Fighting St. Patrick’s Day
We can all agree that the city’s response to last year’s St. Patrick’s Day was…well, let’s say wanting, because that’s the nicest way to phrase it. By the middle of that day, it was perfectly clear that the weather coupled with it being a Saturday coupled with it being St. Patrick’s Day meant that the parties that night were almost certainly going to be bonkers.
And bonkers they were, culminating with the release of the I’m Shmacked video. The predictable people freaked out, as they always do, because they somehow didn’t understand that Warmth + Weekend + St. Patrick’s Day=drinkdrinkdrinkdrinkdrink. We’ve all lived here forever; I’m not sure how reasonable it is to be shocked by what happened last year.
Needless to say, the City is actually making a substantive effort to avoid last year’s embarrassing debacle. The weather is going to help: it isn’t supposed to nice at all, with temperatures around 40 and the possibility of rain. But so will policy decisions. Ed Preston, the City’s Chief of Police, emailed me back to explain that permits for large parties were being rejected this weekend.
“Permits are still processed as normal, however, based upon the impacts of specific events, it is not in the best interest of public safety to recommend approval of them at this time. All permits are reviewed through the various departments of the city with specific recommendations and then are forwarded to the City Manager who will make the final decision as to approve or deny the permits. This is not a long term policy, but is specific at this point to this one weekend where known specific activities have occurred, and will be subject to review.”
There’s more from the Chief. He also told a story about a local fraternity coming in to ask for for permission to party; Preston said that they couldn’t keep a straight face when asked if the party would exclude those under 21, involve fewer than 500 people, or go past the city’s noise-ordinance limits.
This is the sort of perfectly reasonable policy-making that doesn’t eliminate the possibility of hard-partying, but simply minimizes it. As nearly as I can tell, no such planning occurred last year. Ideally this more aggressive solution functions better.
Well, That Sucked
The headline says it all. Now we can mercifully take a break from the Mountaineers while relishing the rifle team’s championship.
Go outside fools! #wv #morgantown #exploring #bridge #nature
This, I believe, is the I-79 bridge, from Westover to Fairmont. It also crosses the Rail Trail, which is where I believe this was taken. Our running club - The Morgantown Bad Runners Club - chugged up this way at roughly the same time this picture was probably taken. Everything out there is so peaceful and nice. I wonder how many people realize that such places are so easily accessible.
Thanks for the beautiful image.
I’ll stop with the relentless hammering of the High Street and Fayette Street corner. I’ve now got it covered from three separate angles, although all three captured different views of the area. I also like how little has changed. With the exception of the huge tree beside the old Masonic Building, everything appears to be entirely the same architecturally. The top photo was from 1930; the second photo from last week. That’s 83ish years and little change. Buildings were built to last apparently.
(Photos courtesy of West Virginia History On View.)
Robert Phipps took this photograph. His Twitter feed can be found here: @RobertGP421. It was taken at/near Woodburn Hall. He very generously agreed to let us republish it at TheCityofMorgantown. Thank you.
Got something for the site? Let us know. We don’t make any money off any of this; we just love* our city.
*Tolerate
That’s the Red Hot Chili Peppers playing at what we now call 123 Pleasant Street. This photo was taken by Randy Squeak Williams. He was the co-owner of what was then known as the Underground Railroad Nightclub. The photo surfaced as part of a longer discussion about an upcoming event at the club. Information about that event is available here.
Some awfully big music has come through that club during its long history. It’s possible though that this picture captures the biggest of them. Thank you to both Mr. Williams and Ms. Jeannie Kuhn for sharing the image.
Here is Fayette Street, first in the 1930s, then this morning. A casual glance would appear to show that nothing has changed, except, perhaps, for the awnings and the cars. Each of the buildings of the primary buildings are still visible; seemingly none of them have been remodeled in any significant way. The only potentially large change is at the very end of the street; the odd telecommunications building has replaced what appears to be large trees.
(Photo courtesy of West Virginia History On View.)
I am horrendously bad at matching angles apparently. The first photo was taken in 1920; there is a house beside the building housing the Pita Pit. The second photo was taken this morning.
Also worth noting: streetlights in 1920 were cooler than that streetlights in 2013.
(Photo courtesy of West Virginia History On View.)
The last throes of winter.
Decker’s.
