Kadner: Is neighborhood parade too much for Chicago?

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Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel

Updated: March 22, 2012 8:09AM

One of the greatest cities in the world fears it can’t control a neighborhood parade.

That’s what all the handwringing amounts to about the South Side Irish St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Launched by a few folks from the Beverly community, the parade blossomed through word of mouth over the years to the point that hundreds of thousands of people converged on Western Avenue in the 19th Ward each year.

These weren’t terrorists or people trying to make a political statement, as Chicago might expect in May for the G-8 economic summit and NATO gathering. The “troublemakers” mostly were young people looking for a good time.

They got drunk, got sick to their stomachs, urinated on lawns and, overcome by Beverly’s beauty, engaged in romance in a very public way. It is said that grown men had to put their hands over the eyes of innocent children, and it was no longer safe for women to walk the streets.

The Chicago Police Department couldn’t control what had become the world’s largest block party. Instead of denouncing the city’s inability to protect citizens and control drunks, then-Ald. Ginger Rugai (19th) demanded that the parade be killed.

And that’s what happened after the 2009 event.

Now, local residents and a few political leaders are trying to revive the parade.

Matt O’Shea, the current 19th Ward alderman, is opposed to the idea, as are many local residents. Among the reasons why O’Shea opposes the parade is that he says Chicago, facing serious financial difficulties, no longer can afford it.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who says he loves a parade, has publicly endorsed the revival of the South Side Irish St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

But behind the scenes, bureaucrats are demanding that the parade organizers not only provide security but money to reimburse the city for any costs it might incur.

It doesn’t seem to matter that residents of the 19th Ward pay taxes and have a right to expect police, transportation officials, firefighters and pencil pushers to do the jobs they’re paid to do.

This is a special event requiring an enormous expenditure of time and manpower by city officials, the parade critics contend.

That sounds like incompetence to me.

If New York can host a giant New Year’s Eve party, if New Orleans can entertain revelers from all over the world during Mardi Gras, then Chicago ought to be able to host a South Side St. Patrick’s Day parade.

And if police can’t control a few amorous youngsters from cavorting in public, if they’re unable to remove tipsy teenagers from the streets, can they really be expected to protect merchants and residents from the thousands of angry protesters who will descend on Chicago for the G-8 summit and NATO conference?

Responsibility for security during the St. Patrick’s Day parade basically has been thrust upon the event organizers. They have promised to hire a private security firm to guarantee peace and tranquility.

That’s a generous offer. They’re willing to be held personally accountable if the parade gets out of hand.

But think about that. You have ordinary citizens saying “we can do it,” while the administration of the great city of Chicago, with its army of patronage workers, says “we cannot.”

I can think of no other neighborhood event in the city where organizers not only have to come up with money to reimburse the city for any costs incurred but also employ private security for crowd control.

The message being sent is simply, “You may live in Chicago and pay taxes in Chicago, but if you want to celebrate and have good time, show us the money.”

With this philosophy, no low-income community in Chicago could afford to have a parade or a festival.

Only the privileged, neighborhoods with wealthy individuals or merchants able to pony up the funds, would be entitled to have a community celebration.

Only a few years ago, former Mayor Richard Daley was boasting that Chicago could host the Olympic Summer Games. Emanuel contends that Chicago residents should cheerfully welcome foreign visitors to the G-8 summit and understand this is an opportunity for the city to show itself off to the world.

If the city pulls the plug on the South Side Irish St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the mayor will send a signal that he cares more about the city’s reputation outside the nation’s borders than he does about the people who live within its neighborhoods.

Chicago is capable of protecting the citizens of the 19th Ward.

I have confidence in the city, even if the mayor does not.