Alderman: 'Drunk suburban kids' left 'disgusting mess' in Chicago on St. Pat's Day
St. Patrick's Day trash in Chicago by Quinn Dombrowski
CHICAGO (Fox 32 News) - A Chicago alderman was among many residents disgusted by the mess left behind by St. Patrick's Day revelers.
"My thanks to Streets & Sanitation for cleaning-up the disgusting mess St. Patrick's Day brought to downtown Chicago. No thanks to the thousands of drunk suburban kids who used our neighborhoods like a giant toilet bowl. Never ending cab horns from 1A-5A were a nice touch as well," tweeted Ald. Brendan O'Reilly.
The city's holiday events, which include dyeing the Chicago River green on Saturday morning, and a St. Patrick's Day parade at noon, are a huge draw. Hundreds of thousands of people came to the city for the festivities. And since the river was dyed at 9 a.m., many visitors started drinking early.
Traffic was crawling in downtown neighborhoods as revelers dressed in green waited in long lines outside popular bars.
A local blog, CWB Chicago, tracked police radio calls and estimated that seven people were arrested downtown and six others in Wrigleyville before 8 p.m. Saturday night. The blog, which you can see here, includes a list of police radio calls, including problems with people trying to jump into the Chicago River, people throwing beer bottles, teenagers passed out drunk at the skating rink, a woman passed out between Porta-Potties, and people climbing trees.