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Story By Mark Howell

I have been down to the Castro Street Halloween festival only one time in my life when I was 11 years old. My mom’s best friend dragged us down there and it was the biggest crowd I have ever seen gathered in once place. I am glad nothing happened that night like what happened this past Halloween.

If you haven’t already heard but there was a shooting at the Castro Street Halloween celebration and 10 people were injured in the gunfire. This wasn’t the first time something like this happened during the event because last year, four people were stabbed during the celebration.

This seems to be a trend and something must be done to stop the violence during this event. And city thought they had an answer to stop the violence by having 500 police officers and 10 deputies from the sheriff’s department in attendance. But if there was so much security, then how did they not see this coming.

The problem is that the festival is an open area and there is no way of regulating anybody that goes in and out. If they don’t want anything like this happening next year than they should just have this event held some place to hold a big crowd like at the Cow Palace. I know it won’t have the same feeling as Castro Street, but at least it would be easier to make sure everything is safe. If held indoors, then they can establish security cameras; metal detectors and police can know who goes in and who goes out.

Another thing that could be done is spreading the Halloween party throughout the city and not just confining it to one main street. There are plenty of other areas in San Francisco that can be used to hold the huge crowd of people that go to Castro Street every year for Halloween. It would be nice for each neighborhood to enjoy its own celebration of Halloween. And this way would be good because then you wouldn’t cram people into one area, which could lead to a lot of pushing and shoving or maybe something even worse.

There were also talks of canceling this event and I don’t think that will be a good idea because it is such a huge event that brings people together to have fun. The city can’t ruin a 40-year-old tradition just because people cannot handle their problems like adults. This is an event were everybody is equal, does not matter whether you’re heterosexual or homosexual. People come together during this event and listen to music, dance and meet new people.

I don’t think the city should ruin the fun for everybody by canceling this event because if you haven’t been down there, it is a place where you see a lot of interesting people and costumes and you see how really creative people can get. It can get a little crowded, but deal with it because this is an event that should keep on going because as adults we are too old for trick-or-treating.