When did St Patricks Day turn into ” Drunk Week” in Northeast Philly? Every St Paddys Day..the weekend before actually..all hell breaks loose on Frankford Avenue and the surrounding area. Why? Because the weekend before St Patricks Day people are allowed to roam the streets with open cups and bottles of beer, harassing passersby, climbing lamp posts, cursing, making lewed gestures and generally making a drunken nuisance of themselves.

Yes, I know the bars love it, they get to sell a lot of booze. They even run buses..The Shamrock Express up and down Frankford between bars so that people getting absolutely blotto on booze have transportation between bars. You may think this is fun, but to those of us who have to shop on Frankford or who just want to go for a walk in our own neighborhood its bloody hell. When did St Paddys Day become Drunk Week and who sanctioned the open beer cups ? There were four police cars sitting at Cottman and Frankford all yesterday. Wouldn’t these police officers be better employed chasing criminals instead of having to baby sit a bunch of drunken louts? It just makes me sick.