When it comes to St. Fratty’s day in the Alta Vista neighborhood, the neighborhood I live in, a couple of idioms come to mind.
Asleep at the wheel
The first one is “Asleep at the wheel” which is the same as “Asleep at the switch”. Both idioms describe a vehicle of some sort. Wheel describes a steering wheel and the switch describes a train’s dead-man switch, the power mechanism. The metaphorical vehicle describes some sort of task, job, or assignment that requires full attention. Falling asleep at the wheel of a moving vehicle, or if the train operator doesn’t pay attention to the train’s speed obviously can have disastrous consequences. This idiom describes when someone wasn’t doing their job, paying enough attention, was negligent or is completely unaware of things happening around them.
I think of this when I think about the roof collapse on St Fratty’s day in 2015, the subsequent Cal Poly report that followed, and the City’s response to illegal fraternities not conforming with the city zoning ordinance. The City must’ve read the report. Right? The report mentioned that the party started at an illegal fraternity operating in the neighborhood, yet they did nothing.
The Boiling Frog
Not an idiom but a metaphor that is appropriate to the situation in our neighborhood is the one about the boiling frog. The boiling frog myth or metaphor talks about how when a frog is put into a pan of boiling water, it jumps out immediately in order to survive. However, when the frog is put into tepid water and the temperature of the water is slowly increased and ultimately brought to a boil, the frog just sits there and ultimately dies. It’s a story used to describe how failing to act on an incremental problem or situation will usually have disastrous consequences. I think of this metaphor when I think of St. Fratty’s Day. We, as a city, have become accustomed to it, make excuses about it, shrug our shoulders, and move on.
What the heck?
“What the heck? That’s just crazy!!”. “How can the city let that happen!?” Good question. I have two childhood friends who live overseas; one of them lives in Bristol, and the other used to live in Cambridge. Both are large university cities. Nothing like St. Fratty’s Day would ever happen in those places. It just wouldn’t. An illegal event of this magnitude that’s allowed to continue and grow continually larger with each passing year, with high-risk behavior, would be shut down. They can’t believe it when they both see videos of St. Fratty’s Day, with large crowds on roofs. “Where are the police!?” Again, a question I can’t answer. One thing is certain: we as a city have slowly normalized this event when we really should be embarrassed. It’s not normal. We have become a community just like in the Hans Christian Andersen tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes.