On Saturday, the San Luis Obispo Police Department (SLOPD) will enact its new Safety Enhancement Zone for St. Fratty’s Day. Cal Poly students living on Hathway St. have mixed reviews about the block party itself and the city’s policing of the event.
Designated by the city, the Safety Enhancement Zone covers the first three weekends in March and involves double fines for party-related violations.
The zones aim to make it “clear that if folks choose to engage in unruly party behavior, it would come with consequences,” police Public Affairs Manager Christine Wallace said.
Wallace was unable to give details about the police operations plan document, but said that “staffing will be significantly increased for the whole weekend.”
Additional measures will also be taken to surveil the surrounding area. Security camera systems, like the recently upgraded camera located on Hathway and Bond St., will be in use.
“There have been cameras in that neighborhood for 15, 20 years,” she said. “We use them all the time.”
The cameras are also used for monitoring theft and nefarious people, she said, and drones will monitor the event to prevent an unruly gathering. SLOPD told Wallace that there may be undercover cops present.
Police will be stationed on the street, as in previous years, but ambulances are not expected to be staged in order to be available for other places, she said.
“They are looped into the plan for the weekend with the understanding … there may be medical calls,” Wallace said.
While students will gather across many residential areas surrounding campus, residents of Hathway St. where the block party is located are impacted the most by crowds/parties and the Safety Enhancement Zone.
Psychology junior Samantha Avalos is preparing for her first St. Fratty’s as a resident of Hathway St. She said she feels “a little nervous.” Avalos worries people may take advantage of her property’s broken fence in her front yard and spill onto her property.
“Fines affect people who live on the street,” she said. “[You] don’t want to get a ticket for something you didn’t do.”
According to Avalos, the way that SLOPD had handled the gathering in the past “seemed pointless.”
“I don’t know what they are trying to do,” she said.
For unwanted gatherings that spill onto residents’ properties, Wallace said residents should call SLOPD for help at their non-emergency line: (805) 781-7312.
After using due diligence and making an effort to get people off of their property, “we will come and assist. We will 99% of the time not issue a citation for these folks,” she said.
However, creating “a place that causes people to come onto your property,” like setting up water stands, will be classified as an attractive nuisance, Wallace said.
Residents may be ticketed for an unruly gathering or noise violation if patrol officers have to come and clear out the area.
Wallace suggested those who want to hand out water should do it in the street, wearing high-visibility shirts.
To create a safer St. Fratty’s Day experience, more compromise is needed between the city and the students, Avalos said. According to Avalos, implementing different ways to police would be more effective than saying ‘no’ to student requests and upping fines.
Currently, not much change has been realized, she said.
Experience industry management sophomore Jasmine Lee, another Hathway resident, remembered last year’s event as “quite insane.”
She witnessed “everyone under the influence,” with people sitting on their trash cans and cars, she said.
In her experience, St. Fratty’s is one of the few events that everyone participates in and looks forward to in the absence of a thriving sports scene at Cal Poly, she said. St. Fratty’s can be a fun environment, but people can be disrespectful, she added.
This year, the expanded Safety Enhancement Zone has many cautious, which is a good thing, Lee said. However, she personally doesn’t agree with the city’s handling of the policy-making process for St. Fratty’s. She said there should be more student input.
According to Wallace, changes have been made over the last few years, in addition to increased staffing.
Wallace said there were also additional outreach and education pathways SLOPD took this year. They gave on-campus presentations to IFC, USSC, Panellinic and ASI, she said. SLOPD worked with Campus Partners and the Cal Poly Police Department (CPPD) for harm reduction plans and spread information over social media and through posters up around campus and downtown.
“I don’t think it’s falling upon deaf ears,” Wallace said. “I think it’s being received and I think the choice to party the pants off remains the same.”
Cal Poly has made its own preparations for the event to encourage safe and responsible behavior, Cal Poly spokesperson Matt Lazier said.
There are numerous campus groups doing alternative and safety-oriented programming, Lazier said. Fraternity & Sorority Life (FSL) and Campus Health & Wellbeing are distributing party safe boxes to houses that register parties through FSL. Cal Poly Health and Wellbeing/PULSE/Friday Night Live students will be tabling on campus on Friday from 6-8 a.m. on the corner of Foothill and California Blvd. to share facts about drinking and partying safer. ASI is sponsoring breakfast burritos on Saturday from 5-6 a.m. PULSE will also table with safety messaging and additional snacks.
Cole Miller, a master’s student, has seen how the St. Fratty’s Day celebration has become more destructive over time, due in part to increasingly strict city policies.
The St. Fratty’s block party is “kind of SLOPD’s own creation,” he said.
After strict COVID policies for partying pushed more people onto the street a few years ago, people have since congregated there in hopes of avoiding increased fines at their homes, Miller said.
The Safety Enhancement Zone was established at the start of the pandemic, doubling fines for unruly gatherings, noise violations, open containers, etc. In March 2021, police were called to break up the block party of green-clad Cal Poly students as raising concerns about students violating health and safety guidelines.
Post-COVID, legitimization of this block party remains unlikely. The city “acknowledges that it occurs,” but classifies the event as an “unsanctioned, unruly, dangerous happening,” Wallace said.
An event of this style is not something the city wants to legitimize into an official street fair either because it is “not appropriate for our neighborhoods,” Wallace said.
With St. Fratty’s Day nearing, Miller fears students on the streets will cause damage to the property, their cars and by invading their space, he said.
“In the past, [SLOPD] haven’t done a great job at controlling the event,” he said.
According to Miller, SLOPD should “focus on the street and make the consequences less for people partying in a less destructive manner,” like at contained house parties.
Containing the gathering in the street seems to be in the interest of Hathway residents and SLOPD.
“Each year, our ability to handle medical emergencies and otherwise, the bigger the crowd gets, the more unruly the crowd gets, the more dangerous behavior gets, the harder it is for us to keep people safe,” Wallace said.
Creating a safe St. Fratty’s Day should be based on communication between the students, residents, SLOPD and Cal Poly, Miller said. While residents get the biggest say in city council meetings, students are heard but nothing they say is acted upon, Miller said.
Miller recognizes family residents in the area are “definitely bothered” and that things need to change, but “no policy is going to stop people from coming out here and celebrating,” he said.
Despite differing opinions, the divide between students and the community of SLO isn’t something Wallace is concerned about. She said students and long-term folks are typically good neighbors.
For fraternities, it is a different story.
“I can’t speak to the disconnect other than for St. Fratty’s, and the conversations specifically with IFC,” Wallace said. “Students appear to do whatever they want. Some of y’all’s choices are dangerous to yourselves and others.”
Wallace said she thinks there is only a small number of people who feel there is tension.
In response to the criticisms that the city’s policies are trying to prevent the inevitable, Wallace put their goal into perspective.
“The point is to keep y’all alive,” she said. “We’ve never been against folks having social time at their houses, ever. It’s when they negatively impact the people around them is when we have to get involved.”