Chapel Hill reaching too far with impractical Halloween plans
October 2008
Fall in Chapel Hill is truly a special time. It’s football season and the leaves are changing. Despite the lovely weather and all kinds of campus events to keep students busy, everyone’s calendar is inevitably fixated on one, albeit technically unofficial, event: Halloween. But this year it popped up early, long before the summer heat faded.
We have been hearing about Halloween since the beginning of the semester, but not in the exciting way we have come to expect. The Town of Chapel Hill suddenly decided that the mayhem that engulfs Franklin Street each Halloween is not OK anymore, and town officials are throwing out all kinds of ideas as to how to change it.
Ideas to curb the crowds include everything from the plausible, like closing bars early (which business owners have vehemently opposed), to the ridiculous, like somehow enclosing the street and charging admission. Other ideas include eliminating shuttles and unleashing the parking Gestapo (even more so than normal) to make it harder for people to attend from out of town.
It is a mystery as to what suddenly lit a fire under the Town of Chapel Hill to prompt them to take measures this Halloween to shrink the crowd, but some of the concerns are legitimate. Fears of gang activity as the night wears on are not unwarranted, and even the argument that the celebration should be a local one sounds more or less justifiable. But Halloween is a Chapel Hill institution, and it is unlikely most measures to curb it are going to do anything but waste a lot of money.
We are confident someone was just failing miserably at being funny when they suggested enclosing Franklin Street and charging admission, for example. One of the concerns about Halloween is the cost involved in keeping the event safe, but imagine the cost of somehow temporarily encaging a downtown street and having ticket agents at the gates. And somehow securing wads of cash from rowdy college mobs. And securing those same wads from the gangs everyone’s so concerned about. And the lines. And the very likely displacement of the party to just outside the gates. The ridiculous possibilities go on.
Everyone agrees that Halloween should be a safe and fun night, but the Town is going a little overboard with some of its proposals. Few of these ideas will do anything to prevent determined, disguised partygoers from flocking to Franklin.
We at the Carolina Review are keeping a close eye on this situation… at press time there is still no concrete plan as to what the Town plans to do about Halloween. We will follow up with a thorough evaluation of whatever action the Town ends up taking, which hopefully won’t put too much of a damper on a fun night.