BUFFALO, NY - Changes made to the Old Neighborhood St. Patrick's Day Parade route that's coming up in just a few weeks are not sitting well with some First Ward residents.
The new parade route will still start at the Valley Community Center, as usual, and then heads to Hamburg Street and on to South Street, instead of turning on O'Connell Avenue, as the parade has in previous years.
It will end at South and Louisiana, instead of Louisiana and O'Connell.
Some South Buffalo residents objected to the changes on the Valley Community Center's Facebook page, citing concerns about tradition being lost.
“The changes are for the safeguard of everybody, both participants and spectators,” parade organizer Peg Overdorf tells 2 On Your Side.
Overdorf says the new route will be safer because South Street is wider, with fewer residential homes, while also showing off views of the grain elevators and new park.
In the past, O'Connell Avenue would become overcrowded, Overdorf explains, and participants began questioning whether to continue with the parade, due to drunken revelers jumping over barriers and urinating in the streets.
“So this year I think it will be much better in the change of the route, more barricades, and more police,” Overdorf said.