Posturing, planning, conversation and positioning begins re: J'ouvert 2017

whynot it's definitely that. I have spoken with a community affairs officer at the 71st and was informed that there are multiple units working on hammering out any kinks in the plan before the actual parade.

I pressed him on the lights and he said to expect them to remain on until after J'Ouvert, to which I responded "are they just trying to annoy us into demanding J'Ouvert be canceled ourselves?". I was also informed that the barriers would be moved about 5 feet from residential buildings to allow for more room for revelers, so be prepared. Anyone who wants to enter and join a mas can do so only via checkpoints where they will be screened.

I also informed him that he should contact sanitation because tomorrow is garbage day and all the trash is blocked in by guard rails! If they plan on moving these barricades, they better hope sanitation can take the garbage piled up outside the buildings. Otherwise NYPD is going to be lugging mattresses and furniture or we're going to be swimming in trash until next freakin Wednesday!

There's a whole collection of them (~100) in front of the library right now!

Street lamps and barricades are still scattered along Empire, but the lights were not on last night for the first time since they went up last Tuesday. Hopefully next year they will not need to keep them on nearly a week in advance. I will note that a team setting up one of the lights in front of my building managed to smash one and left broken glass all over the sidewalk and road... Can't have everything perfect, I guess?

Jouvert definitely felt a little slower this year, due to congestion from police on the route. This meant that more bands were stuck between Washington and Rogers than there were between Rogers and Nostrand at any given time. I entered the route pretty easily and police were generally relaxed, but it was also about 8:30 by then. Not sure what it was like at 6 AM at GAP. They specified no weapons or alcohol but there was plenty of drinking going on. People were already on the route selling food as well.

Police did shut down a small gathering outside of my building at about 11:30 the night before. I didn't hear the exchange they had with the guys outside, but they wrapped it up pretty quickly and it was eerily silent until about 5:30 when revelers started making their way over.

Hopefully they've worked out the kinks and next year will be smoother. Informing residents ahead of time would have helped as well, but I'm sure they were trying to avoid the wrath of a certain group of residents who are always ready to storm a precinct...