The streets are quieter, and most of the garbage is cleaned up, but Ezra Avenue is still messy after another massive, unsanctioned St. Patrick’s Day party.
Sidewalks and front yards were nearly pure mud on Monday.
Thousands packed the street Sunday morning before police shut down the party by noon.
They were also forced to close the next street over, Bricker Avenue, for the first time.
Waterloo Regional Police, the City of Waterloo, and the university partners say they are gathering numbers from last night.
They expect to know by tomorrow how big the crowd was, the total calls for service, and the number of fines issued.
“We’ve responded to a number of reports of people damaging property, and throwing bottles at officers and people within crowds,” said WRPS Const. Ashley Dietrich.
Paramedics say that by 3 p.m. they had 41 calls to the area and the size of the crowd was delaying their response.
For local businesses, the feelings toward the celebration are mixed.
“It’s a bit of a love-hate relationship in all honesty,” said Waterloo Mucho Burrito store manager Brand Whiteside. “We tripled our sales for a Sunday yesterday, but at the same time there’s a whole lot of clean up.”
“Sales are very good,” said Shawarma Plus co-owner Baratt Khudeir. “But they broke some of the things we put on the wall. They spilled drinks. They left a lot of garbage on the floor.”
But does this business owner want to see the unsanctioned street party shut down?
“No, it was fun,” said Khudeir. “Students are very happy, and so we are happy.”
Clean up was underway by the evening.
Laurier University’s student union assembled a team of volunteers to come out on Monday to throw away any leftover garbage.
“This is something we do every year at all the unsanctioned gatherings,” said Shawn Cruz, the Associate VP University Affairs for the WLU Students Union. “We try to mitigate the mess that happens in our community because we want to show that we students really do care.”
