Homegrown Halloween

According to The Carrboro Citizen:

"Carrboro Police will also monitor the municipal lots in Carrboro to try to prevent visitors from parking to walk to Franklin Street."

Does anybody know how to interpret this?  Are the Carrboro public parking lots going to be closed to Carrboro residents?

I really can't risk a $103 towing fee.

I'm going to go over, mainly to take some photos, and also out of curiosity to see how much the changes impact the turn out.

My plan is to park in an undisclosed location and ride in on my fixed gear. I’d ride from home, but that would mean riding down Columbia Street in the dark afterwards.

John Rees

But we watched horror movies for 3 hours on campus to wait for things to get going, and then a group of about 9 of us spent the rest of the night on Franklin St.

 (here we are on campus, I'm 2nd from the left, just about to head out to franklin st.  4 of us were the X-men character Mulitple Man)

Anyone else got costume pictures or party pictures or franklin street pictures to share?

I heard a disturbing report about last night. Apparently, despite the success of reducing the crowds & keeping it local, the Chapel Hill Police lined up, locked arms and did a Gestapo sweep of Franklin St.

What is being allowed to happen here?

Mark M,

Not every police action is a 'Gestapo' tactic and you insult an awful lot of dedicated, hard-working police officers by so casually, and perhaps irresponsibly, categorizing with such a term actions of which you don't apparently even have direct knowledge. Certain politicians (not local) I might expect such inflammatory retoric from; I would hope we might expect better here.

I thought the crowd was huge, but it was comfortable moving up and down Franklin Street, and the sidewalks were mostly clear.

It was slightly weird being the oldest person on the street, most celebrants were students and wearing costumes. There was a very heavy police presence and that was also comforting. There were many families sitting on the side watching the action.

It was fun, and the funniest was a McCain masked lad who feigned a heart attack every few steps with the crowd begging him to survive.......about 8 Sarah Palin's were spotted.

There were a few very drunk students but this obviously happened before they reached Franklin Street.

It was convenient for us, thanks to a uptown neighborhood relative. I am sure the security made it difficult for most Chapel Hill residents who wanted to participate, but it was important to dampen down the crowd size and return the street party to sanity. 

I got bag checked a couple of times as I moved in and out of the controlled area, and they were very decent about it.  I had a shoulder bag carrying camera gear.  My observations were that the police all kept back and out of the flow and were just watching carefully.  The mood of the police was fine.  I was leaving just when the motorcycles were arriving, so I cannot speak for the method they used to clear the street, but you can’t get 40K people to simply step off Franklin Street without some assertive action.

By the way, here are a few photos I took

I know what you mean, it was much more difficult for many local folks to take part because of these tactics.  I do hope after this year's efforts success in reducing the event by more than half that they will not feel the need to take such drastic measures next year.  It took hours of communication, discussions, calls, e-mails, and instant messages for us to coordinate 9 of us (all Chapel Hill & Carrboro residents) getting to downtown together and back out together.  As a resident of the town I feel that if you have to form an impromptu party planning committee just to figure out how to attend this event, then the officials have gone too far in its restriction.  I was vocal about my opposition to this on local radio & online in a number of places this year, and fully plan to be even more vocal next year if restricting access to downtown for hometown people keeps up.

But in the meantime I am content knowing that with a lot of extra work, some wasted time, and a little extra gas money ferrying people around, things worked out in the end for me atleast... I had other local friends who couldn't make it because of difficulties imposed who would have otherwise taken part.

Did the police lock arms and sweep the street clean?

I heard from a trustworthy source that they did. And that it was done without provocative crowd behavior.

Call it what you will (or ignore the question and revert to knee-jerk praise for "Chapel Hill's finest,etc.") - it's a strong-arm tactic that we should be well aware of & we should understand the implications. 

hmm... dont' know the answer to that Mark, but I will say I had a moment of "are they or aren't they"  when the highway patrol zoomed down the street a couple of times in formation on motorcycles.   My husband swore they were guys in costume--I told him not to test that theory!  

My daughter took a short video from Top of the Hill at midnight, and all I see/hear is a quick squard car blast and an announcement from what sounds like a bull horn to clear the streets.    

I was struck by how much the additional lighting downtown made a difference in how I felt about being downtown in a big crowd.  

Yes, Chief Curran came up through the ranks to take charge.  He has experience as a street cop, an off-duty security guard, and a vigilant public safety officer.  Town Manager Roger Stancil is new too.  At first I didn't like that he came from Fayetteville, but I've changed my mind.  This is a great example of how new leaders who've worked in the trenches can infuse a municipality with fresh effectiveness.  Chief Curran did a great job of controlling the Halloween crowd with only a month to mobilize. 

If this constitutes "knee-jerk praise for Chapel Hill's finest," I feel fine sticking with my core policy.  Praise makes the world go round.  

First of all, you begin by acknowledging that the crowd is now composed primarily of people who live here, unlike previous years. In that spirit of respect for local citizens, you creatively communicate with your friends & neighbors.

You have several "curtain calls" whereby officers (and/or possibly non-uniformed citizen "party  peacekeepers" - with a little brainstorming some fun title could be dreamed up) move through the crowd and tell folks that the evening is coming to a close. Do this for a half-hour or so and then see what needs to be done. Maybe nothing. But if there are still folks hanging around, do the minimum required to clear the street.

It sounds like what happened was like cutting butter with a chainsaw.