Chicago, other cities, cancel St. Patrick’s Day parades

Chicago has joined the ranks of cities around the world to scrap St. Patrick’s Day parades over concerns about spreading the new coronavirus. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday that the parade that was scheduled for Saturday posed too big of a public health risk. The cancellation is bad news for restaurants and bars that make a lot of money from the huge crowds that descend on the city to watch the parade and to watch the Chicago River dyed green. Parades in Dublin, Boston, Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco have already been cancelled.