In 2008 the Town of Chapel Hill was positively fed up with Halloween crowds. Drunken college students from all over the state were pouring in to -gasp- drink and be merry. In a town where the slightest irritation from its student population is grounds for an emergency ordinance, one night a year of youthful revelry was just too much to bear.
Something Had to Be Done. So they elected to close streets, shut down parking for the entire downtown region, barricade residential areas, radically restrict bus services, and generally terminate any sense of fun whatsoever. The Town Council’s response to the one massive, free-for-all party a year on our campus? Martial Law. I’m graduating this year, but there’s got to be a young underclassman who would be willing to step up and challenge this annual display of fascism in action. Sometimes you have to, literally, fight for your right to party.
Its been one big party since the early seventies, when a very clever U.S. government ended the military draft, and thereby terminated the u.s. student movement.
Did the Town of Chapel Hill make this decision because they simply like being arbitrary and cruel as you imply? Or did they have legitimate concerns that you are ignoring?