FYI: When the Spanish government took New Orleans from the French in 1718, parties and street dancing were banned, according to the New Orleans Mardi Gras website, MardiGrasNewOrleans.com. It wasn’t until 1827, when the Americans came to power, partying and mask-wearing were restored.

City officials begin talks about the future of Mardi Gras

BY ANNE QUINN

San Luis Obispo decision-makers reacted to Mardi Gras last week like a group of church elders to a beautiful woman: frightened by the lust and danger she inspires.

Civic leaders huddled in a series of internal department meetings, culminating in a city-wide critique on Thursday, March 8, to decide what to do, if anything, to tame the wildness of the celebration. These talks, which were not open to the public, could eventually have far-reaching effects on how and when–or even whether–Mardi Gras is celebrated here.

Mardi Gras is also being discussed by the Downtown Business Association board, and Mystic Krewe, a compilation of 34 separate Krewes, plans to get together for discussions of its own later this month.

SLO City administrative officer Ken Hampian said the issue isn't the management of the parade. He said Mystic Krewe has done a terrific job at that, complying with everything the city has asked.

"What we have to take a long, hard look at is will we ever be able to tame the aftermath of the parade? That is a difficult question and we do not have an answer for it at this time," he said.

The only chance the public will have to speak on the issue will come if significant changes to the Mardi Gras celebration should be proposed. Then the matter will come before the SLO City Council sometime in the summer, according to Parks and Recreation manager Linda Fitzgerald. By then, most of the college kids will have gone home. A glance at the arrest log for Mardi Gras shows that the average age of those arrested on Fat Tuesday was 22, and all but a few of the 84 arrests were for alcohol offenses.

Even some Cal Poly students are aware that much of the participants whose misbehavior threatens the future of the SLO Mardi Gras come from the Cal Poly and Cuesta College campuses. Mustang Daily opinion editor Ryan Miller writes, "Another of Cal Poly’s big mistakes was canceling the raucous Poly Royal in 1990. Chronic partyers were forced to seek new outlets for their wild fiestas, turning Mardi Gras into a behemothic orgy of chaos that erupted with unprecedented arrests and an accident this year."

But not all reports of Mardi Gras were bad. Transit manager Austin O’Dell credits Cal Poly commuter and access services coordinator Debbie Anderson and Laidlaw manager Judy McNeill for enforcing a tough "no cooler, no open container" policy that kept bus transportation from Cal Poly to the downtown "basically without incident."

However, the overwhelming concern at the civic leaders’ meeting March 8 was public safety before, during, and after the event, which this year drew about 18,000 people.

The worst incident was a group assault on a pizza-delivery car. The mob’s behavior caused the driver to become so frightened she hit a pedestrian.

In another incident, two suspects, described as white male adults dressed in costumes and wearing wigs, jumped and mugged a man who was walking through a parking lot on the way to the parade.

However, several arrests among those cited by the SLO Police Department had nothing to do with the actual parade. A press release from the department counts 120 arrests over the four-day period beginning Friday night, four days before the parade. There were 19 arrests and 23 citations that night, according to Lt. Dan Blanke. On Saturday, a huge party with an estimated 700 people in the Cedar Creek Condominium complex had to be shut down by officers from SLO Police Department, SLO County Sheriff’s Department, and Cal Poly campus police. That disturbance resulted in 17 arrests. A news release on Mardi Gras ties this party in with the Mardi Gras holiday by describing the party as having a "Mardi Gras theme."

SLO City officials are concerned about the City’s growing reputation for Mardi Gras revelry, adding that the line between harmless fun and harmful chaos is a thin one, especially when alcohol is involved.

"We have read e-mails…off the Mystic Krewe website. The general consensus of these e-mails was that people were disappointed that it had been moved to Tuesday, because they wanted to come in and party, visit friends, and see the parade," said Fitzgerald.

Fortunately, SLO Police Chief James Gardiner said, this year's Mardi Gras resulted in only one injury. But "it only takes one real rowdy person losing it like in Seattle, or Fresno to cause really serious trouble," he said.

Gardiner added that he would like to see the parade format changed, "possibly to a daytime event," to cut down on the mayhem. However, Mystic Krewe members said that if they’re required to make such a change, they’ll have to consider other factors, including finances.

"We will have to know what will it cost us and what will we get out of it. Mystic Krewe Karnival spends between $35,000 and $40,000 a year on Mardi Gras. We pay the city $10,000 just for the right to have a parade. We have to have a $2 million worth of liability insurance. We spend a fortune just on posters and publicity," Mystic Krewe Karnival board President John Thomas said.

SLO is not alone in debating what to do with Mardi Gras. Problems at Fresno and Seattle's celebrations this year have these and other cities’ officials wondering how to keep their events safe as well.

Whether a common solution can be found is unknown, however, since every Mardi Gras celebration is different. First of all, neither Seattle nor Fresno has a parade. And the history and reason for the different festivals are also different.

Detective Sean O’Donnell, of the media relations unit of the Seattle police, said that Seattle’s Fat Tuesday celebration was organized by the Tower District Marketing Committee to attract additional patrons to the area, which O’Donnell described as "separate from the rest of the city." There are outside food vendors and music, and the event is intended to encourage patrons to go from restaurant to restaurant, he said.

O’Donnell credits last year’s rain with limiting the crowd to 10,000 revelers. This year the weather was fair, and he estimates that attendance doubled–and so did the number of incidents. There was one homicide and there were two felony drug arrests. And there was wide-scale destruction of private property, including 35 broken shop windows.

Seattle is looking for other solutions because, O’Donnell said, "The mayor and city council have pledged not to continue to support Fat Tuesday celebration as it is now. They are looking for new ways the city can manage the crowd." To accomplish this, the Seattle Police department hosted a summit Sunday with police representatives from other cities that experienced Mardi Gras troubles this year, among them Fresno, Austin, Philadelphia, and Portland, Ore.

In a press release following the meeting, the Seattle police said that, "In the future, we all agree that planning for these events will have to take into account the increased potential for violence, and the refusal by people to behave lawfully. We can no longer assume when we plan for events that large numbers of people gather peacefully."

In New Orleans, where the beginning-of-Lent event has been part of the culture for nearly 400 years, police take a different view of Mardi Gras, according to Lt. Marlin Defillo, commander of public affairs for the New Orleans Police Dept.

"You have to understand the history and culture of Mardi Gras in New Orleans which dates back to the mid-1600s," he said. "Mardi Gras in New Orleans is so embedded in our culture that there are events year-round on the Mardi Gras theme in all the elementary and high schools."

Defillo said Mardi Gras in New Orleans is more a family event than an excuse to drink. Families come out to barbecue and see the floats come in. The parade route is 6 miles long, and families return to the same spot for generations to view the parade. Many officers who police Mardi Gras grew up in these traditions, too. Some have their families come join them and watch the parade from behind the barricades where they’re stationed.

"It is a chance for us to really react to the public in a positive manner," Defillo said. "We ask our force to use maximum tolerance. An officer is not going to climb over 10,000 people to get to ask a minor to pour out whatever he’s got in a cup. There are a plethora of laws you can enforce. If you want to be a stickler, you can enforce littering. Would you enforce littering for Mardi Gras?" he said.

SLO’s Mystic Krewe Karnival, 23 years old, is relatively young compared to New Orleans’, but it is a much older and richer event than that of Seattle, Philadelphia, or Fresno. SLO’s Krewes work and play together all year, developing a real sense of family.

Thomas hopes the year-round hard work, strong sense of community, and creativity of the parade won’t be jeopardized just because "84 people don’t know how act." Like SLO City Government, Mystic Krewe is also "trying to separate the Mardi Gras magic from the Mardi Gras madness," he said.

If that can be done, SLO Mardi Gras can be proud of a tradition that is now nearly a quarter of a century old, and like New Orleans, see it become embedded in our culture. If not, it may be tossed aside like so many strings of beads. Æ

New Times reporter Anne Quinn gets all her costume jewelry during SLO's Mardi Gras parade.