Every year on Halloween, trick-or-treaters are reminded to take safety precautions.
One East St. Paul development, however, is trying to make the whole neighbourhood a safe space for kids on Halloween by putting up barricades at each of the community’s three entrances, and encouraging a park-and-walk system.
East St. Paul Coun. Carla Devlin said the idea behind closing off the Pritchard Farms development to traffic on Thursday evening is all about protecting local kids.
“In East St. Paul, we don’t have a lot of sidewalks in our developments, so it sees pedestrians sharing roadways with traffic,” Devlin told 680 CJOB.
“On this night in particular, we have an influx of children, so to alleviate the traffic and allow the kids to have full rein of the streets makes sense for East St. Paul tonight.”
Devlin said she’s preparing herself for around 200 kids on Halloween night – those who live in the development, as well as trick-or-treaters from the surrounding area.
The idea with the barricades is, she said, an experiment that makes particular sense for the development because of its limited entry points.
Devlin shrugged off any criticism that the idea was to prevent parents from other areas bringing their kids to get the “real goodies” – as the area has a reputation for giving out full-sized candy bars.
“We’re not closed for business,” she said. “We’re open to all trick-or-treaters. We’re just hoping to have a safe night.
“It is not about discrimination, it’s solely about the safety of pedestrians going down the street.”
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