Despite efforts by Mayor Stephanie Miner and the Syracuse Police Department to put an end to MayFest on Euclid Avenue, the fourth year of the block party continued on.

Students and police noticed a tamer atmosphere than in previous years. A fear of police enforcement and the university-sanctioned MayFest in Walnut Park drawing people away from Euclid could have caused the change.

“I expected a lot of people to really rebel against it,” said Lauren Thomas, sophomore magazine journalism major partying in the 400 block of Euclid Avenue. “But people are really playing it safe.”

The day got a slow start, and parties picked up around 4 p.m. By then, lawns along Euclid were filled with students drinking and enjoying the afternoon. Most students were careful to keep the drinking on the lawn and not file into the sidewalks or streets with open containers.

For the most part, police were not ticketing many students. As long as they followed city ordinances, they did not have to worry. Mark Duby, an officer from the Syracuse Police Department, said he was mainly warning students about noise violations. As long as students turned down the music after a warning he wouldn’t issue them a ticket, he said.

“We’re not here because we want to be,” Duby said. “We don’t want to ruin the good time.”

Police wrote only three noise ordinance violations and two open-container violations for students on Euclid during MayFest, according to police records.

There was also one arrest at around 3:30 p.m., said Lt. Richard Shoff. The arrest on the 400 block of Euclid occurred when police attempted to cite John Jimenez, a junior in the School of Information Studies, for noise violation. The student would not give police the necessary information to complete the citation paperwork, including his name, Social Security number and date of birth, so police arrested the student, Shoff said. He was charged with resisting arrest, according to the police report.

“There were no punches thrown,” Shoff said, “but he was less than cooperative.”

Students were mostly cooperative when police approached them, Shoff said. Shoff was not around for last year’s MayFest but said from what he had heard, this year’s was easier to control and had fewer people than he expected.

Despite Shoff’s evaluation that the party was not out of control, some non-student passersby in the neighborhood said they were disappointed with how the police were handling the party.

A pedestrian from the neighborhood said the party was quieter than last year’s, but she did not think MayFest was very well controlled. The woman declined to provide her name.

“The true spirits still came out,” she said. “Police are just staying and letting students be students.”

Some students said they think the partying got started late because people were afraid police would be cracking down.

“Earlier, people were scared to come out,” said Kevin Beargie, a junior mechanical engineering major. “But once they saw people out, they started coming out themselves.”

But some students said they noticed police were relatively lenient Friday. Jeremy Hyman, a senior information technology major, said police gave the party he was attending four noise ordinance violation warnings by 3:50 p.m. but never wrote a ticket. The people whose house he was at had just been told to make sure everyone at the party was over 21 or the party would be shut down, he said.

Monica Hedden, a senior advertising design major, said she was confused about the cops’ inconsistency with warning students or telling them to tone down the partying. Hedden and four of her friends began playing beer pong on their lawn at 11 a.m. One police officer came up to group and was very friendly, she said. But when the next set of officers came around, they told the girls to take down their table right away.

“There was absolutely no reason, they just told us to get rid of it,” she said. “There were five of us, and we were all 21.”

Hedden and her friends weren’t breaking any city ordinances. All five students were 21 years old, and they were staying on their own property. Hedden also said the police told her if more than 40 people showed up the police would issue serious consequences.

“We weren’t doing anything wrong, it’s just the anticipation of what could happen,” she said.

Duby, the SPD officer, said the police hadn’t been told to target houses with beer pong tables. He also said police were expecting the parties to pick up after the MayFest celebrations in Walnut Park ended at 5:30 p.m.

Kate Ready, a senior public relations major, did notice the parties beginning to pick up as people left Walnut Park.

“I heard after 3 p.m. they were only giving out two beers, so I think people kind of came over here as the day was ending, and I can see that this might become a more rowdy area as the night progresses,” Ready said.

Although Block Party began in the Dome at 7:30 p.m., the parties on Euclid had died down but were continuing as of 8:15 p.m.

“For the most part, I have to say (Mayor) Stephanie Miner has made her point,” Ready said. “She’s aligned herself with the people who live in this area fully, and that’s respectable. I want to add that I think this is a really good tradition that people come out and they celebrate being a senior and your last year at Syracuse.”

– Asst. News Editor Beckie Strum contributed reporting to this article.

Published on May 2, 2010 at 12:00 pm