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Too much snow: St. Patrick's parade to stay in South Boston, but for only half its normal route

Mayor Walsh and parade organizers tonight agreed on a shortened St. Patrick's parade on March 15 that will go from Broadway station to Farragut Road.

In a statement, the mayor added:

This weekend, organizers of the parade will be coordinating a volunteer effort, with the assistance of the City, to clear the remaining snow on the modified route.

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Comments

that should make all the bars on Broadway happy.

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If the City can clear the parade route for the Patriots, why the hell cant the City do the same for Southie?

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There was a lot less snow on the ground after the first blizzard, and it was mostly soft. Now, even with today's melting, there's a lot more of the stuff and it's mostly frozen.

Also, the Patriots route was shorter. And as anybody who braved that day will tell you - there were still lots of snowbanks on the sidewalks (remember how the mayor told people not to stand on them - and then they did, anyway?).

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for clarification on your ineptitude and petty excuses for not cleaning the Boston streets.
NEXT UP : MARTY WALSH explains "space savers ".

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But half of the parade route goes down residential streets. East Fourth, East Fifth, Telegraph, Thomas Park- these are not the same as Boylston and Tremont Streets. Those were going to be cleared regardless.

Do I want to see the parade go by Dorchester Heights? Darned straight, but it ain't going to happen.

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I was on that route and there was no shortage of snow banks.

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The city is going to remove the snow for this?!

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If you read up on this, you would see the opposite is true.

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They're going to try to pack that many drunks into a shortened route?! Good luck! Let's hope that it's not a 50+ degree day or there'll be fights everywhere due to congestion. It seems like the guy can't make any correct decisions. They should've run the route from Day Boulevard to Broadway or vice versa. This makes no sense. I hate to be a critic of the guy but I don't know of any good decisions that he's made.

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All of West Broadway, and then all of East Broadway. Avoiding all the narrow little residential side streets. If you're going to have the parade at all, this makes sense.

(Though I'd still like to see it properly observe Evacuation Day by heading up A Street, Congress, Atlantic and ending at Long Wharf.)

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Someone calculated the truncated route at 1.5 miles, while the regular parade route is 3 miles. My concern (as someone who lives on the route) is that we'll have the usual large crowd of people come to the neighborhood to watch the parade, but they'll be crammed onto the only street where you can view it, not spread out over a longer route. Was hoping that it might be cancelled just this once!

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... why not continue, Farragut to Day Boulevard back to Andrew? That stays on major streets and off small residential ones.

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Probably because Day Blvd is State controlled, their police/pre & post cleanup/$$$/etc

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Great idea, Ron - that would give the visitors much more territory to spread out to watch the parade and work the Andrew Square T stop back into the mix. As someone notes below, all T riders will be using Broadway Station - a nightmare! I wish the parade organizers and city decision-makers had been as creative in their thinking as you are....

Not looking forward to this year's version of the parade. A friend suggested that we "escape" for the day, but I explained how we need to be at our house to keep strangers (looking for a place to urinate, vomit or worse!) out of our yard/garden. I've even had drunken parade goers come up our front stairs and ask to use our bathrooms!

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See you there and let's box, bitch
I've been going since 83 and am 8-4 with one knockout.
Unfortunately I got knocked out that time ...

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PARADE MARCH! SINGLE FILE!

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I've been to several parades and haven't witnessed one fight.

The whole southie, tough guy, brawler image is a MYTH. If it was true, yuppies would have never taken over this neighborhood.

Now Savin Hill, that is a neighborhood with REAL tough guys. You don't see yuppies taking over that area.

- THE ORIGINAL SOBO YUPPIE

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Last year I stopped a girl from stabbing someone in front of my house after a huge fight broke out. Stupid of me to get in between but I didn't want to witness her make a very big mistake while intoxicated. Fights and attacks happen every year. I still love The Parade though!

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...does that make it more truthy?

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That must be why they aren't able to clear "secondary streets". Seems legit.

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Still gonna brawl.

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I was hopin he wouldnt take it in town that would be out of tradition shorter route no problem let the party begin come one true southie residents lets rock this motha fahkka...HAPPY ST. PATTYS DAY SOUTHIE...to all visitors stop pissing everywhere shits kinda gross..

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No parking in Southie during the parade, so the key to the massive crowds who show up will be the much maligned MBTA. Is their a patron saint of the MBTA we can all say a prayer to so that a miracle will happen and the T will be on time and safe.

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Don't they usually cancel all 9, 10, and 11 buses in Southie while this is going on?
Edit: Maybe they could keep #11 running, since it mostly doesn't intersect or overlap the truncated parade route.

(7 doesn't run on Sundays .... but a special 7 shuttle between South Station and L Street/3rd Street would make a lot of sense for this event)

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In the past, I think they have run the 9,10 and 11 buses on modified routes while the parade was going on - keeping the parts of the route running that aren't impacted by the parade (someone correct me if I'm wrong about that).

The #11 leaves from the bus barn on East First Street and crosses the parade route at P and Broadway, so they'd have to find another starting point to keep it running, but that seems doable.

If I remember correctly, the "T" has run the #7 bus as a shuttle on parade Sundays for the past few years. Relatives and friends used that to get to our house; it's a limited run - say one bus every 30 minutes or so but it does provide an alternative to the other Red Line stops. Other visitors have taken the Silver Line to the last stop in the Seaport area and walked from there ( a good hike and a very cold one if the weather isn't cooperative).

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Let's not forget that Andrew and Broadway T stations combined can't handle the flow of spectators. It's common during that day to bypass one, due to being at capacity, and dump people not at their intended station. This includes the disabled. This year's route takes Andrew out of the equation all together, HORRIBLE

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Somebody please buy this guy a drink.

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I'm sorry for being a dud but I think that that type of comment is out of bounds.

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the Spring Flower Show is at the Seaport World Trade Center, and its last day is Sunday, March 15. It will likely have higher-than-average attendance after the snowy winter we've had. The mix of people on the Red Line that day will be worth watching.

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the New England Food Show will also be happening March 15-17 at the Convention Center; thousands of folks usually attend

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Funny thing i was with the st patrick days peace march organizers and the mayor never talked to us in fact we have had a year of snubbing by the city of Boston so there are two parades and and we in the peace parade get no respect from the mayor yet we have the more colorful parade and growing all the time. Meanwhile the other parade is getting smaller. For five years and growing we have had gay groups all along and yet last year marty walsh refused to march with us evern thought we had gay groups marching with us.
I just looked at yahoo weather and according to it from sunday on all temps above freezing five of them above forty so why shorten the parade route? not because of snow but because the other parade is getting smaller? Last year we had Carlos Arrendondo as our Marshall and we hade a great singing band from Ireland that bounced from the first parade and joined ours. So come and join the vets for peace in our more colorful parade this year!

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I've been to the Southie St. Patrick's Day parade several times -- never once have I seen a fight break out. Were some people wasted? Absolutely. Were there lots of families with little kids lining the parade route? Yes, and people always made sure they got to the front so they could easily watch the fire enginies drive by, fife and drum bands play, vets marching and the fun parade floats go by. Drunk or not, the college students and other 20-somethings were respectful of everyone and actually well-mannered if they bump into you -- everyone seemed to be having a good-natured blast. Anyone who thinks it's mainly a bunch of out-of-control violent a-holes getting into fights has clearly never been.

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There are cops on the parade route so people are better behaved. The fights usually break out after the parade is over. Most of the crowd is there to have a good time but every year since I can remember there is some sort of violence. That is a fact. I still love the parade though!

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