[DIV class=gtv_headline id=Getfullstory_divSlug]Two Isolated Incidents Mar Otherwise Calm Mardi Gras Celebration[/DIV][DIV class=gtv_origpost id=Getfullstory_divOrigPost] [/DIV][DIV class=gtv_origpost][DIV class=gtv_body id=Getfullstory_divStory]By [A href="mailto:
[email protected]"]Rebecca Wu[/A]
(KSDK) - At least two businesses in Soulard were vandalized Saturday during that area's Mardi Gras celebration.
At Soulard Soap Laundromat and Cleaners, nine windows are now boarded up. Vandals yanked out three street signs and smashed them through the windows.
Owner Jerry Schwartz said, "From what I heard, the crowd was egging on the couple of drunks who were doing the job."
Schwartz estimates his business suffered $6,000 to $8,000 in damages. He spent four hours overnight cleaning up.
"We had to vacuum all these top load washers and wipe them out three or four times each and keep changing rags because there was glass in the rags."
A couple of blocks away at Hub Furniture, the co-owner didn't even know one of his glass windows was smashed until reporters told him. Co-owner Michael Bradley said, "It's one of those things where you cross your fingers and hope it doesn't happen but it's bound to with that many people."
Neither business experienced this type of vandalism in years past. According to Schwartz, the actions were so wanton and deliberate, he couldn't believe it happened.
According to Schwartz nobody was caught but police did arrest more than 200 people Saturday night. The vast majority of them were for underage consumption of alcohol.
Organizers said they aren't minimizing what happened to the two businesses but considering how many people were in Soulard, they call the vandalism unfortunate but isolated cases.
Mardi Gras, Inc., spokesperson Mack Bradley said, "We had several hundred thousand people here yesterday... it was a very well behaved crowd. We had a couple of people who didn't know how to behave themselves and that's unfortunate."
But for Schwartz this only underscores how he felt for the last five years.
"Mardi Gras has outgrown Soulard and it's time for the Mardi Gras people to consider doing business some place else," he said.
In response Bradley said, "Soulard is St. Louis's French Quarter. This is the epicenter of Mardi Gras and I think always will be. If we decided tomorrow we're not going to do it, people will come down here anyway."
According to Mardi Gras, Inc., the only other significant problem within the last ten years was in 1999 during Fat Tuesday. Police used mace to disperse the crowd when it got out of control.[/DIV]
[DIV class=gtv_source id=Getfullstory_divSource]KSDK[/DIV][DIV class=gtv_source]
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