UW-Madison students criticized nearly every aspect of Mayor Dave Cieslewicz's Halloween plan at a town hall meeting Wednesday night, particularly attacking the ideas of fencing off State Street and charging $5 admission to the event.
Cieslewicz did not attend the Bascom Hall meeting. Instead, he sent city Alcohol Policy Coordinator Joel Plant to speak to the 60-person crowd. Plant, who has worked closely with the University to curb student drinking in recent years, insisted the mayor's plan would improve Halloween.
""At the end of last year's event, we were sitting around and we said, ‘Is this how we want Halloween to end every year?'"" Plant said. ""We had a couple of options, and we settled on this.""
""We want to turn Halloween into a one-night event.,"" he later added.
Plant's presentation at the meeting marked the first time the city has revealed specifics of the plan to UW-Madison students. According to Plant, the city plans to begin charging admission to State Street at 6:30 p.m. Saturday night and to begin dispersing the crowd at 1 a.m. Private security guards will man 13 entry and exit points throughout the night.
Plant said $5 Halloween tickets would be available at a trailer on the 700 block of State Street beginning in early October, adding that the city expects to make $300,000 from ticket sales.
The mayor's plan is on next Tuesday's City Council agenda, and Ald. Austin King, District 8, said he would try to add suggestions from Wednesday's meeting. Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, who organized the meeting along with King, said the plan ""more than has the votes to pass.""
Verveer and King set up the meeting largely in response to the Facebook group ""Move Halloween to Langdon Street."" Its founders, Tom Wangard and Brandon Sevrit, have since joined forces with the city and now call themselves the Halloween Action Committee. Sevrit, who said his concerns about a 50,000-person limit and breathalyzer tests at entry points have been resolved, insisted a changed Halloween would still be fun.
""The last thing we want to do is take it over and make it lame,"" Sevrit said.
Friction between students and police arose several times during the meeting, particularly when fears of a police crackdown arose. At one point, senior Ashok Kumar claimed police actually caused the recent Halloween riots.
But Central District Police Commander Mary Schauf responded that police have never discharged pepper spray—which can travel hundreds of yards through the air—without being provoked by partiers.
""Police only take that kind of action when an assembly becomes unlawful,"" Schauf said, adding that police would eject people from this year's event if they ""want to misbehave.""
