Calgary in 'good shape' after New Year celebrations as crews work into night: coordinator

There's bound to be some cleanup involved after a public party of thousands occupy a city's downtown.

As a crowd of revelers departed Calgary's downtown amid a rainy New Year's Eve, cleanup crews remained, eyeing bottles and cans, streamers, whistles, and debris from fireworks.

By this point in the city's history, the routine has become familiar. There was, however, some trial and error involved this year — fireworks have generally launched off the Calgary Tower, but they've since been moved to Prince's Island Park.

City representatives say they're pleased with the show's debut from the downtown urban park. Preparing a new event site involved plenty of coordination with city services and contractors, said Jonathan Radomski, event co-ordinator with the City of Calgary.

"If this is something that we continue to do in the future, then I'm sure we'll fine-tune it and find efficiencies," he said.

Many, of course, enjoy the energy that comes with large gatherings of people. For the crowd-adverse, on the other hand, last night's significant volumes of traffic potentially vindicate decisions to take in celebrations from a distance.

Officials planned and expected the crowds to be at a large scale, according to Radomski.

"Calgary came to celebrate, and we were just really happy with the turnout. But after ringing in the new year, there was high volume, especially in and around Memorial Drive. That was a very high volume area," he said.

"We do plan for high volume traffic and we had [Calgary Police Service] and bylaw on some key areas to make sure that we were doing our best to keep traffic flowing as necessary."

Calgary Transit was free on New Year's Eve with frequent service later in the evening.

After crowds dispersed, multiple crews scanned the area to ensure they were picking up waste left behind, Radomski said. Crews also went up to key viewing spots to ensure communities were left in good shape.

All told, Calgarians were, for the most part, respectful and responsible in picking up after themselves, he said.

Clean-up crew work lasted until around 3 a.m. overnight on Jan. 1, starting again at 9 a.m., with a goal of wrapping up work by 1 p.m. Secondary areas such as Calgary's Peace Bridge and Jaipur Bridge were also swept Monday.

Representatives with Calgary Police Service did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.