Popular picnic on Belle Isle forced to end early following parking, traffic complaints
(CBS DETROIT) - A popular picnic in Detroit ended in disappointment after being shut down early by park rangers.
The event organizer says she did everything right by getting permits and permission to host the event at Belle Isle, but the park says the picnic brought too big of a crowd, disrupting the flow of traffic on the island.
"I have problems with that rhetoric because there was no way of telling whose cars belong to who [and] who was blocking what," Torie Anderson-Lloyd said.
Lloyd, the creator of Black Girl Picnic, and all its attendees were eventually asked to pack up and leave the park about 30 minutes before the event's scheduled end.
"Admittedly, I felt frustrated in that moment," Anderson-Lloyd said. "I felt like no matter what I did, no matter how many permits I got, no matter how many hoops I jumped through for belle isle, it would always be something."
Branded as a celebration of Black womanhood, Anderson-Lloyd says what started as a plan to picnic more with friends quickly turned into an event unifying women from all walks of life while encouraging rest. The event is now in its third year and has grown exponentially.
"When your rest is an act of resistance, you should expect pushback," Anderson-Lloyd said.
Thomas Bissett, the DNR's urban district supervisor, says there was only pushback because the number of women attending the event far exceeded the projected number on the permit.
"We do know that it was a lot more than [the anticipated] 98 people, and that caused huge traffic in that area because, again, that space is not designed for that number of people," Bissett said.
Bissett says Belle Isle was busier than usual Saturday. The park was so busy it reached capacity, momentarily closing its entry to cars.
"If you say 98 and you bring 150, we're good. We can figure it out. The team on the ground will really help you that day," Bissett said. "But when it's seven, eight times what we're expecting, that's what causes problems, and unfortunately, that's what happened this weekend."
Regardless, Anderson-Lloyd says she isn't giving up and considers this a lesson learned. She's planning for next year, considering picnicking somewhere other than Belle Isle.
