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Home Page > The Irish Voice > Massive pub crawls set to replace canceled Hoboken St. Patrick’s Day parade - VIDEO

Massive pub crawls set to replace canceled Hoboken St. Patrick’s Day parade - VIDEO

Mayor told to ‘get her head out of her backside’ by local businessman

By
KERRY O'SHEA,
IrishCentral Intern
Published Friday, January 20, 2012, 3:32 PM
Updated Friday, January 20, 2012, 3:32 PM

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Revelers taking the streets on St. Patrick's Day in Hoboken
Revelers taking the streets on St. Patrick's Day in Hoboken
Photo by nj.com


Have your say - Will cancelling Hoboken’s St. Patrick’s Day parade stop drunken “debauchery”?

Thousands of people have been invited to  massive pub crawls as St. Patrick’s Day revelers are determined to celebrate in Hoboken New Jersey in the wake of the cancellation of Hoboken’s traditional St. Patrick’s Day festivities.

Last week, Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer announced that the city’s hugely popular St. Patrick’s Day parade, typically held on the first Saturday of March, would be cancelled following 34 arrests after the 2011 event.

Local businessmen however are also upset  about the inevitable loss of profits that are usually brought in during the day’s festivities.

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Bill Kirchgessner, owner of United Decorating, a store that makes about 25 percent of its yearly income off St. Patrick’s Day-related products, said of Mayor Zimmer’s decision that “The mayor needs to get her head out of her backside. This is lucrative for everyone in Hoboken. She doesn’t realize she’s making a mistake.

A Facebook event called “2012 NOT Hoboken St. Patrick’s Day Parade” is now planned with 600 already invited and close to 100 accepting.Other Facebook events are ” “Hoboken St. Patrick’s Day 2012,” and, “Dawn Zimmer is not invited to Hoboken St Patrick’s day on March 3rd."  All of the Facebook events are scheduled for March 3rd, the usual date of the parade.

Matt Harris, creator of the Not Hoboken Parade told participants, “don’t be an idiot” and also notes, “The Hoboken parade has be (sic) canceled because some people can’t handle day drinking ... So why should the actions of some ruin it for us all? Simply put, it shouldn’t.”

NJ.com reports that even though the parade is officially cancelled, the party  won’t stop. Pub crawls they say are popping up everywhere.

The groups share a common theme of  drinking and celebrating in Hoboken. One even notes that in 2011, a few ‘bad apples’ spoiled the bunch (specifically the 34 arrests over the day for various infractions), and that no one should look to be one of those people this year. Main message? Have fun, but behave.

Bars in the city of Hoboken, which boasts an age demographic of trendy, mostly 20-something year olds, will be reportedly opening at 9am on March 3rd in order to accommodate the growing pub crawls.

Parade or no parade, the party will evidently still go on.

Do you think the cancellation of the parade altogether will do more good than not? Will Hoboken still have to wrangle with rowdy revellers on March 3rd?

Have your say - Will cancelling Hoboken’s St. Patrick’s Day parade stop drunken “debauchery”?

Here, take a humorous look at the reasons why the Hoboken St. Patrick’s Day parade might have been cancelled.

Below, watch this video that shows clips from last year’s parade:

More St. Patrick's Day

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26 Comments

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Redrowan | Jan 18, 2012, 12:42 PM EST
Hopelessly embarrassing. My mom used to go to mass and wear a little green shamrock in the lapel of her jacket. The celebratory drunkenness and hooliganism should be reigned in, they are a black eye to every person Irish or of Irish heritage. Nothing wrong with music, good food and moderate drinking. These examples of last years actions are a disgrace. Hope they can come up with a solution that won't have alcohol as the primary driver behind the celebration. Red
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Gearoid4 | Jan 18, 2012, 09:26 AM EST
That is a very constructive comment that you made Ballylanger. Are you sure that you did not get ballylangered after a drinking session before pressing any keys on your keyboard to compose that worthwhile contribution?
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IrelandNorth | Jan 18, 2012, 05:22 AM EST
I empathise with Mayor Zimmer's dilemma. It's a difficult one to call. I blame the intoxication industry for promoting excessive drinking, and the impressionable few who conform to the commercially motivated racist stereotyping of the Irish as a nation of drunkards. Dublin is as bad. Have the parade. Arrest the drunks. And tax the glorified bootlegging business out of existence. "No intoxication without taxation!"
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warrenpoint00 | Jan 17, 2012, 09:11 PM EST
"Bill Kirschgener' is that really an Irish name , and his cohorts over there in Jersey state would do well to heed the wisdom of the mayor and prevent this debacle from happening.Sure they are mad ...mad at lost revenue for themselves...probably laugh along though at the anti Irish vitrol directed at the Irish pre and post St Patrick,s day.Of course you do not have to go to Jersey to find that sentiment as it is loud and rampant here in Ireland by a tiny minority of Irish partionist,s.
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MegK311 | Jan 17, 2012, 05:20 PM EST
I hate that they have turned St. Patrick's Day into a day to have a drunken party. That is not what St. Patrick was all about.
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ballyhip | Jan 17, 2012, 05:15 PM EST
Agreed, it is out of hand but is it worse than Carnival or Mardi Gras? They grew out of a religious tradition also. Actually, I didn't see any open bottles in the video but I am sure they were there. In Newport RI, there are x number of open bottle and public urination arrests (what a way to make the paper)but no one would consider banning the parade. Maybe the difference is that Newport is used to dealing with masses of young people and know how to deal with them in a sensible manner. Pub crawls are barred after one student lost his life in a tragic vehicle/pedestrian accident.
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ballylanger | Jan 17, 2012, 04:12 PM EST
Getting drunk, roaring your brains out and walking aimlessly around the streets...Sure, what other way would you celebrate the occupation of Ireland by a bunch of Vatican pedophiles?
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mamaginnty | Jan 17, 2012, 02:22 PM EST
Don't blame Ireland, the irish americans, or St Patrick for this, this is young people who over the years have made it their day for meeting up, just like big music gigs. Irish pubs do not open till 11-11.30am. and close at same pm. The police in the video made more noise and hype than the young people. Make the pub owners clean up the cans around their pubs, they do it here in Ireland. Anyway..it should be held on the 17th of March St Patricks Day. Then the young have plenty of places-towns to choose from.
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PatriciaMarya | Jan 17, 2012, 02:13 PM EST
One of the commentors wrote what I emailed to my Hoboken friends - get the bar owners to pay for the police and sanitation departments overtime. I also added the liquor stores. In addition, the bars should open at their regular time. However, why should the local residents have to be inconvenienced by this invasion? They are the tax-payers. And NYC has an open-container law on the books - Does Hoboken, NJ have the same rule? If it does, make some money with the fines! Between the bars and liquor stores posting bonds and the fines, Hoboken could make some much needed cash to the town's coffers.
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durtymurphy | Jan 17, 2012, 01:20 PM EST
Over zealous cops again? Perhaps. Security should mingle with the crowd (Mardi Gras) and put out the fires as they arise, but driving up and down the main street, van doors open, geared up for riot control, flying in the face of the public is inciteful in itself. Maybe they mistook the parade for Occupy Wall Street. Typical "Family Fun Day" in the park in S.California you are greeted with face painting, clowns, food boothes et al with the Earthquake Prepardness booth, the Flood FEMA preparedness booth, and the usual star of the show, The SWAT TEAM with their armoured tank with the 50cal machine gun mounted on top.
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normacathy | Jan 17, 2012, 01:17 PM EST
I think this is beyond the beyond in a most negative way! No Parade? Soooo let's do have a pub crawl? Pubs opening at 9AM? Aside from a few persons who shall make $$$ from the pub crawl who profits from activation of the idea of a pub crawl? Is this how one shows respect for the Saint? respect for Irish culture? respect for oneself? or is this just time for the already or wanna-be alcoholics to get down!!Sooo the rest of us can in the future pay for their need for total care cause of what alcohol has done? & forget the kids who start drinking at 9AM..maybe soe of them will be g-o-n-e by 9PM!What a total waste.
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hollabackgurl | Jan 17, 2012, 12:59 PM EST
This parade needs the gays to lend it a little visual flair and class. But instead parade organizers banned them from participating. And what they did instead was send out an open invitation to every redneck in the five boroughs. Let them reap what they sowed.
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Padraig8 | Jan 17, 2012, 12:55 PM EST
Dublin,Ireland has a five day celebration every year and lots of drunks and trash, is Hoboken a city or is it a hick town? thats why you have Police and cleanup crews.sure it would be nice if every one behaved like a Saint but its not gonna happen be realistic madam mayor
Report abuse
sirpeter | Jan 17, 2012, 12:32 PM EST
Eiriamach.By your reasoning you think it's right to cancel an event because of a small few people causing trouble.So is 34 arrests the number it takes for idiots to get an event canceled?Would you change your mind if it was 30? or 20? or 10?.Plenty of arrests made in England after a big soccer match.Should they cancel all football matches? It sounds like the police officers in Hoboken and the parade organizers,along with the publicans are not doing a very good job when it comes to big events.I wonder would they cancel the 4th of July celebrations if there were 34 arrests for whatever reason.I bet they would deal with the problem very quickly to make sure they kept things under control the next year.But imagine the country wide uproar if they canceled the event?This is a bad decision and could be seen as anti-Irish.
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peterson | Jan 17, 2012, 12:24 PM EST
Very insulting to the Irish and extremely disgusting !!
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