Every year, the baseball and softball leagues team up and have a parade for the town to celebrate the start of the season. It's early on a Saturday morning and only a few townsfolk show up, but it's 'tradition', so the leagues are sticking with it. Got a note about it just now:
"We cannot throw candy this year so none is necessary, apparently last year
there were some aggressive throwers and some people/kids got hurt, and it left a huge mess (trash and left over candy) and the city wasn't too happy about cleaning it up."
Let's talk about this candy thing.
The boys and girls actually enjoy being forced to sit on these floats in the morning cold in large part because they get to throw candy to the crowd.
There are a couple of local families who bring large bags and then go scavenging very aggressively along the parade route. There's always a ton of candy available and these large individuals are able to have their needs met. I watched an extremely fat woman walk over a MILE last year picking up candy (I had to jog back to pick up the truck and passed her twice). So, the city isn't cleaning up any candy residue aside from stuff that got run over along the route.
Regarding the trash, yes, there were a small number of coffee cups left on curbs, because some dumbass bureaucrat downtown didn't think it was a good idea to place receptacles along the parade route. After the parade was over, I picked up some of the cups myself and truthfully, the route didn't look that bad.
But don't we PAY city personnel to keep the streets clean? Uh, yeah. And not only do we pay, but in California, we seriously OVERpay for all our fucking government services.
I should also add that the leagues have to buy a permit from the city to hold the parade anyway. And that money can't get us even a few trash boxes?? Sheesh.
Look, I could care less about having candy to give away, but the principle behind the change is a real problem. And it's not just candy either. Last year, the city ruled that groups could no longer do car wash fundraisers because of the detergent runoff.
