Caribbean Festival

[from Commander Hilton Burton via the 4D-Neighbors listserv]

On Saturday, June 25th, the Caribbean Festival and Parade will take place. The parade will begin at 10:00am at Georgia Avenue and Missouri Avenue NW and will run the entire length of Georgia down to Barry Place NW. During the parade all of Georgia Ave will be shut down to traffic. At approximately 7:00am we will close east and westbound traffic on Missouri Avenue from 8th Street to 13th Street to stage parade vehicles. At approximately 9:30am we will begin closing down Georgia from Piney Branch Road south to Florida Avenue. Cross streets that feed into Ga. Avenue will also be closed to traffic entering Ga. Avenue. There will also be no parking along Ga. Avenue and some of the other side streets between 6:00am and 8:00pm. There will be officers staged all along the parade route and side streets for traffic and crowd control. Once streets are closed only residents with ID showing that they live within the closed areas will be allowed to drive into the closed blocks to park.

The Caribbean Parade and Festival is a very big event and in years past it has drawn crowds of more that 300,000 people. Last year, because the parade moved so slowly, it took more that 10 hours to complete and caused major disruptions along Ga. Avenue. This year, with the help of the organizers, we hope to avoid many of the problems and to complete the parade in a much shorter time. The Department will have more than 600 officers working the parade itself and all officers assigned to the Fourth District will be working to make sure all calls for service are covered. If anyone has any other questions about the parade please ask. Thank you.

Comments

[Shirley]

I just found out about this website from a neighbor, so I'm late in commenting on the Caribbean Fest, however, here goes:

Right after Memorial Day weekend, a Jamaican Band setup shop in the backyard of one of the row houses in the 900 block of Emerson Street. The band would begin playing (extremely loud) around 7pm and wouldn't stop until after 11pm. Kids were still in school and had homework, and most of us work and have to wake up early in the morning. It was like being held hostage in your own home. Myself and many of the neighbors in the surrounding area called almost every night to complain, using the 311 number but nothing was ever done. One of my neighbors called Adrian Fenty's office and complained, and was assured that something would be done. This music lasted everynight until the Caribbean Fest.

I really felt sorry for the seniors living in the Colony House, most of whom go to bed very early, because they are early risers. In addition, the activities attracted all of the neighborhood roamers, who were visibly seen drinking beer, were just as loud as the music.

This is not the first time, it happened last summer too, complaints were made and nothing done about it. I'm sure that if it were Glover Park or Shepherd Park, this would not be tolerated.

One night, I called the 311 number, sitting on the side of my bed, with the window open and the officer had to ask me to repeat myself because he couldn't hear me over the music. I was also told by the police that there were other priorities in the city and we'd have to wait. Well we waited for a month.

Have you ever tried sleeping at a rock concert?

[Lisa]

My brief viewing of the parade made me happy to see the exuberance and life that reminded me of New Orleans, and that I don't think comes to mind when tourists think "Washington." I didn't like seeing so many police cars with their powerful engines idling needlessly hours before the parade even started, however.

[Andrew]

My understanding was that the organizers had to pay a significant sum for the DC gov't. to clean up after the festival. (This is appropriate, in my opinion, for any event of this size.)

As in prior years, the enormous amount of trash left right along Georgia Ave. was picked up quite quickly and thoroughly. Sorry to hear that the trash pick-up didn't reach areas further removed from Georgia Ave. Sounds like something we need to emphasize to the appropriate city officials. If significant, parade-related trash is left in Grant Circle, for example, then the organizers should be made to pay for clean-up crews to tackle that, too. If they weren't, we need to make sure that it's handled properly next year...

[Joseph Martin]

Try this link:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/anc4c09/

The one in the body of my posting above did not seem to be working.

JM

[Joseph Martin]

Adam,

Thanks for your thoughtful remarks.

I don't have an interest in putting a damper on street festivals. I do not know what kind of planning by the Park Service and the DC government goes into cleaning-up afterwards, and I plan to do my homework.

It is fair, I think, to expect organizers of large scale events, be it the annual gay (GLBT) pride marches in Dupont Circle or the Caribbean Festival, food festivals downtown or any similar events to accept considerable responsibility for post-event clean-up -- even if it's organizing large scale volunteer clean-up crews.

I don't see asking for that level of responsibility as being indicative of a NIMBY mentality.

I personally would welcome more neighborhood-oriented, outdoor events in our neighborhoods and hope to see someone organizing any of a number of outdoor activities (film screenings that we could all go to in a park, neighborhood sporting events, small-scale performances). I may be willing to help out myself, time permitting, but my own plate tends to be quite full at the moment.

Reminder that ANC 4C has grant money available for community projects. Join my ANC Single Member District site (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/anc4c09). Go to the "Files" folder once you're a member, and download guidelines and an application form.

Kevin, I am more than sorry to hear about your being subjected to verbal assaults by anti-gay bigots. Glad it wasn't worse. I have some other thoughts about this I'll bring up later.

Joe Martin
Petworth / Grant Circle
202-309-1817 cell

[Kevin Morton]

Adam -

I think neighborhood festivals are great and I love the idea of bringing people into the neighborhood... but many of the attendees of this weekend's event don't get my welcome. Adam, I guess I just have more faith in people than you do. I truly believe that people are capable of attending a neighborhood event and not trashing the place... call me crazy if you must.

With regard to basing my complaints on observations made 2 hours after the event... I'll go with yes and no on that one. I didn't post my complaint until Monday. Because I have a dog, I am out and about in the neighborhood several times a day. Monday morning there was still no sign that the event organizers had sent a clean up crew. If they haven't by then, do you honestly think they are going to? I cc'd the organizers on the complaint I sent to Adrian Fenty and I did get a response from the organizers saying they would rectify the problem, but I'll believe it when I see it. The level of complete disregard for the neighborhood was appalling to me. I have to wonder if I'd be invited back to your home if I treated it like many of the attendees treated our neighborhood.

Cultural benefits? Sorry, but the attendees who trashed our neighborhood lack basic manners, I seriously doubt there's a lot of cultural absorption going on with them. Finally, why do you feel that in order for the neighborhood to remain diverse and expressive, we have to tolerate filth and rudeness? That, I must say, I find truly sad.

One final note on diversity... I'm always putzing around my front yard obsessively weeding, watering and planting flowers I don't have any more room for. Yes, I know I look gay as hell out there (which I am). Every other Saturday that I've been out there, the only comments I've received are "The yard looks good" or "Keep up the good work". This past Saturday, as people walked by my house toward the festival, the comment I got on 3 separate occasions was "faggot".

Kevin

[Adam]

Kevin,

The answer to your question, at least from one Petworth resident is no: I am not troubled by the festival and neither should you be. You took a walk a few hours after one of the East Coast's largest Caribbean festivals. And you found a lot of trash. There goes the neighborhood? Things get cleaned up, it just takes a day or two.

Petworth is not Georgetown. And for that, thank goodness. Requiring bonds, increased police, and all the other trappings of NIMBYism to manage the festival will only serve to sap our neighborhood of the qualities that make it special, namely a diverse and expressive population that stands in unique contrast to much of this federalized city, Georgetown in particular.

Many thousands of people had a good time and our neighborhood played host. The long-term and significant cultural benefits far out weigh the day or two of inconvenience.

Mr. Martin: I am grateful for your work. But please consider the possible unintended consequences of further regulating the Caribbean festival and of calling for NPS-modeled rulemaking. Festivals of this sort can be severely affected by added costs and compliance requirements.

Thank you.

- Adam

[Joseph Martin]

I do not know what the policy is of the DC government on this, and it's worth looking into. The National Park Service requires organizations that hold events on the National Mall (and in other NPS areas) to post a bond that would cover the cost of clean-up should the event producers not hire cleaning crews to clean-up after an event. If the Park Service finds it does not need to pay contractors for additional clean-up, the bond is returned to the event producers. The Park Service also requires event producers to pay for off-duty, uniformed police officers to provide security at the rate of $45 per hour per officer -- with the Park Service determining how many officers would be needed to provide security. A seperate bond is also required in advance to cover the security costs.

I think Park Service procedures present a good model for the city to adopt, should it not already be the case. Event producers for any large scale events like this should be required to accept responsibility financially for holding these large-scale events.

Thoughts anyone?

[Dan]

Not to sound ignorant, but does anyone know why the Caribbean Fest participants chose to spray-paint themselves?

I agree, Petworth's trash problem escalated over the weekend due to Carib Fest. What will it take to get public trash cans on street corners, especially near bus stops?

[Danielman]

I agree with Kevin but I think the solution lies in a proper cleanup crew. In Georgetown if a napkin falls on the floor a brigade of sanitation workers are deployed. I think we just need to pressure our reps to get proper sanitation enforcement after the festival. We should demand the same treatment as Georgetown residents.

As for the 4th of July. It is insane but actually it can be fun as long as nobody gets hurt. It is like our own private show and my neighbors have been good at cleaning up the fireworks they light off. I'd still keep my head down though.

[mjbrox]

I am glad I was out of town over the weekend.

The next big event that I have been warned about is 4th of July.

I saw some kids shooting off bottle rockts a few weeks ago. What scares me is that they all had brand new shirts from the firework store. Think about it...They bought so many fireworks they got a free shirt!

I think I am going to stand on top of my house with a hose on the 4th

[Kevin Morton]

Is anyone as thoroughly disgusted as I am with the way the festival attendees treated our neighborhood? Every street between Georgia and New Hampshire is filled bottles and empty food containers. Actually not all of them were empty, unfortunately. Someone obviously was unhappy with their food because there was a full chicken dinner waiting for me on my stairs when I got home Saturday night. BTW... you know those big black beetle-like bugs you see running around on the sidewalk at night this time of the year?....well, I discovered that they just love chicken! There must have been 20 of those nasty things munching on the chicken that was left on my stairs. Later in the evening I took Jack for his evening walk and as usual we went through Grant Circle. Poor Jack, the festival even put a damper on his night. The circle looked like a bottle redemption center had exploded... so I tied Jack to a bench and started gathering bottles. Final count was 57 bottles in Grant Circle alone....and that doesn't count the bottles tossed into the bushes or smashed on the sidewalk. I'm sure most of the festival attendees were nice, considerate people....but there was obviously a large contingent of rude SOB's who don't give a rat's ass about the people who live in Petworth. If I have anything to say about it, they won't be coming back next year.

[Joseph Martin]

For residents who live east of Georgia Avenue who aren't going to the Festival and need to get downtown or places south, I would recommend taking Rock Creek Church Road NW to Harewood to N. Capitol Street southbound. Avoid the Park View neighborhood.

Last year I made the mistake of trying Park Place. The traffic was at a near standstill. It took me an hour to get out of that area to return to the Grant Circle area so that I could then head over to North Capitol Street to head downtown. Traffic heading downtown or to Shaw and Logan Circle along Rhode Island Avenue NW moved smoothly.