urbanSTL

southsidepride wrote:I joked about their parade starting at Target and ending at Applebees.

We had fun at the downtown parade today. Very long, really liked the Irish dancers, all the way from age 5 to age 20



The little Irish dancer girls made me want to have a daughter. Because after all, it's only the cute stuff; no diapers, sleepless nights, doctor bills, ER visits, schooling, etc.

ThreeOneFour wrote:

JuiceInDogtown wrote:We had fun at the downtown parade today.

Ya know, you and your wife should really play hookey and take your son to the Dogtown parade, especially since you live not all that far away.

I finally talked myself in to it. I'm going to leave work at 10:30, get home about 11, and walk down. My house to Clayton/Tamm intersect is probably 25 mins by foot. Maybe we'll get a wild hair and take our bike.



We just took our first ride with the Wee Ride yesterday and it worked surprisingly well.





* edit; this is the picture from the box, not my wife and son.

southsidepride wrote:I would say if you are bringing kids you might want to aim towards watching the parade by St. James. Not that Clayton/Tamm intersection is Bourbon St. or anything, but by the parish is a little less crowded and more kid friendly.



Look for the green taxi cab--I'll be walking behind tossing green beads and candy.

Noted. Neighbor told us there is a carnival at St James so that'll be good for the boy.

I truly enjoyed the downtown St Pat's Parade this past Saturday. A lot of work went into the entertainment, the floats, and everything else. A good time in the Gateway City!

I hate to add criticism to that comment, but I think this is worth mentioning. All of our local parades seem to have one shared problem: Bad timing. The distance between the entries in any local parade varies greatly.

The downtown St Pat's Parade was a prime example. The first few entries went by, followed by about 5 minutes of nothing. The next entry was still a block and half down the street. It is so anti-climactic to have such a large "dead space" within the parade.

Eventually, things were moving along. But soon enough, the entries became bogged down in a "traffic jam"; marching bands marched in place, floats stopped, and the parade came to a screeching halt-- more than once.

These things would be far less likely to occur if someone was paying better attention to the timing of the entries as they started the parade, as well as directing the pace throughout.

By the way, St Louis's biggest parade, Soulard Mardi Gras, is no less guilty of having bad timing.

It's just something that needs to be addressed.

citysoul wrote:I truly enjoyed the downtown St Pat's Parade this past Saturday. A lot of work went into the entertainment, the floats, and everything else. A good time in the Gateway City!

I hate to add criticism to that comment, but I think this is worth mentioning. All of our local parades seem to have one shared problem: Bad timing. The distance between the entries in any local parade varies greatly.

The downtown St Pat's Parade was a prime example. The first few entries went by, followed by about 5 minutes of nothing. The next entry was still a block and half down the street. It is so anti-climactic to have such a large "dead space" within the parade.

Eventually, things were moving along. But soon enough, the entries became bogged down in a "traffic jam"; marching bands marched in place, floats stopped, and the parade came to a screeching halt-- more than once.

These things would be far less likely to occur if someone was paying better attention to the timing of the entries as they started the parade, as well as directing the pace throughout.

By the way, St Louis's biggest parade, Soulard Mardi Gras, is no less guilty of having bad timing.

It's just something that needs to be addressed.

Agreed. More than once I asked my wife "Is that it?" and only decided it wasn't by looking around to see if the crowd was disprsing.





As far as St James not having a carnival, I guess my neighbor is a liar. Stupid old lady.

I don't know what was up with the city cops yesterday in Dogtown. A couple of times they got in their cars and drove slowly through the crowds on Tamm and Clayton. All they did was just drive back and forth with their sirens going. It wasn't like they were trying to escort anyone someplace. Really strange.



Then around 4pm they abandoned the roadblock at Clayton Ave and Graham. So people started driving right through the mobs of drinkers and partiers, even though Clayton Ave was supposed to be closed until later that night. Finally a supervisor noticed what was going on and put cars and cones back at the east end of the party.



Being a bright, clear sunny day at almost 80 degrees, I'd say the crowd wasn't any bigger than previous weekday Dogtown St. Patty's day. I figured it would be a mad house; but to me it didn't seem any more crowded than cold/clowdy St. Patty's before.

I think the parade is getting too much like Mardi Gras.