Chicago, IL-(ENEWSPF)- From the Chicago Sun-Times:
Nearly three years after it was scrapped because it had morphed into a beer-drenched, arrest-filled nightmare for Beverly and other neighborhoods on the far Southwest Side, the South Side Irish St. Patrick’s Day Parade appears to be coming back.
The Chicago Department of Transportation has issued a permit to the parade committee, meaning the parade will again march down Western Avenue on March 11, committee chairman Joe Connelly said late Friday. Organizers vow the parade will be family-friendly with a zero-tolerance policy for alcohol use by anyone.
The city’s decision to approve the parade’s permit was somewhat ofa surprise because Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th) staunchly opposed the plan and even wrote Mayor Rahm Emanuel in an effort to block its return. On Monday, O’Shea sent a letter to Emanuel expressing his dissatisfaction with recent parades which, he wrote, had become “rowdy, drunken, and often violent.”
But after receiving assurances from the parade committee that strict crowd control policies would be in place, the city approved the permit Thursday, Department of Transportation spokesman Pete Scales said.
