A special Associated Students of Madison Halloween committee held an open forum Tuesday in an effort to prevent the Halloween riots that have plagued State Street for the past two years. The goal of the forum was to brainstorm ways to make Halloween 2004 safer while still maintaining the party-like atmosphere.
According to the ASM Halloween 2004 Fact Sheet, the committee looks to create better communication between the city, UW-Madison administrators and students. They believe the riots occurred as a result of the large group of people on State Street after bartime.
\We see the main problem is that there are people standing around on State Street [after bar time] with nothing to do, waiting for something to happen,"" Barry Landy, ASM intern.
To thwart the boredom that the committee feels led to the rioting the last two years, the committee came up with several ideas to keep the State Street crowd more occupied.
The committee proposed, among other things, asking area restaurants to stay open later, making food more available to people throughout the night.
""We feel by asking restaurants to stay open later, it gives people somewhere to go,"" said Kristina Mueller, chairperson of the committee.
Other ideas that the committee proposed were providing more activities on and off State Street, such as trick-or-treating and costume contests, as well as working with Madison Metro and the Safe Arrival For Everyone program to make transportation available during the night.
One radical change the committee discussed was bringing in a national band to divert people from State Street. The committee is considering the Fieldhouse as the venue for the concert and would have it last late into the night.
""The music helps control people,"" Dan Hudson, manager of madisonhalloween.com said. Hudson is helping the committee attract a national act to Madison for Halloween.
The committee will soon be meeting with the Madison police, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, the Tavern League and the Greater State Street Business Association to further discuss these ideas.
""We're working basically to make the event as big as it has been,"" Landy said. ""But we're [also] working to make it safer.""
During the weekend of Halloween 2003, 28 people were arrested and 345 were ticketed.
