Leah s wrote:The "spontaneous" party at 3rd and Central by the Infield Gate was shut down years ago.
I covered that party for The Louisville Times back in the day. Through the late '70s, it was a mellow party and really fun to attend and cover. Great food, too ... a lot of folks in the then blue-collar neighborhoods just north of the Downs would set out Weber grills and sell barbecue. I guess the Health Department didn't even try to control it.
It started to get a little rough in the '80s, but it wasn't a racial thing so much as drunk college kids, who also discovered the Infield in that era and changed its nature forever.
There are rolling barricades for the mini and Marathons. Side street plus Boardway get shut down for the parade. Residents must have an access pass to get into the alleys to access their own residences' parking lots for St. James Art Show. Access passes, barricades, shutdowns, etc happen all the time in lots of areas of town to facilitate the common good.
Consistent with my position in the "Queen Security" thread, I understand the broad need for this but am not fully on board with its implementation. There's an increasing police state mentality, particularly since 9/11, when people expect to be protected from everything, and we're a little too unskeptical about accepting whatever the police and "security experts" tell us is necessary, in my opinion. I don't think it's good to let the police set up these intrusive and almost militaristic "protections" without close scrutiny from both elected officials and the public to keep them from going overboard.
Sometimes, frankly, it's better to assume some risks in life - #### happens sometimes - and call a cop if there's a problem rather than throwing up a wall of blue, treating <i>everyone</i> as a potential criminal, to guard against a limited risk from a small number of people.
Rant over ...