The 2016 Pride Parade will have just 150 entries, down from the 200 entries that the event had in 2015, according to its organizer.
The reduction is an effort to get all the entries to the ending point quicker, Pride Parade coordinator Richard Pfeiffer told Windy City Times.
"The city permit guidelines require that the last unit of a city parade has to cross the starting line in two hours and 15 minutes which signals the end of the parade," Pfeiffer said. "However, longtime traditional city parades are allowed to go on longer. The Pride Parade averages two hours and 45 minutes for the last unit to cross the starting line."
The parade's application has yet to be approved, so organizers are still ironing out details. They had initially asked for an earlier starting time, but Pfeiffer said a noon start is again likely. Parade-goers should also expect increased security.
"We had 90 security personnel last year, and we are going to try to double that this year," Pfeiffer said.
The venue had been in question since the 2014 parade, when Lake View-area residents complained of disorderly behavior by parade-goers as well as a strain on city resources and services. Some said that year that the parade should be moved to downtown Chicago, where wider streets could better accommodate spectators, while others argued that the event was an integral part of the Lake View neighborhood. The 2016 application has the parade following the established route through Lake View and Uptown. Organizers will be meeting with city reps at a later date, Pfeiffer said.
The Crime in Wrigleyville + Boystown blog broke news of the parade application on Dec. 22.
Many residents have also said that the parade itself is less of a problem than people raucously celebrating in the hours that follow. There were 52 arrests made in conjunction with the 2015 Pride Parade, according to Chicago Police.