St. Patrick’s Day weekend in San Luis Obispo has grown exponentially over the past few years as a party weekend.
“I think it needs to end,” San Luis Obispo City Councilmember Jan Marx said in a November meeting regarding the "St. Fratty's Day" celebrations by Cal Poly students.
This week, the topic was brought up again with both Cal Poly and the San Luis Police Department saying they're working ahead to make sure St. Patrick’s Day weekend is safe.
“We've been really reactive in the past few years," said SLOPD Deputy Chief Fred Mickel. "Last year, we got more proactive in our approach to the street party and the illegal behaviors that were happening surrounding St Patrick's Day.”
Mickel spoke at this week’s city council meeting about the crowds that swarmed the neighborhood next to Cal Poly during last year’s St. Fratty’s Day partying.
“A large portion of the crowd is out-of-towners," Mickel explained adding that there were people from as far away as New York that were in attendance last year. "So that's even a bigger problem because they have even less respect for our town and so our message is, is don't come to town this year.”
Stew Jenkins has lived in San Luis Obispo since 1961 and says that the current level of partying during St. Patrick’s Day weekend has gotten out of hand.
“It's way outside of moral guidance," Jenkins stated. "There's obviously no significant consequence when drunken folks are ransacking a neighborhood.”
Jenkins has seen this all before with the removal of the local Mardi Gras celebration in 2004 which saw riots break out and numerous arrests.
“Those turned into drunken fests and they got bigger and bigger and finally there was damage to downtown businesses. There was damage to cars and there were assaults," he explained.
Instances like that as well as 2015’s roof collapse and last year’s damage to homes have prompted the police department to step up enforcement.
“Last year, compared to the year before, we over doubled our citations and arrests," Mickel said. "Our goal this year would be if you're out in public and you're doing anything illegal, we will probably surpass what we did last year.”
Mickel says there will be a much larger police presence and increased citation fines up to $1,000 during the Safety Enhancement Zone.
Cal Poly representatives were also present at this week’s city council meeting where they outlined a comprehensive response plan which included: proactive outreach, increased security on and off campus, a special on-campus event to draw students away from the neighborhoods, and targeted communication.