s why a change of venue was — and remains — necessary. Not just some highly publicized, well-intentioned “tweaks,” as characterized by Santiago Corrada, Tampa’s Neighborhood Services Coordinator.
A neighborhood adjacent to a jumbo parade, signature status notwithstanding, is, by definition, an unsuitable venue. It can’t be “tweaked” into suitability. That’s why big, prominent parades – from Carnival in Rio to Macy’s in New York to the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena – are held in downtowns – not next to somebody’s front lawn.
That’s why, for example, the Chicago neighborhood of Beverly, which had been hosting a South Side Irish St. Patrick’s Parade for years, finally canceled theirs after the 2009 version. Something about crowd management and public safety as oxymorons. Drunks and punks were overwhelming the police and the neighborhood, and the luck of the Irish — but not their common sense — had run out.
No Vigilante
One final note. For those who may have seen my cameo sound bites last Thursday evening or Friday morning on WFLA, Channel 8 or WFTS, Channel 28, let me supply some context. No, I wasn’t trying to channel a Charles Bronson vigilante character. But, yes, I was trying to clarify a couple of points. And, yes, I do live near “ground zero.”
First, I had wanted to respond publicly to someone who had asked me if I were one of the “complainers.” My response:
“For the record, we Hyde Park residents are not chronic complainers and whiney elites who resent being ‘inconvenienced’ by the Gasparilla Parade Pirate Fest. In reality, we don’t mind ‘taking one for the team,’ when the team is Tampa and its signature parade. We’re no less proud of our traditions than anyone else. But we are outraged when they are perverted. And largely at our expense. We don’t think it’s a character flaw to be intolerant of those at odds with civilizational norms.
“What we specifically mind is being subjected to an invasion. The use of euphemisms has worked to our detriment. So let’s not traffic in terms such as ‘rowdy’ or even ‘bawdy.’ That sounds like a Bucs game. This is way beyond that.
“Absent a change of venue, we would certainly want a no-nonsense message sent by the City and the Tampa Police Department — in the run-up to Gasparilla 2010 — to teens, their parents and others to whom this applies. The message, in effect, should be this:
‘Your one-day exemption from legal and societal responsibilities has been revoked. If you break the law, you will be arrested. And neither you nor your enabling parents are going to like it and how it will look. We frankly don’t care. Trespassing, drunken disorderly, assault, underage consumption and indecent exposure charges await.
‘You’ve been fully warned. There will be consequences. We don’t care who you are or who you know or who your parents know.
‘If we have anything to say about it, no longer will the Gasparilla Parade be synonymous with the ‘Street Party From Hell.’ And we do, indeed, have something to say about it.’”