In other news (apolitical thread)...

[utee94]

Downtown Austin somewhere along the river used to have a spectacular fireworks show for July 4th, and it was fun and safe for everybody.  If that's changed, that's sad. 

Sometimes I'd go to Round Rock's offering at the Dell Diamond, one of the really good places to see it from, and open to the public for free, iirc. 

Good times. 

No Austin still does a big fireworks display over Town Lake.  As far as I know it's safe, or at least as safe as any gathering of 100K people is likely to be.

I grew up going to those fireworks every year, for a couple of decades.  But these days it's just too crowded for me, and it takes way too long to get in and out.  That's not my scene, but it's not really supposed to be, either.

[FearlessF]

old man

[MikeDeTiger]

I don't remember it taking me a long time to get in and out of back then, but then, that was over 20 years ago, and I probably wouldn't have cared about time and effort back then, so I might not remember. 

I think parking and entry to see Round Rock's fireworks at the Diamond was a pretty easy ordeal though.  But same story, I might not remember.  That's the one I usually took family to if they came to visit, and I don't think my dad would've put up with long entry/exit times, so that's my rationale.  

[utee94]

I don't remember it taking me a long time to get in and out of back then, but then, that was over 20 years ago, and I probably wouldn't have cared about time and effort back then, so I might not remember.

I think parking and entry to see Round Rock's fireworks at the Diamond was a pretty easy ordeal though.  But same story, I might not remember.  That's the one I usually took family to if they came to visit, and I don't think my dad would've put up with long entry/exit times, so that's my rationale. 

I'd estimate there are probably 5X as many people going now, as there were 20 years ago.  Crowds back then might have hit 20K.  It's over 100K now.  Packed into the exact same amount of space.  Probably less to be honest, since many of the open spaces from back then have now been built up into many new structures of various sizes.

I've never been to the RR fireworks so can't comment. 

Here in Cedar Park it probably takes a half-hour for all the traffic to clear out.  But on the occasions when we actually go see them in the park rather than from our frontyard, we just walk the <1 mile.  Takes less than 20 minutes each way.

[MikeDeTiger]

That's a nice location-bonus.  Never saw the CP fireworks show.  Actually, I don't know if they were doing it back when I was there or not.  I dated a girl in CP for much of my time I lived north of town, but if they had fireworks, we didn't go.