Starting this year, San Clemente will no longer kick off the Fourth of July holiday by racing down steep neighborhood streets in makeshift cars and office chairs.
The popular tradition, which started with a small group of friends back in 2005, was recently deemed unsafe by the city despite having drawn thousands of spectators over the years.
The city said that last year’s event drew over 7,000 people with more than half of them being from out of town.
For many, the end of the annual tradition is a disappointment.
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“We had been looking forward to this all year long. We’re all off in college most of the year, so we look forward to this moment,” said Benjamin Mix, a resident in San Clemente. “It really brings our summer together, and we hang out every single day.”
“Definitely pretty bummed out,” Noa Serpa, another resident, said. “We had plans to start building our new sand castle.”
At last year’s race, Mix and Serpa designed a vehicle named “freedom crib” out of a cradle they found on the streets. People threw water balloons at them to celebrate as they raced down the hill.
However, that event was the final straw. San Clemente city officials said the neighborhood was left with a mess of several injuries reported, popped balloons scattered on the street, along with urine in people’s yards.
“Somebody was hit with a frozen water balloon. We also had an injury that occurred on the street, and our fire officials couldn’t respond without also being hit with water balloons,” Samantha Wiley, director of Beaches, Parks and Recreation Department said.
The city is planning to replace the race with a family-friendly event called the Stars, Stripes & Slip ’N Slides event, which will include live music, food, a 300-foot San Clemente Slip ‘N Slide (for ages 8+ year-olds) and a 17-Foot Water Slide (for ages 2+ year-olds.)
A sanctioned office chair race could be brought back, Wylie said, but it needs to go through proper city channels with safety measures.
