I live within walking distance to downtown, but on the North side. I do adjust a lot of my habits in October. I can’t even think about going out anywhere in town for dinner, delivery is from nowhere on the South side of town, I go grocery shopping in other towns because there’s no way I’m driving through downtown to get to the store in Salem, I change my route home when driving to avoid traffic on all the Salem exit ramps, and if I can’t work from home on Halloween, I take PTO. I don’t travel anywhere apart from walking on Halloween unless it’s in an ambulance. This year, I’ve had to adjust further and earlier, as the crowds even during the week are spilling out into the streets that aren’t closed, trying to enjoy a walk downtown is almost impossible and at times claustrophobic, and the amount of litter on the ground and people I see actively littering is much more than years prior. I also noticed exponentially more out of state cars parked pretty far out into the neighborhoods that aren’t resident-only. This is the first year that they’ve reached my neighborhood, which we’ve never had before. We’re walkable, but it’s about a mile to the train station, so most visitors never venture out that far. I love Halloween and I love all the fun stuff everyone can see and enjoy during this time in Salem, but it’s just absolutely insane and at certain times, borderline dangerous this year. I worry that there aren’t enough crowd control measures or officials in place to keep things safe. November 1st will probably be one of the best days of the year in terms of being able to actually live my life again, and I’ve never felt so strongly about it until this year.