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Hoboken's St. Patrick's Day Parade Cancelled, Due To Safety Concerns
By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 13, 2012
Modified Jan 13, 2012
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 13, 2012
Modified Jan 13, 2012
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Good job, drunks, public sex enthusiasts and folks who like to poop outside of bathrooms: Organizers have cancelled the popular Hoboken St. Patrick's Day Parade, noting the city's "inability to protect our spectators, bands and participants."
Last year, Hoboken warned revelers that they could be subject to a $2,000 fine for incidents like "consumption of alcohol/open container in public, urinating in public, maintaining a nuisance (disorderly and unsafe house parties), and disorderly conduct & improper behavior." Hoboken had issued 500 summons during the 2010 parade, and in 2009, the city's public safety director said of the parade, "On Washingtion Street, bottles were thrown onto the people below. A girl and a guy were performing sex in a window when the parade was going by. One person spit in the face of a fireman. There were young, young girls that were blind drunk standing in the middle of the streets, so drunk that they didn't know where they were." Here's video from the 2009 parade:
The parade had been moved to a weekday for 2012, but organizers noted many participants have day jobs—"Who's going to take a day off from work to march in a parade? It's not their profession -- it's something they love to do because they love music and their heritage." It's unclear if the St. Patrick's Day Committee will resurrect the parade if it's moved back to the weekend. Well, there's always the Staten Paten (Staten Island's celebration.)
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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