China's spectacular display wrapped Vancouver's Celebration of Light fireworks competition on Saturday night, and police are reporting it was the best behaved crowd in recent memory.
According to media relations Const. Jana McGuinness, only one arrest was made in connection with the fireworks. Six tickets were also handed out, there were 12 drug seizures, and 310 people had their liquor poured out.
"We're very pleased with the results," McGuinness said. "It is one of the best nights in many years from a policing perspective.
Mountains of garbage left on the beach
Some West End residents are still unhappy about having to wade through leftover trash the day after the event.
"It's disgusting," James Ritchie said after last Wednesday's celebration. "People want to walk here. There's people running in the morning, people want to do their thing and they have to run through this."
The Vancouver Park Board takes care of the mess, but commissioner Aaron Jasper says the cleanup isn't cheap.
"As a park board we spend just shy of $30,000 to pick up garbage and clean up the beaches for the fireworks, and that's a lot of money," Jasper said.
Jasper says the situation was ironically actually better in 2007 during Vancouver's civic strike.
"The public were aware that there were going to be no workers to come down here first thing in the morning so they packed it out," he said.
"Now again it's this attitude like I don't have to worry about it."
To learn the winner of the 2009 Celebration of Light competition, stay tuned to the official website here.
