The doughnut salesman reportedly roughed up by a young passer-by inside his vending truck a few years ago wasn’t the final straw for the Rice Street parade. But it proved to be an omen for the 108-year-old neighborhood celebration.
Once considered the cornerstone of the three-day Rice Street Festival and a summer staple in St. Paul’s North End, the annual parade is suffering from a declining number of sponsors, volunteers and paid floats, as well as growing costs and spates of youth violence that have limited its hours of operation.
“Every year, for the past few years, we’ve had fights after the parade. This year was horrible,” said longtime sponsor and car show organizer Kevin Barrett, proprietor of Dar’s Double Scoop ice cream and pizzeria. Barrett said he is washing his hands of the events. “I don’t see it changing. I’m done with the festival.”
Parade units, which once exceeded 100, dropped to about 60 for the 90-minute parade that was held in the early afternoon of Sunday, July 29.
Organizers say it went off without major problems, in part because of a heavy police presence and a shift away from evening activities. But after 5 p.m., police witnessed at least two fights.
From traffic control to horse patrol, some $22,000 in festival-related expenses included 91 police and public safety personnel. Festival organizers say they hire that many in anticipation of incidents like a youth “flash mob” that temporarily halted the parade three years ago.
“It should be like it was decades ago,” said parade organizer Kerry Antrim, “but costs are up and sponsorships are down. I think we’ll end in the black.”
Financially, the festival may break even this year, but only as a result of $6,000 in public grant money through the city’s Cultural STAR program, which is funded by St. Paul’s half-cent sales tax.
Antrim said she is waiting on a final bill from the St. Paul Police Department.
OCT. 3 MEETING: END IT OR MEND IT?
Antrim and other organizers from years past and present say they will meet Oct. 3 to discuss next year’s parade — including the possibility of canceling the century-long tradition.
There’s more enthusiasm for retaining related festival events, such as a Friday evening “old-timer’s softball” game that pits patrons of Tin Cup’s bar against Kamp’s Food Market.
Barrett’s classic car show draws some 50 to 70 vehicles on festival Saturdays. And there’s a pageant-style “North End royalty” program that sends winners to the St. Paul Winter Carnival.
“The car show went off great,” said Antrim.
The royalty program also draws small business sponsors. Unlike in other parts of the city, however, the parade itself isn’t organized by a particular business or business association. It’s left instead to a handful of neighborhood volunteers.
“It always seems like it’s just one person who does everything,” Antrim said.
Some see the parade and festival as important aspects of neighborhood history and identity. Others say it’s no longer fully reflective of the community.
About half of all North End households live on less than $35,000 per year, a number that has declined by about $10,000 since the year 2000, even as the population has increased about 15 percent.
Asian-Americans, once a minority, now make up the largest single racial or ethnic group, at 35 percent of the population, followed by whites, at 28 percent, and blacks, at 24 percent, according to the Minnesota Compass Project. Latinos are 10 percent of the neighborhood.
“I’d hate to see it end. I really would,” said Rich Holst, chair of the North End Neighborhood Organization. “But maybe it needs to become a little more relevant. Maybe we still have a parade, but afterward there’s a gathering in the park. … And maybe we need some sort of an ‘open streets’ program, like you see in Minneapolis. We already have the streets closed down.”
In years past, the Rice Street parade was held during a weekday evening.
“Maybe there was more going on and more energy when the parade was going on in the evenings,” Antrim said. “They’d have street dances, and a pub crawl and a button drive. They’d just drive around and sell buttons.”
SAFETY CONCERNS
Nighttime events drew more excitement, spending and sponsorships. But at least in their latter years, they also drew more crime.
In July 2015, the parade rolled out on a Thursday evening before coming to an abrupt stop when a group of young people walked through the green of the Rice Recreation Center along Lawson Avenue and interrupted the event mid-procession.
The festivities soon resumed, but fights broke out afterward at multiple locations throughout the night, and event organizers say a doughnut salesman took a few punches inside his booth.
“It just turned into a tsunami,” said Barrett, who believes many of the young people weren’t from the neighborhood. “I got half of my floats through, and then I had to throw people off of cars. I had a Marilyn Monroe impersonator, and she won’t do it again.”
St. Paul police arrested or cited 10 people that night for disorderly conduct and fighting, including four juveniles.
The next year, under pressure from St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman’s administration and the St. Paul police chief at the time, the parade returned on a Sunday afternoon. Barrett was one of the few organizers to vote against the change, noting that the lack of nighttime events hurt bars and restaurants.
For some, those public safety concerns haven’t subsided.
“I rode in the parade this year and viewership was down considerably,” said Paul Kamp, a longtime event sponsor and proprietor of Kamp’s Market, in a posting on Facebook. “Getting floats and participants from other festivals is tough considering the hoodlums running around the past few years.”
Police records show that officers responded to several reports of fights in the Rice Street area on July 29.
Just after 5 p.m., a group of people had gathered around two people fighting and officers went to intervene, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.
A 14-year-old girl pushed an officer when he tried to stop her from approaching the group, according to a police report. The Ramsey County attorney’s office is reviewing a case against the teen for potential charges, a spokesman said Tuesday.
At about 5:20 p.m., police saw another fight and cited a 13-year-old girl for disorderly conduct, a police report said.
This year, other St. Paul festivals have been marred by greater violence.
A 19-year-old man was fatally shot at the Hmong Freedom Festival in July. And at the Cinco de Mayo festival, there were “chaotic brawls” and shots fired, according to criminal complaints filed by prosecutors.
Mara H. Gottfried contributed to this report.
Copyright 2018 Pioneer Press.
