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Curb Gasparilla Toxicity

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 13, 2009

Tampa officials and event sponsors are studying ways to control the drunken revelry plaguing the 105-year-old Gasparilla Parade, the city's signature event.

Residents along the 3.5-mile Bayshore Boulevard parade route complain about blotto parade-goers urinating on lawns, destroying property and becoming belligerent, even threatening.

At a recent meeting with parade planners, Gina Firth, the University of Tampa's associate dean of students, called the parade "toxic." Many people agree, and ample evidence backs them up. Videos of fights, drunken idiocy and lascivious acts at the parade are posted on the Internet.

City officials and parade organizers must gain more control over the anything-goes segment of the Gasparilla crowd.

The surest solution is the simplest and least likely: Ban alcohol sales.

Tampa police report that at the Children's Gasparilla Parade, where no alcohol is sold, only one arrest was made, though attendance was an estimated 330,000. At the Gasparilla Parade attended by 350,000, police made 141 arrests, ranging from underage drinking to assault. And police officials concede they rarely make arrests for minor offenses, such as urinating in yards.

Most parade goers, of course, do not drink to excess. And the popularity of the children's and the main parade indicates the public wants both events. A study a few years ago found the two parades had a $46 million economic impact on the area.

Moreover, while outrages do occur, it is not clear that parade offenses are becoming more acute. Police say arrest numbers in recent years have stayed about the same.

EventFest, which produces the parade for sponsor Ye Mystic Krewe, reports that alcohol sales benefit charitable organizations. A parade can generate as much as $100,000 for the eight groups that participate, which include the Tampa Garden Club, the University of Tampa and Central Park Village Youth Services Inc.

It should be possible to find ways to protect neighborhoods without banning all alcohol sales.

Both neighbors and EventFest director Darrell Stefany stress the need for tougher law enforcement. But simply demanding more security is easier said than done. Virtually all of the Tampa Police Department's nearly 1,000 officers, plus dozens of officers from other forces, are assigned to the parade, yet their presence is scarcely enough to manage the crowd.

Police officials focus on preventing serious crimes and serious injuries. Making arrests, and booking the suspect, takes an officer off the street for roughly a half-hour, even though a temporary booking site is set up near the parade.

Lowering the threshold for making arrests could end up leaving more areas unsupervised and result in more offenses.

A superior solution would be for city and parade sponsors to follow the example of the NFL Super Bowl events in Tampa, where private security, dressed in distinctive T-shirts, was heavily utilized and proved effective in helping control crowds. With more private security posted along the parade route, more police officers could patrol neighborhoods and deter offenses.

Another helpful step would be to extend the parade into downtown, as Stefany says the parade organizers are considering. This could reduce the density of the crowd and make it more manageable. Spectators can be 20 to 30 people deep along Bayshore near the Platt Street Bridge. Moving some of them downtown would also relieve pressure on the neighborhoods.

Many neighbors want the parade off Bayshore altogether. But scenic waterfront Bayshore, a designated linear park, is the best location for the city's most popular event.

Suggested parade alternatives, such as Kennedy Boulevard and Dale Mabry Highway, would also affect neighborhoods that, unlike Bayshore, are on both sides of those streets. The security challenge would only increase.

Whenever hundreds of thousands of people gather for an event, there are going to be problems. Neighbors will be inconvenienced. But they should not be subjected to a free-for-all of crudity. The city must take effective steps to keep this fabled and fun event from being swamped by a toxic reputation.

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