By Michael Bushnell

Northeast News

Concourse Park was the place to be the evenings of July 3rd and 4th for the 3rd annual Scarritt neighborhood laser light show and community picnic.

Close to 300 people packed the park for food trucks, live music and a choreographed laser light show that accompanied a video played on a huge projection screen set up in the southwest corner of the park. The event was originated about three years ago by neighborhood leadership as a family-friendly alternative to the normally explosive July 4th traditions celebrated with much vigor throughout the city.

On July 3rd, the neighborhood association screened the hit 1996 film Independence Day. Roughly 150 people braved sweltering temperatures to watch actor Will Smith save the world from global annihilation and cordially welcome an alien species to earth.