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Parade group gives in, won't contest cutting St. Patrick's parade route in half
By adamg on Fri, 03/16/2018 - 1:25pm
The Allied War Veterans Council said today it will not contest Mayor Walsh's decision to cut the route of the St. Patrick's parade on Sunday by more than half because of snow piles expected to remain along the route.
Earlier this week, Walsh had said the city would have to spend "millions and millions of dollars" to get the entire route ready for the parade. Walsh first ordered a shortened route during the non-stop Winter of 2015.
Allied War Veterans Council Commander Dave Falvey blasted Walsh's "lack of will," because groups had offered to help clear snow, but said the parade will still be great, even if it can't pass by "the birthplace of Evacuation Day" at Dorchester Heights. So no federal lawsuit this year.
He says he will have no further comments on the parade route, and his long letter did not discuss the decision to deny parade entry to veterans who explicitly want to support peace.
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Comments
How can you commemorate Evacuation Day
Without going by Dorchester Heights?
Don’t worry
People will be evacuating all over the place.
The snow will be...
They call it mellow yellow.
It's too bad they don't have some sort
of ceremony at Dorchester Heights on Evacuation Day. On a related note, how can you commemorate the real reason for Christmas without Santa Clause coming to your house?
Evacuation Day Events
The holiday is commemorated: https://www.shirleyeustishouse.org/events/
You know what they also do
They hold a parade, whose route typically goes by the Heights.
So much ignorance of history here.
I'm sure George Washington would be thrilled
to know there is a parade held in his honor where everyone dresses up as a drunken leprechaun.
Not the riots just the revelry
He did make the St. Patrick’s Day proclamation to honor the fighting Irish and lighten the spirit of the troops after all.
Who says they're commemorating Evacuation Day?
During their "We don't hate gays, we just don't want them gaying things up" days, they always argued the point of the parade was to honor Our Nation's Veterans - which I guess makes the decision (again) to bar actual veterans in Veterans for Peace kind of oxymoronic, but whatever. Why, back in the day, the very same council wanted to shorten the route specifically to avoid Dorchester Heights (they claimed "hoodlums" would rain down snowballs and rocks on marchers from up above).
Um, Gaffin
Are you really claiming that the parade route usually goes by Dorchester Heights purely by chance, or is your claim that a parade run by veterans doesn’t care about the one event of military significance that happened in the neighborhood?
I mean, I know you don’t give a rats patootie about Southie, but at least ground things in reality.
You talking about reality?
That's rich.
They clearly don't care about the Veterans of any flavor. Just about a form of being Irish that most Irish people don't recognize.
The rest is a ruse to get public money to pay for a fake religious tradition.
Someone has never talked to a native of Southie
They really, really care about commemorating the British evacuation of Boston. And a bunch of them are proud of an Irish heritage that would have dovetailed with Social currents in Ireland 30 years ago.
No, I understand the Dorchester Heights connection
What I'm saying is that the council has shown varying concern about it over the years and that their whole argument during the ban-the-gays days was how the parade HONORS VETERANS in general, not that the parade is remotely tied to American history or anything as specific as that (remember: Even officially, it's the St. Patrick's Parade, not the Evacuation Day parade), and that they had to ban the gays because, you know, rainbow flags would lessen support for veterans in a way that Imperial Storm Troopers from Star Wars would not.
So
Because they didn’t like being forced to let gays march in their parade, there is no connection between the parade and Evacuation Day?
You’re really stretching there.
There’s no connection.
The parade is literally piontless. Sucks to suck, but literally none cares beside the handful of you bitching here and on fb page
The parade definitely has a point
It's a celebration of Boston's past, just like the parade that occurs in Charlestown in June.
South Boston is not, nor has it ever been, the most Irish part of Boston. However, one mantle that no one can take from the neighborhood is that in March of 1776, General Knox mounted cannon on the top of Dorchester Heights, convincing the British forces to end their occupation of the town of Boston.
But hey, far be it for me to keep you from hating on the parade. Have fun with all of that. And Happy Evacuation Day to you.
Great, and that’s what the ceremony is for
At the Heights today. Go out to the parade tomorrow and poll a random 100 people, I’d bet not more than 1 would say evacuation day if you asked the reason they were there.
That said
If the longer route was used and you polled 100 people watching the parade on East Sixth Street, the majority could probably tell you the story of the cannon being carried overland from Fort Ticonderoga. And that is why the longer route is a better idea. Heck, I'd say better East Sixth than Broadway, anyway, but that's just me talking.
If only
there were a way to move this "snow" from one place to another. Or, perhaps, to cause it to melt.
There is
It's called "spring".
Spring????
What is this word?
Snow
Why is snow an issue with this parade all of a sudden. I've stood on two foot tall snowbanks on Tremont for a few Patriots parades. The people didn't have issues dealing with the snow then.
Green Beer
Green Beer and snow do not mix.
Snow
There's no problem with the Patriots parades because there are no politicians marching in them. My bet some of the politicians might have some snow balls or ice chunks thrown their way from the crowd while marching in the parade. No names. But you can fill in the blanks M---- -----.
Easy
Because so many of these proud South Boston and Dot Rat types have sold out and moved to the suburbs so they need to be able to drive in and park.
Lol. It’s a bunch of tourists and kids and newbies
I’m a Dot Rat by birth and choice for a lot of my life but not OFD. Hate those guys.
I’m over 50 and don’t know anyone that has gone to that shit show in decades except somebody’s kid maybe.
Hell, I didn’t even want to be at my lunch place in Braintree today. Packed with people in green drinking Guinness.
South Shore old school guys aren’t your demo there unless they’re bringing kids and behaving.
And on a side note the parade guys just seem like litigious douches of the highest order.
I haven’t even had a dog in any of their fights but I’m actively rooting against them now.
Bunch of assholes.
Who pays
The settlement if you fall off the snow bank and get injured?
Broadway only route
is to cater to all the bars, restaurants and yupsters. Eliminating the traditional route is intentional to exclude the elderly housing, the neighborhood residents and the public housing with minority residents. Nice job City of Boston.
I know how to find the "millions and millions"
Walsh claims that it would cost "millions and millions of dollars" to clear the route. Tell him that the parade this year is an F1 race and he'll both find the money and clear the full route inside of two hours.
If only we had parade gondolas...
The altitude of parade gondolas would render snow depth irrelevant! #problemsolved #yourewelcome
Genius!
Genius!!
You're all overlooking the more interesting question
Who's going to run the annual breakfast instead of Linda?
That was quickly decided
Congressman Lynch and City Councilor Flaherty will co-host.
I think Forry should have hosted one last time. She did a decent job. Better than Hart, but of course no one could come close to Bulger.
Or just cancel it
Anything which had corrupt Billy Bulger as its star attraction is something which is a waste of any media coverage. We already know these politicians like to engage in circle jerks on Beacon Hill thanks to the recent disclosure of all the NDAs - why cover this one?
Public Safety Nightmare
The decision to change the parade route creates major public safety problems on the MBTA for the following reasons:
* The parade route no longer ends at Andrew station a large station with several entrances and exits.
*The parade route is now about a 1/2 mile from Andrew station which means tens of thousands of passengers who usually watch the parade at Andrew square will now head to Broadway station.
* Broadway station is a small station and a disaster waiting to happen with three exits two of which are shut down for the parade. The one on the bridge is padlocked and the exit to Broadway is blocked by fencing.
*The escalators in the station will be shut down for fear they will collapse do to massive crowds
*Passengers with strollers and wheelchairs will cause bottlenecks as they wait for the tiny elevators on the platform.
* The red line trains will be packed in both directions and the platforms will be filled to dangerous capacity
* Passengers will have to climb two sets of damp wet stairs as other passengers are trying to descend the narrow stairs to catch trains either to the flower show or events at the Garden
* For some reason the one day of the year when T officials decide to enforce fares is at the gates to Broadway station causing backups at the fare machines.
* Passengers will be forced to wait up to an hour to gain entrance to the station at the end of the parade do to massive crowds.
* A handful of T cops and officials will have to deal with drunks, troublesome teens looking for fights, and passengers who are slipping and falling down the wet stairs.
*
HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY TO ALL THE HARD WORKING T-EMPLOYEES WHO WILL BE BLAMED IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG AT BROADWAY DURING THE PARADE.
Two things
First, for hardy souls, the trek from Andrew to Perkins Square is not that bad.
Second, how does the T not care about fares the other at Broadway the other 364 days of the year? I think that is a worse issue.
And remember, I'm the first commenter on this thread, and my first comment is bemoaning the shortening of the parade route.
No Arrests
Parade just got finished at Medal of Honor Park. A lot of trouble. The police officers doing the detail where I was standing told me that they were ordered not to arrest anyone if they can help it because the city wants to argue that the shortened parade route is better. She said they were ordered to issue as many public drinking citations as possible but not to arrest.
Sounds reasonable to me
Why arrest someone if you can just give them a ticket?
Maybe an arrest sends a
Maybe an arrest sends a stronger message than issuing a fine. Why didn’t they just issue a fine to Pablo Escobar?
Because Pablo Escobar committed violent felonies?
Drunk people are just drunk, as long as they don't drive cars. (Or boats, drillpresses, and other dangerous machinery.)
Public Drinking Law
I remember attending a meeting and a police officer told the crowd that Transit and State Police couldn't issue tickets for public drinking because it was a city ordinance and not enforceable on MBTA or state property.