Hoboken St. Patrick’s Day 2012 – Reader Poll and Community Report
In an article posted on Hoboken Patch this week, the editor of that site said that the Hoboken St. Patrick’s Day Parade is not set. As far as the Mayor of Hoboken, Dawn Zimmer is concerned it is and she states in an email to the Hoboken St. Patrick’s Day Committee that she wants the Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade to be moved to Wednesday instead. This decision was prompted in part by the escalation of violence that has occurred over the last few years on parade day and especially in light of last year’s two reported rapes the day before and the day of the parade. In fact in the aftermath of those allegations last year Zimmer stated “These allegations are extremely serious. I want to assure the public that my Administration is in the process of conducting a complete review of this year’s event and will be making recommendations to the City Council as to how to move forward next year.”
Now for this year Mayor Zimmer has acted on those recommendation this year in the context of preserving public safety. It is rare that the normally divided City Council was on the same page from last year’s incidents unanimously stating last March that something much be done to curb the pre and post parade debauchery. Below is a letter from Mayor Zimmer to the St. Patrick’s Day Committee December 13th, 2011 stating that she wants the parade moved to Wednesday instead of cancelling it. Within the letter itself you can tell the the Parade Committee still wants it on Saturday keeping with tradition.
People in Hoboken are divided on this issue regardless of political affiliation. Some don’t think moving the parade will help that much and insist it is not the parade that is the cause of the issues. Many more parents and long time residents are fed up with the problems they feel the event has caused and believe the issues have become even worse in the last several years. They want to see the City of Hoboken try just about anything to try and stop the excessive public nuisance and safety risks this day has been causing. Most everyone likes the parade itself, it is just the pre-gaming as well as the aftermath that all the heavy drinking causes that has made this day the topic of such debate.
Let TheBoken.com know how you feel by voting in the poll below or the comments below or both. It would be helpful to state if you are a Hoboken Resident or not. Below is a poll where can cast your vote as to which day Hoboken should hold the St. Patrick’s Day Parade or not at all.
Highlights from Hoboken’s 2011 St. Patrick’s Day Parade (will it be the last one?):
Popularity: 1% [?]
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I've lived in Hoboken for over 10 years and I've participated (heartily) in every St. Paddy's day. It's been the same party with the same faces and the same issues year in and year out. Nooooothing has changed in 10 years. It's fun. It's crowded. It's loud. It's a party.
This year, Mayor Zimmer seems to think that there are going to be ass raping child killers, marauding the streets with chains, spikes and sticks of dynamite that they'll indiscriminately toss into the living rooms of law abiding citizens. What a joke.
Comment by Mr. Joshua — January 6, 2012 @ 3:10 PM
This really doesn't need to be a political issue. When the dust settles we have the following:
1. Many regular parade-goers would like to see the parade continue on Saturdays, (myself included)
2. The parade itself is not the issue, it is the excessive drinking and the behavior that surrounds it that is the problem
3. Despite pretty heavy levels of enforcement, by and large the town has been under siege by drunk and disorderly on the parade day the last few years, at dangerous levels, suggesting same will result this year
4. Amongst the problems in need of solving is habitual over-serving of alcohol by bars to the obviously drunk
5. If the level of lawlessness can not be somehow be predictably ratcheted way down, the loss of holding the parade on a Saturday, at least temporarily, will need be collateral damage for the general safety of the population
6. Given the present trajectory, it is my just opinion that the parade be moved to a Sunday for a few years as a calming mechanism, as to date law enforcement has not succeeded in creating a safe environment on parade day. Hopefully it could be returned to Saturday after a year or two once the inertia of the lawlessness is broken. I feel that is a fair compromise which wouldn't affect anything too dramatically.
I look forward to representatives the town, the parade committee, law enforcement, the bar and restaurant industries, and concerned member of the public sitting down for roundtable discussion of solutions to the problems and hopefully eventually and quickly the return of the parade surrounded by a festive and safe environment, to the first Saturday in March.
But no, it is absolutely not a political issue. It is a safety and property damage issue.
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Comment by Occupy Hoboken 2012 — February 3, 2012 @ 10:37 AM