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Grass Roots South Side Parade Fizzles

By aaroncynic in Miscellaneous on Mar 15, 2010 7:00PM

Normally, by 11 a.m. on the Sunday before St. Patrick’s Day, the streets in Beverly are usually teeming with people for the annual South Side Irish parade. But last year, the decision was made to discontinue the parade and it was transformed into a 10-day festival. Still, thousands of people pledged on the internet to “show up to the Southside Irish Parade anyway.' But very few followed through on that virtual promise.

While a small parade was still scheduled to "quietly and inconspicuously" march, the local bars were open, and neighborhood businesses were still trying to capitalize on the holiday, the day passed by like any other Sunday in the far south side neighborhood. No arrests were made, but police were out in force. We counted almost a dozen wagons circling the blocks between 103rd and 111th streets along Western Avenue and a police chopper hovered overhead much of the day. A few folks decked out in green passed down the street, a few bars got some traffic later in the day and some locals had block parties, but all we really saw was a hefty amount of police and a few sad, beerless teenagers.