Editorial: Chesney fans should respect, not wreck city

Kenny Chesney fans took the term “getting trashed” a bit too literally this weekend.

On July 2, Kenny Chesney held a concert in Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field for his Spread The Love tour that attracted an estimated 55,000 people. Chesney concerts have become infamous in the city, due to a 2013 incident that involved brawls, arrests and 30 tons of leftover trash. This year showed some improvement, but not nearly enough.

According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the city cleared about 48 tons of waste from the Heinz Field parking lot. Almost 100 people underwent treatment by emergency medical personnel and 37 of those people had to visit nearby medical facilities. Thirty-six people received citations for underage drinking and police charged others with ticket robbery, public intoxication, trespassing and simple assault.

Despite the startling aftermath, the Pittsburgh Police Chief Cameron McLay was pleased with the event and claimed that law enforcement was able to “maintain an incredible amount of control.”

No one should be pleased by what happened Sunday. The chaotic nature of the concert has become an inevitable force, with the city shrugging in bewilderment every year.

At the end of the day, we are the ones who pay for the public workers cleaning up the trash, the law enforcement that patrols the event, the hospitals that care for the overly intoxicated concertgoers and the process of putting all the waste into landfills.

After the 2013 concert, the city provided 200 portable toilets, distributed free trash bags and turned away visibly intoxicated fans at the gate — all important steps that have reduced damage. Next year, city officials will give littering citations to those who do not pick up after themselves.

While the city has made several policy changes to tame the concert, we have failed to meet our responsibility in making this a safe, enjoyable event for the rest of the community.

The citywide efforts have proven to help lower the excess in waste and casualties, yet we also have a duty to respect our city and property and change the destructive pattern we have caused. It shouldn’t fall on public officials to make people looking for a day of music act civilized — it should fall on the public itself.

Concerts are not an excuse to wreak havoc. Our city won the Stanley Cup last month and everyone was off the streets without violence, but the tailgaters this weekend couldn’t make it through some songs without attacking each other.

The people getting drunk outside were presumably adults, they just decided not to act like it. Picking up after yourself is not a difficult concept. Pittsburgh is better than this, but year after year the chaos surrounding Chesney’s appearances make people question this fact. It’s time for that streak to end.

There have been calls to ban Chesney from performing in the city, but that’s not the solution. It’s time for his fans to treat their community with respect instead of relying on a “someone will deal with it” mind-set.

Next year, our headlines should not highlight the trash strewn across the ground, but the mess we prevented.