Part of the fun of fireworks night in Detroit is finding the right spot to catch a view.

Families set up chairs and grills at every street corner within viewing distance where there’s any sliver of daylight between buildings and trees in the direction of downtown Detroit and Windsor.

Spectators lie on blankets in the middle of baseball fields or huddle in pickup beds alongside highway service drives. Some have even climbed atop parked tractor trailers in shipping yards, or scale tall fences, clinging to sharp metal for a glimpse of the show.

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It’s difficult to tell exactly where the fireworks will rise before the show begins, and many end up with little more than a squinting view of the uppermost bursts of light.

Crowds throng downtown, of course, in Hart Plaza and Spirit Plaza and out on Belle Isle, the only official viewing areas the city makes available. Belle Isle reached capacity just after 6 p.m. Monday, hours before the display started.

Meanwhile, most of Detroit’s riverfront parks, many of them sparkling with recent renovations, sit empty during the Ford Fireworks, guarded by police.

Detroit’s entire Riverwalk is closed for the fireworks, along with Riverside Park, Mt. Elliot Park, Gabriel Richard Park, Owen Park, Erma Henderson Park, Stockton Park, Maheras-Gentry Park, Alfred Brush Ford Park, Lakewood East Park and Mariner Park.

It’s been that way for years now, and for residents of the neighborhoods that surround those parks, it’s infuriating.

But the Detroit Police Department offers a pretty good reason for it:

In 2017, a 46-year-old woman was shot just before the fireworks began, struck by a bullet during a dispute that didn’t involve her near the Spirit of Detroit statue. In 2013, a 37-year old man was killed about a mile from Hart Plaza during the fireworks show. In 2011, a 16-year old girl was shot in the leg as she and her friends walked near Atwater and Beaubien near the Renaissance Center. And in 2004, nine people were shot in Hart Plaza following an argument, according to Free Press archives.

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Tipsy crowds in hot weather are difficult to police. Minor disputes can escalate quickly.

So police have sought to concentrate fireworks night crowds in and around Hart Plaza, where spectators can be screened for weapons and watched over with a large police presence, Deputy Police Chief Franklin Hayes said last week.

It works, he said. “The strategy that we are employing has a proven track record of success.”

It’s hard to argue with that.

No one wants to see anyone hurt during this annual party.

But being shut out of our parks on the night of the year we’d most like to be there is one of the many quiet sacrifices Detroiters so often make. We pay a little more in taxes, a lot more in insurance premiums. We deal with road closures and tight street parking during big events. Weapons detectors everywhere and flashing green lights from gas station security systems shining into our bedrooms at night.

It’s all worth it to live in the city. We take the bad with the good.

But at some point, some day, we need complete access to our own neighborhood parks.

On a normal night, city parks technically close at 10 p.m. But on fireworks night, Detroiters should be able to walk to our pristine, award-winning riverfront havens and get a decent view of our own fireworks show.

It’s a sacrifice we should not be expected to make forever.

Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield took notice of the issue this week, noting that the park closures restrict access to fireworks viewing for many senior and disabled residents. She said Monday she is making efforts to begin conversations about how the city can be more accommodating to residents who find it difficult to view the fireworks in Hart Plaza and other high-traffic areas.

Parks or no parks, with or without a full view, Detroiters are always going to find ways to make fireworks night a blast.

Families and couples with their arms around each other lined the Bagley Street bridge over Interstate 75 near the Ambassador Bridge on Monday night, enjoying the warm breeze and the combined sounds and vibrations of fireworks in the distance and trucks passing into Canada below.

The views of the show were fleeting and largely obstructed, but children chased each other around tents and coolers, adults squealed over sausages coming off grills, passing truckers blew horns for applause and motorcyclists popped wheelies to entertain the crowd, as did a man operating a stunting remote-control car mounted by a menacing Chucky doll.

It’ll always be a blast, but Sheffield’s right. The prospect of eventually opening the parks for fireworks viewing is a good conversation to start.

Keeping the growing crowds safe during our annual fireworks show is paramount, and no one should begrudge city leaders going to great lengths for that purpose.

But let’s acknowledge that Detroiters shouldn’t have to settle for less, and start talking about how to ease our sacrifices.

Khalil AlHajal is deputy editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at kalhajal@freepress.com. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters and we may run it in print or online.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroiters make the best of Ford Fireworks night, but deserve more