Party Safety: No Longer An Oxymoron

The Austin Police Department and the party-throwers living in the campus area have always seemed to get along. If you find yourself at a party around campus and a police cruiser stops out front, no one runs--even when that sweet bubbler on the table still has smoke billowing from it--everyone just walks away calmly. APD knows they can't stop every party, arrest every weed smoker and hand out tickets to every minor, so they usually give the ultimatum: "everyone leaves, or citations." However, starting today, college kids around Austin may not think Austin cops are so cool anymore.

Any party of more than 49 people will now require a public assembly permit, with any construction for a party (platforms, stages, etc.) also requiring a permit; the highly flammable large tarps used to obscure the view of a party from the street will need to be replaced with non-flammable tarps.

The new regulation will be enforced by The Public Assembly Code Enforcement Task Force, in conjunction with acronym all-stars APD, UTPD, AFD, TABC, as well as City of Austin Code Enforcement and the Sheriffs Department of Travis County.

Seemingly aimed at the recent rash of incidents from the ever-present and perpetually-negligent Texas Greek system, Austin police are becoming more stringent with zoning, building, noise and safety codes...which would affect bands playing outside, any kind of water activities and even some decoration that go along with a certain theme of a party. All in all, the city of Austin is looking to make us safer, by making our parties more lame.

And while the new codes appear to be aimed at college kids, this rule goes for everyone. We're looking at you Halloween party guy and we like to have friends over for the football game couple. We call shenanigans on the whole thing.

Seems like this one is going to be a little hard to enforce. But, if they decide to follow closely the letter of the law, it's time to start cutting that friends list of yours from 50+ to a nice, polite 49.

What do you think of the new law?

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By patrickdentler in News on September 7, 2006 5:51 PM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

Kipper

The new codes to be enforced are fire codes. What "recent rash of incidents from the ever-present and perpetually-negligent Texas Greek system" are you referring to? I don't recall hearing of anyone dying at any party in my college career because they couldn't find a fire exit or the tarp caught on fire or someone tripped over the keg and drown in beer in the chaos of exiting. I'm going as a glorified public servant for halloween cause this is the biggest joke ever.

Britton

I agree with the first guy. Everyone should buy a damn permit all at once so they will realize how ridiculous this is.

anon

Does anyone else feel that we should all apply for a permit for parties on the same day? I mean seriously, let's drop in 20 thousand requests or something to have parties next Saturday.

Sudo

Hey Dan, the links in the second paragraph of the entry. This blows. The article says that the permit only requires a "fire safety inspection", but I doubt that the inspection / permit will be free. No problem for the rich boy frats that are causing the problems, but could be a big deal for the poor kids trying to have a little kegger to celebrate a birthday.