Opinion: Editorial

Party foul

Well, the Madison Police Department can start dusting off the ol’ plastic handcuffs and getting the ’70s Madison Metro bus-turned-holding area ready to go. The race to see how many partygoers they can arrest in a matter of a few hours is back on.

As of now, there is no sponsor for this year’s Mifflin Street Block Party on May 2. (But there remains a chance it could still happen, so stay tuned).

So, Mifflin residents, keep those stereo volumes way down low come Saturday and make sure your friends aren’t doing anything stupid. Don’t step on the sidewalk while holding a beer because just like Big Brother, an officer will be watching.

On Monday, we lent our support to Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, and his efforts in recruiting production company DCNY PRO to sponsor this year’s party. We still believe sponsorship is the only viable solution to the problem of unnecessarily intense police patrol of the event.

But, unfortunately, we are not surprised DCNY PRO backed out. The owners are young and the company as a whole is just setting its feet on the ground. When we met with Verveer last week, he assured us the logisitics were in place and, with just two weeks to go before the event, everything would be ready.

And while he was “shocked” by the group pulling out, he should have known better. DCNY PRO co-owner Ny Bass nailed the problem on the head. “With an event like this, you can’t pull it off in a month,” he said Tuesday.

We appreciate Verveer’s efforts, as he has supported a less-oppressive attitude during Mifflin by the police for years and remains the strongest advocate for bringing the Mifflin event back to its glory years. But if a sponsorship is to become a reality next year, planning for it needs to begin on May 3. With the difficulty of finding a sponsor, trying to put together a viable event in a matter of weeks simply is not feasible.

This end result should not be surprising, but naturally, it is still a disappointment. Lessons have been learned from this year’s attempt, lessons that can be used in the future.