How does your community do the 4th of July?

[SSOWorld]

Of course they're banned, its Seattle. 

[english si]

We raise a cup of tea and say "Good riddance" 

[7/8]

I saw this on Reddit and thought it was worth sharing



The University of Waterloo holds a large fireworks display for Canada Day. I missed it this year since I was at a friend's cottage, but we saw a couple fireworks by the lake.

I remember being impressed by how many people would bring their own fireworks on the beach in Myrtle Beach, SC. My family took trips there many times and a couple times were on July 4th.

[jakeroot]

Of course they're banned, its Seattle. 

It's only some cities near Seattle. South of Seattle (as I mentioned in my post), only a few cities ban it. Still very liberal firework laws.

I think the ban is due to the general dryness of this time of year, and the dense foliage.

[Bruce]

Yeah, there's been a few wildfires in the West caused by fireworks, either accidentally or deliberately.

Last year, 30,000 acres of the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon burned because a bunch of dumb kids threw fireworks into dry brush. It closed I-84 for a while and brought smoke into Portland and surrounding areas.

[DandyDan]

Mason City does their show on the 3rd at the high school  and Clear Lake does theirs on the 4th over the lake. Many people see both.

[WR of USA]

Even though Massachusetts outlaws fireworks, people will still shoot them off in every neighborhood as well as the larger shows by the beaches.

[hotdogPi]

Even though Massachusetts outlaws fireworks, people will still shoot them off in every neighborhood as well as the larger shows by the beaches.

Here too. Where I live, it's really easy to just go one town north into New Hampshire, where it's actually legal, and they still don't do that.

[NWI_Irish96]

It's my first July in Munster, and their official town fireworks were on the 3rd.  Two reasons I like them on the 3rd:
1) The next day is a day off work so it's a good day to be up late
2) Makeup day can be the 4th if it rains

Turned out to be fortunate planning this year, anybody in NWI or south suburbs of Chicago who had fireworks planned for the 4th almost certainly didn't have them due to storms last night.

[PHLBOS]

I live in an unincorporated part of the county with no organized community.

Same here, but many of the surrounding townships & boroughs host fireworks displays of their own either on the 4th itself (for those that don't want to head into Philly) or different days throughout this week. 

One borough near me, Glenolden, always schedules their fireworks display on the third Saturday in June (rain date is usually set for the third Sunday, such happened this year) to keep it separate from the competing displays during the 4th.

[sparker]

San Jose sets off fireworks from the Alviso wetlands area at the south end of S.F. bay for safety purposes; outbound flights from Mineta Airport (SJO) are suspended for the 90-minute duration of the display since it's right in the takeoff lane.  Neighboring cities with their own displays are Fremont/Newark, which also sets off displays from a jetty near the east end of the Dumbarton Bridge, and Mountain View, which does something similar but across the bay.  The displays are sequenced so when one ends the other begins, from west to east.  However, that doesn't stop local morons from setting off M80's and M100's (those are really loud) out in the streets of San Jose and environs -- they seem to drive to a park or unoccupied schoolground and set off the sticks when they don't see anyone in the vicinity.  Around here, if we see someone doing this in the neighborhoods, we'll generally call it in -- but experience has shown, with only 930 cops for all of San Jose plus a handful of sheriffs' deputies, this has little or no effect -- the blasts go on until about 3 a.m.   This is my 6th successive 07/04 up here; I don't expect things to change anytime soon.  Just sit on the north-facing balcony with binoculars and watch the show and make sure the dog stays inside for the duration is the normal modus operandi!

[1995hoo]

We drove to Reagan Airport and watched the DC fireworks from the top of the Terminal C parking garage. Fair number of other people had the same idea. Traffic wasn't too bad leaving, though. $12 for the garage to beat the traffic and not get eaten alive by mosquitoes is worth it.

[J N Winkler]

In Wichita I think it is fair to say that the City Council failed to follow through on its promise of more stringent enforcement of the fireworks ordinance, which bans everything except sparklers and pyrotechnics that create displays no taller than six feet.  Police and firefighters were sent out in unmarked cars to look for fireworks in violation, but were given the option of signing up for the overtime (i.e., were not under mandatory instruction to patrol).  In many cases, those who actually went out had to back off on writing tickets when they found themselves surrounded by angry neighbors (20 people versus one city employee is not favorable odds).  One grandma assaulted a firefighter with a Roman candle.

In the end, just 133 citations ($250 each) were issued for a city of 400,000 people, and on the night of the Fourth it sounded like one of the great setpiece battles of World War II.

[Bruce]

I watched the show in Bellevue, WA from a friend's high-rise apartment. The view was wide enough that we were also able to see Seattle's show across the water.

[AlexandriaVA]

Friend with an apartment near the MCI Center in downtown DC with a balcony facing the Washington Monument.

Got to see the fireworks from the Mall without dealing with the unwashed masses.