Letters: Selfish drivers ignorebarricades during parade

I would like to thank the Crescent City Police Department, especially Sgt. Scott and Officers Barber and Gill, who helped out immensely with the Business Improvement District's Halloween Parade and Downtown Treat-or-Treating on Saturday.

Without their support and backup, there's no way we could hope to pull off such a successful event. The three officers mentioned above and Chief Plack helped patrol the 3rd Street closure to keep the community's children safe throughout the day.

On the other hand, I would like to admonish all the selfish drivers who, just to save 30 seconds of their precious time, ignored the barricaded streets and drove through where the kids were trick-or-treating between the downtown businesses. Not only were you rude to the volunteers manning the intersections, you endangered children and their parents who were having a good time. Fortunately, no one was injured.

We understand that we could do a better job of informing the public of downtown special events. I don't know how, though, since this event was mentioned all over the radio and in the newspaper the two weeks leading up to it. We could also do a better job about putting out more street closure warning signs and more highly visible barricades, but we have to work with what the city gives us.

Of course, these shortcomings don't make it okay to ignore the barricades, or the volunteers behind them, for that matter. We don't put the barricades up to personally inconvenience you. They're there for safety, either to make the area safe for event participants or to keep you from blundering into danger. When you approach a barricaded street, show some common sense; take a deep breath, turn around and go that extra block to your destination.

Thanks again to the Crescent City Police Department for your help in making the BID Halloween Parade and Downtown Treat-or-Treating a success for businesses and hundreds of kids and their parents. Again, without your support, this event wouldn't be possible. Keep up the great work!

Ron Gastineau

Crescent City