St. Pat’s Parade Goes Dry

Marching orders for St. Patrick’s Day come with a bold-faced warning: ​“This year the drinking of alcoholic beverages will not be allowed on the parade route.”

The warning was sent out to parade participants in a letter from the New Haven police department last week.

“Public drinking laws will be enforced. The Police will be making public drinking arrests along the parade route,” the letter warns.

It’s part of a campaign to publicize a new policy this year. Instead of turning a ​“blind eye,” police plan to crack down on public drinking at the annual Irish pride event on March 14.

The news comes after a year in which the city put an end to drinking at a popular weekend soccer league, and as a proposal to ban drinking in Lighthouse Point Park works its way toward the Board of Aldermen.

The new policy at the St. Paddy’s Day parade came after numerous complaints from long-time parade-goers that the drunken behavior had gotten out of hand, said Assistant Police Chief Kenneth Gillespie.

“The drinking and related hooliganism had really gotten to the point where people were staying away from the parade,” he said.

Last year, drunk people vomited in the streets, and when one woman became ill, a drunken crowd refused to make way for an ambulance, Gillespie said. After 167 years, the Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade had ceased to be a ​“family event,” he said.

Police have historically looked the other way while parade-goers opened cans of beer along the parade’s route down Chapel Street.

Responding to complaints, police made a decision to enforce the city’s public drinking ban during this year’s parade, Gillespie said. By city ordinance, it’s illegal to drink alcohol or possess open containers of alcohol in public spaces. The fine is $99.

“You have a problem any time you have law enforcement turn a blind eye” to illegal behavior, Gillespie said. ​“As you can see, you have a gathering that was pretty much out of control.”

The city will do its part to advertise the new policy, he said: ​“It wouldn’t be fair to suddenly hand them $99 ticket for drinking in public,” whereas drinking went under the radar in years past. The city plans to post signs along the parade route warning the crowd they could be fined or arrested for drinking in public or disorderly conduct, he said. Public information officers will be working to get the word out.

Walter Nester, chairman of this year’s event, said the parade committee endorses the crackdown.

“We support the New Haven Police Department in their effort,” Nester said. ​“We have never endorsed drinking. We don’t sell liquor or beer. We don’t allow our marchers to drink.”

He rejected the notion that the parade environment had become too coarse for children.

“This has already been a parade for families,” he said.

“We can’t control the spectators,” he added — that’s the police’s job.

Gillespie said one reason the city didn’t enforce the drinking ban was staffing.

Starting in the summer of 2008, the city began to bill parades for the costs incurred in providing police to direct traffic, shut down streets and keep control of the crowd. Last year, the city billed the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee $26,000 for police overtime; the committee paid over $25,000, according to Nester.


This year, the city has kept the parade’s police bill at $26,000, according to Jennifer Pugh, the city’s assistant chief administrative officer. The city has agreed to provide more police, on the city’s dime, to enforce the no-drinking rule. Pugh said she couldn’t predict the fiscal impact.

“As we have never done this before, I don’t know what to expect in the way of cost,” Pugh said.

Asked if other public festivals could expect a similar crackdown, Assistant Chief Gillespie said the St. Patrick’s Day Parade is the only one he’s aware of where public drinking got out of hand.

The parade booze ban will be the third anti-drinking push that city police have made in the last year.

First, the city tried to yank a permit from an international-flavored men’s soccer league on the Ella Grasso Boulevard, citing several reasons, including public drinking. The league eventually won the field back by agreeing to hire a cop to enforce public drinking and parking laws.

Last year, police backed a proposal by East Shore Alderwoman Arlene DePino to ban drinking at Lighthouse Point Park. That proposal got a preliminary nod from the city parks commission in November; it now needs approval from the Board of Aldermen before it can become law.

Gillespie said these changes are always difficult to adjust to, ​“but once the attitude is changed towards it, the vast majority of people comply with it,” and the city is better off.

“I certainly don’t think we are going to end up with a dry city,” he added.

Meanwhile, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee, which is made up of volunteers, is pushing forward with a series of fundraisers to make sure the annual tradition survives. It needs to raise $110,000 to put on the event, according to Nester. Next up in New Haven: the Rum Runners band will headline a fundraiser at Landsdowne bar on Crown Street Saturday night. A $5 cover charge will go to the parade committee.

The parade is set to kick off Sunday, March 14 at 1 p.m. in downtown New Haven.