Al's Blog-o-Sphere

I went into Downtown Lockport last night to check out the Canal Concert. This was the first time this year for me, as I was out of town for the opener last week. I didn’t actually stay for the concert, but passed through the area twice during the event. These are my impressions…

I was walking down Main Street early, about 5 o’clock, and noticed a lot of broken glass, mostly of the brown variety, on the sidewalks. Not an isolated place, but everywhere. Did I miss a riot, or something? This was before the concert started and they don’t serve glass containers there anyway, so where did all this come from? I don’t think it was the craft show! It was endemic the whole length of Main Street. Big pieces were gone, like they had been picked up, but smaller pieces were in every crack and crevice. Is beer-bottle throwing some new sport in Lockport?

Downtown businesses are getting the hang of how to take advantage of the influx of people. The sub shop across Locust Street was all set up with inexpensive specials for the concert crowd. Another place that really does a good job working into the festivities is the Daily Grind which had live entertainment before the concert and a good crowd there enjoying it. These are just a couple examples.

The Police presence still seems overdone and unprofessional. It’s like toy-time for them, they bring out every gadget and toy they can think of. The concert becomes a paid excuse for every non-uniformed officer to get paid to watch the concert, while the uniforms, paid and auxiliary alike, get to play with their toys around the perimeter. They have their mounted division, bicycle patrol and I wouldn’t be surprised if the marine division was in the canal…

I observed two Police ATVs (All Terrain Vehicles) driving down the sidewalk on Main Street. What is up with that? Those vehicles are not meant for street use, or crowd control. They are meant to provide access to off-road areas where normal vehicles would be ineffective. They weren’t in any hurry, they just seemed to be making a pizza run to Papa Leo’s or something. They took up the whole sidewalk and if anyone was walking there, they would have been forced off the sidewalk. If you or I drove our personal ATV there, we’d be arrested on the spot.

At least I didn’t see the Sheriff’s Department helicopter this week…

After walking around the site of the concert and the general area, listening to the sound checks, and squinting in the hot sun, I decided I was more hungry for food than for music and stopped in to Main Moon for some Chinese take-out. I took it home and enjoyed dinner.

Later, I had a letter to mail and felt like getting out on the bike, so I took a spin to the Post Office and stopped by my son’s apartment for a while. On the way back, I went down Walnut Street, behind the concert area. Compared to Main Street, there was very little traffic, perhaps because out of town people are told the Concert is on Main Street, or maybe because Walnut doesn’t have those stupid decorative medians congesting traffic… There was a huge number of people walking to the show, though.

So, I didn’t actually attend the concert, at least while any of the bands were playing, but I made a couple passes through the area. I talked with quite a few friends – almost as many as if I had stayed for the music. One friend even saw me on my trike while riding his motorcycle and did a U-turn and followed me to chase me down and see the Terra Trike!