Okay, this is getting stupid and everyone shares in the blame.

First, the people who are parading up and down the street need a wake up call. Where are the community leaders who can help put a stop to the disruption the celebrations are having on Main Street? I mean, if the parades were done in a way where it didn't cause such a traffic lineup, there probably wouldn't be a problem but this isn't the case. If your going to claim discrimination when Mayor Boughton comes after you over illegal immigration, you would think that you would do everything possible so Boughton wouldn't come after you when he has the support of the community behind him.

What did you think would happen when these parades happened? Did you think Boughton would just ignore the issue? Why didn't the community leaders tackle the problem before the games started? Why didn't anyone try to talk to people after the first parade brought Main Street to a standstill?

Don't give the the cultural differences excuse. This is ridiculous. The traffic caused on Main Street is a problem and if Danbury was populated with Irish, Enghish or German first generation immigrants who ran up and down the street, it would still be a problem.

For the lack of action, the people at City Hall are going to come down on you hard and you have only yourselves to blame.

Oh, don't think I'm giving Boughton or the police department a pass.

Now guys, come on. You knew these parades were going to happen and you knew it was going to be worse than it was on 1994, 1998 and 2002. You should be pros at thsi stuff by now. Since these parades were no surprise to anyone, how is it that the department was caught with their pants down and unprepared to handle the situation on Main Srteet?

Again, here's Mrs. Mitchell talking about the parades and the disruption it causes at the May Common Council meeting. Notice all the politicians in attendence (I'm almost positive the chief of police was in attendance also).



Now, this was back in May. There was a permit requirement proposal introduced to address this issue. Given these facts, the Mayor, Common Council, and Chief Baker knew well in advance that the parades would happen during the World Cup Games.

Where was the plan to tackle the issue before it got out of hand? Why was the first and second parades allowed to get so out of control?

If you know (for a fact) that something is going to happen that is going to be a problem in Danbury (and you dealt with it in the past), you would think that the leaders at City Hall and the police department would have some type of plan in place to address the issue. This wasn't the case and the people who live and travel on Main Street were the big losers.

For those who don't live in Danbury, you might say to youself "what's the problem?" Well, here is a silent video of traffic in Danbury on a normal Saturday on North Street (I was going to use this footage in my report on traffic but it seems good to use it in this post).

Now, if this is level of traffic is on North Street on a normal day, imagine the traffic on Main Street during rush hour with people celebration a World Cup game.

Now, I'm not taking any sides on this nonsense. I'm just asking the question...where was the leadership on both sides when we needed it. The lack of communication between both parties is contributing to the problem and if both sides worked together, this probably never would of happened.

In the end, we all lose. Tensions between the mayor and immigrant leaders will rise again, the tax-payers will pay for the overtime, and unfortunately, racial tensions will increase with the temperature.