St. Patrick's celebrations

[jeffster]

As I had mentioned before, we need to discontinue EMS for that area, which is my main concern.

Clearly you do not understand how our society works. It works in large part by providing certain services to everybody, without judging whether they are worthy to receive those services. This isn’t perfect, but it’s better than the alternative.

Why I think next year is because it will be a Sunday, the crowds will be even larger, and depending on the weather (or perhaps it doesn't matter), and it will likely be too much for the services to handle.  

Thanks, I see where you’re coming from on this. I can’t say if Saturday or Sunday is the “best” day for a party, but I definitely agree that weekends are likely to see larger attendance. Although one Councillor made a rather silly statement, suggesting that this year was the first time the party occurred on a Saturday, when in fact March 17, 2012 was also a Saturday. In other words, there are probably current students who have celebrated St. Patrick’s day on Ezra Avenue twice on a Saturday.

The last time it was on a Saturday (2012) it wasn't nearly as big. It's been growing over the years, but it's only been the past 5 celebrations (2014) that they've been starting to get out of control, size wise.

As for our services, this still is an illegal party that puts the ENTIRE region at risk, for a rather small group of revellers. As I mentioned before, this is not a good situation and anyone living in the region shouldn't have to worry about that risk, if they have a need for EMS or police services (though the police services are being taken care of). As it stands, only a small amount had to be hospitalized, but most could have been treated if the city of Waterloo and the universities set up something nearby.

Ideally, the universities and the city of Waterloo could provide for those services on their own, and they should. They could hire EMS staff as well as busses to provide the necessary resources. It appears that when it comes to this though, that there is no desire with the city of Waterloo or the universities to be part of the solution, and no desire to put any money into this.

There are solution out there, and it's not rocket science. Make it legal and inclusive. Or accept it as a money loser but it's on the city of Waterloo and universities that bear the costs, and their responsibility to provide the needed services.