The Mexican Independence Day celebrations in Chicago appeared to take City Hall by surprise. Did officials not notice the last few years?
A Chicago police officer stationed at Roosevelt Road and Wabash Avenue blocks vehicle traffic from going downtown as groups look to celebrate Mexican Independence Day with car caravans on Sept. 16, 2023.
It was a pain in the neck if you were trying to get home to a child and/or you couldn’t afford losing an hour or two to gridlock. But there are worse things in life than being stuck in the middle of a joyous, overwhelmingly peaceful carnival. When you consider that something like a third of Chicago’s population was either born in Mexico or has familial roots there, it’s hardly surprising that the Mexican Independence Day celebrations now are a big deal on the shores of Lake Michigan.
Clearly, two things need to happen. The celebrants need and deserve more space and better accommodation, maybe in some kind of designated festive zone that we all know about in advance. And the city needs the mostly young flag wavers to understand that not everyone is having a party: Some of us are sick or trying to get to a job, and some of us are just trying to support a downtown business or event that can ill-afford another reason for its customers to be reluctant to go there.
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