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

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

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?

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!"

"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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Very insulting to the Irish and extremely disgusting !!