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The once fairly peaceful Australian suburb of Rhodes found itself the focus of a large group of regular Pokemon Go players searching for rare and elusive Pokemon to add to their collection. It seems as though the area was a prime spot to find some of the more rare creatures and thus attracted the attention of hundreds, even thousands of would-be Trainers to areas near to high-density residential housing on a nightly basis.It seems as though the noise generated by the nightly crowds was enough to send some residents beyond the tipping point, opting to throw eggs and waterbombs at the crowd.
“The place is in complete chaos with crowds of well over 1,000 per night. There is a massive level of noise after midnight, uncontrollable traffic, excessive rubbish, smokers, drunk people, people who are ‘camping’ in the site, and even people peddling mobile phone chargers,” the resident said.
Helen McCaffrey, the deputy mayor of the City of Canada Bay Council, which contains Rhodes, issued a statement today saying the council had deployed extra rangers to deal with parking issues and that the environment team was undertaking extra waste collection.
“The new game provides a wonderful opportunity for people to enjoy the parks, foreshore, and other open areas around the City of Canada Bay in a fun, interactive way but we ask people to do this in a safe, considerate manner,” she said.
Helen McCaffrey, the deputy mayor of the City of Canada Bay Council, which contains Rhodes, issued a statement today saying the council had deployed extra rangers to deal with parking issues and that the environment team was undertaking extra waste collection.
“The new game provides a wonderful opportunity for people to enjoy the parks, foreshore, and other open areas around the City of Canada Bay in a fun, interactive way but we ask people to do this in a safe, considerate manner,” she said.
The original event organizer, Michael Pope, said that the group started out with just 70 local residents. He said that by day two, that number grew to about 150 people. By day three there were 500 people. The previous night saw well over 1,000 people all in one location trying to catch Pokemon.
The main hot spot is a park with a children's playground. Residents in Rhodes said that they were "having issues with noise levels from people screaming their lungs out, smoking at the playground, people revving up their cars around the area." One anonymous resident said that they had to carry their dog for most of their walk because people were looking at their phones and not paying attention to where they were going. They also noted how many would-be Trainers would often stand out in the middle of roads to try to catch a Pokemon. At least one person said that they will be moving in a month's time after their lease expires because they expect the trend to get worse before it gets better in the area.
This led to an instance last night that resulted in residents in the neighboring apartment blocks hurling eggs and waterbombs from their balconies onto the crowds below. Authorities were called in to diffuse the situation in addition to issuing a number of traffic violations in the area against visitors. Police also said that they would issue $200 fines to those who continued to stick around after the incident.
(via Buzzfeed)
