Alderman seeks to require stronger traffic barriers for Chicago street festivals after New Orleans truck attack
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Chicago alderman is calling for new barrier requirements for all street fairs and festivals in the city, in the wake of the deadly New Year's Day truck attack in New Orleans and the attack at a German Christmas market earlier this month.
Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) said the wooden or plastic traffic barriers currently recommended for permitted street fairs and festivals in Chicago are a security weakness, and that needs to change.
"The goal has to be to be able to stop a car the moment [the barrier] gets hit," Lopez said.
Lopez said the requirements for a permit for street festivals and fairs should be amended to require heavy-duty "mobile vehicle barriers," which are portable barriers specifically designed to stop vehicles from entering a restricted area.
They are the same barriers that were put in place on Thursday in New Orleans, following the deadly truck attack on a crowd of New Year's Day revelers on Bourbon Street. At least 14 people were killed before the attacker died in a shootout with police.
The New Orleans attacker bypassed barriers put in place on Bourbon Street instead of security bollards during the attack. New Orleans was replacing bollards on the street and near completion before the upcoming Super Bowl, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said.
New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said Jabbar drove around the barriers, bypassing patrol cars and law enforcement, and onto the sidewalk.
Kirkpatrick said yellow portable barriers – known as "archers" – specifically designed to stop vehicles from entering a restricted area were put in place Thursday in New Orleans.
"I didn't know about them, but we have them. So we have been able now to put them in," she said.
Lopez is calling on the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events to make mobile vehicle barriers a requirement for all street fairs and festivals permitted in 2025.
"Unlike the barriers that we recommend right now, which are simple just three pieces of wood or plastic to close a street, these barriers literally will flip a car in the air if they drive over it," Lopez said. "If we make this change now, all of the event planners can plan accordingly. It's early enough in the season to adjust whatever their budget needs are going to be, but the goal here is to keep people safe, and to prevent an attack like this from happening."
Lopez did not have an estimate for how expensive these types of barriers might be in relation to other types of barriers, but security expert and former Chicago Police First Deputy Supt. Anthony Riccio said they provide a superior type of protection, particularly when it comes to vehicle traffic.
"I actually think it's a great idea," Riccio said. "So often, when we see things like this, we're reactive. So we wait until something happens, and then we would enact some sort of a legislation like this to protect these street festivals. I think we need to get in front of it on this."
Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd), who is Chairman of the City Council Committee on Public Safety, said there will be a public hearing on the issue, although he cautioned that it might not be practical to require every festival in Chicago — especially smaller ones — to have these types of barriers.
"You have to prioritize; and, frankly, not every neighborhood event or block party is really at the level that you can think a terrorist might want to attack it," Hopkins said.
Hopkins said cost also is a factor.
"You know, a lot of these smaller neighborhood events are very marginal events. They either don't make any money at all, or they make the smallest of profit, and if we're going to start charging them for excessive security measures that may really not be necessary, there's going to be some push back on that," he said.
The city does have a limited inventory of these types of barriers, but Lopez said the financial burden should be placed on event organizers, not the city, to supply them.
