Just last week Westport boss hawg Bill Nigro predicted a decent St. Paddy’s day…
Sure, KC’s infamous parade had been canceled, still Nigro thought it was a reasonable to expect a crowd of, say, 25 percent of the usual starting around 5 p.m. as folks got off work.
After all, for something like ever St. Patrick’s Day has been the party district’s most bankable holiday….the cash cow of all cash cows.
Then today happened and the KC put the kibosh on local bars and nightclubs.
As for Nigro’s 25 percent guesstimate…
“There will be no crowd, we’re shiut down,” he says. “Kelly’s isn’t even open, nobody’s open. Westport is shiut down, baby. I didn’t think it was going to be this bad. People have been walking up to the front door of Kelly’s all day and reading the sign that they’re closed.”
The quietest St. Patrick’s in Westport ever?
“Ever,” Nigro says. “And it’s always busy here – every year – it’s the top day of the year for everybody.”
The kicker:
“Yet the casinos are open today,” Nigro grouses. “How fair is that? We were ordered to be closed and they’re open. So Westport gets the shaft on the best business day of the year and the casino gets a pass.”
Indeed, a call to KC’s Isle of Capri reveals the casino is open tonight until midnight.
All of that said, the worst of the worst isn’t the businesses that are closed, Nigro says.
“They just put 1,000 people in Westport out of work,” Nigro says. “And most of them live paycheck to paycheck – that’s serious. I tell you what, everybody better save up their pennies because it’s going to get ugly.”
And for the record, downtown Lawrence, Kansas is also an equally dead ghost town.
KCPD was still setting up a DUI check point at 40th and Main when i went thorough the deserted streets and 9:15 pm. SMH
Hmmmmmm…
Guess if you were out and about under the current circumstances, you’d almost have to be a raging alcoholic!