St. Patrick's Day Parade
Proposed Resolution
St. Pat's Parade out of hand
Letter to the Editor
Hoboken Reporter
Dear Editor:
The Hoboken City Council Quality of Life Committee would like to comment on the recent St. Patrick's Day Parade.
We believe that the sponsors and committee for this event have every intention of honoring and paying tribute to their Irish Heritage, a mission that they have successfully accomplished. Everyone concerned should be complimented on putting together a beautiful parade. The parade gets bigger and better each year, and we all enjoy being Irish for the day.
However, the events before and after the parade are such that everyone who lives here has a story or two to tell. The first weekend in March, Hoboken becomes a "City Under Siege". We do not need to address all the things that took place that day but we do need to come up with some changes.
The Quality of Life Committee will be meeting with the all parties that are involved. We hope to open up a dialogue and work out a plan . that will make everyone happy. We want to have a beautiful day and parade each year, without the stories.
Any resident with suggestions, please feel free to email us at theresa@castellanoforhoboken.com or call 201-798-1962.
Sincerely,
The Quality of Life Committee
Theresa Castellano
Richard DelBoccio
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Dear Quality of Life Committee:
Thank you! It is about time the council is reaching out to the community to see what OUR opinion on this ridiculous parade is. I think the City Council, the Mayor and the Quality of Life Committee needs to open their eyes and realize that it is 2006 and we live in an extremely overpopulated city that is already impossible to drive through, walk through, cross the street safely, etc.
I am also a born and raised Hobokenite - my children are 4th Generation Hobokenites - and I would like to continue living in Hoboken in Marine View Plaza, but these parades and ridiculous street fairs that close our neighbourhood down on weekends when we need to move our cars and go food shopping and run errands are made impossible a few times a year when these events take place. What is wrong with Pier A? A few years ago, I attended a Puerto Rican Day festival there and had the best time ever. The venue was beautiful, there was no ALCOHOL. The bands were able to set up a beautiful stage and one small street that is not a heavy trafficked area was shut down.
On the night of this last Mess that this committee calls a parade was going on, my husband and I had a rare night that one of us was not working, my children were visiting my mom and we just wanted to go see a movie. We realized that we couldn't. Our movie theatre in Hoboken is now shut down (and boy did I utilize that theatre), we did not want to go on the path to Manhattan because we did not want to walk through the streets where the most damage was being done in town and we did not want to drive and get killed by the drunks that were driving in and out of our town. We realized that we were once again held HOSTAGE in our homes by gangs of drunks that showed our town such disrespect by urinating and vomiting all over our streets. I could not take my children to McDonalds for lunch because the lines for the bathroom alone were dangerous, I could not take my children to the park that afternoon for fear that they would have to watch grown men urinating in the park that they play in everyday! ENOUGH!!!!!!
I am also going to touch on another subject while I have my soap box out! The Madonna DeMartiri Feast needs to be moved to PIER A!!!!! I have a personal affiliation to this event and look forward to it every year. It is not loud or completely disruptive - but - the traffic around my building for 4 days is disgusting. When you come home from work on a Friday night the last thing I want to do is sit in traffic for 2 hours to pull into a garage I pay $125 a month to park in. These committees really need to listen to the people who LIVE in these neighborhoods and ask US how these events completely disrupt our QUALITY OF LIFE. The people who arrange this festival and disrupt MY life for 4 DAYS out of the year DO NOT LIVE IN HOBOKEN!!!!!
If you move from a town - LEAVE IT ALONE and have feasts and festivals in your own town!!!!!
THANK YOU for the opportunity to say what I believe to be true! If you would like to reach me regarding my opinion, you can respond to this e-mail.
Sincerely,
Concerned resident
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Hi,
We live on Park Avenue near O'Nieal's bar and it was quite a scene! I have some ideas/questions regarding the drinking situation:
1) Why are the bars allowed to begin serving alcohol so early in the day? Can't they begin serving later in the day? I know the holiday involves drinking, but it's way, way out of hand!
2) As it is obvious that the bar patrons are incredibly drunk, why are the bars continuing to serve them all day? Is anyone stopping in to make sure the bars are behaving responsibly?
3) I believe the bars and restaurants should be required to establish a St. Patrick's Day clean up fund. There were food and alcohol-related debris all over the sidewalks for days after the event. In fact, there is still broken glass from beer bottles on Fourth Street across from the park. I walk my dog there and I'm afraid she's going to cut her paws.
Sincerely,
Hoboken resident
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The opening of bars at 9:00 am is a disgrace to the people of this city ... why not at least make the opening at 3:00 pm? The enforcement should be done by the local bar owners as far as not serving anyone who is already drunk (they can tell actually any one can identify someone already drunk who needs no more .... the bar owners have a major responsibility in this category ... its all about the profits they make understandably but we residents pay the price and the police department has to deal with it besides their real duties of fighting crime.
someone on the city council needs to pass an ordinance for changing the times of bar openings on the parade day ... who will be the brave soul to do this?
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I'm a little late writing about the havoc caused by the St. Patrick's day parade this year - as well as previous years .... but my sentiments are still the same nonetheless...
Every single year this city becomes one giant drunk fest ....and these drunks have ZERO respect for the residents of hoboken - i find this infuriating. They should go home to their own towns and act indignant. I could not believe that they were lining up at 9:00 am to get into the bars which hadn't opened yet, drinking on the street, urinating in the street, and THEY WERE EVERY WHERE - like magots - thousands of
them. I DO NOT understand why the City of Hoboken allows this crap!!! I cannot imagine - people who are paying $8000 in taxes are happy about the disrespect shown to their property. Nor can I imagine that anyone even walking down the street can be happy by the disrespect shown to them trying to get from one place to another.
Every person I spoke to had a disgusting story to tell. I personally saw a girl who was completely drunk and rolling around inside a pizza box while holding the slices of pizza in her hands -- as her boyfriend looked on hysterical laughing.
I encountered people that were down right belligerent - and I use the term people only to be kind. Certainly I have quite a few other choice words to described these St. Patrick's Day drunks.
I think the answer to the problem is to have the parade on a Monday night - everyone is home on a Monday night. All the children can come out to see - while the drunks can't come out because they live too far away.. ..there is no way a parade like this - that promotes drinking of that magnitude should be held on a weekend - nor in OUR TOWN!!!
I really hope something is done to make the Hoboken St. Patrick's Day Parade a lot more enjoyable for all involved throughout the entire City - rather than just the drunks and bar owners
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Hoboken not curbing St. Pat's
Jersey Journal
02/09/07
By CHARLES HACK
HOBOKEN - Concerns about lost revenue by the bar industry quashed an ordinance and a resolution at the City Council meeting Wednesday night designed to cut back on drunkenness at the St. Patrick's Day Parade.
The ordinance would have forced bars and liquor stores to wait until 11 a.m. to open, instead of 6 a.m., on the day of the parade, March 3.
The resolution called for police to step up enforcement of laws against open containers and urinating in public. It also called for a crackdown on bars that commit liquor license violations.
Councilwoman Theresa Castellano said the Quality of Life Committee had drawn up the proposals because of "disgusting' behavior at previous events.
It would also have required department heads to be on duty and for the municipal court to be open to process drunks hauled off the streets.
After hearing from the bar owners and parade leaders, the City Council voted down the ordinance and the resolution 6-3.
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No Crackdown
Jersey Journal Editorial
Every year, there is the cry from Hoboken residents about some of the drunken antics of those who come to the Mile Square City to take part in the revelry of the St. Patrick's Day Parade.
For this reason a vote was taken on an ordinance at Wednesday night's City Council meeting that would have mandated a later opening for bars and liquor stores -11 a.m. instead of 6 a.m. - on the day of the parade. Why give the heavy drinkers a head start? There was also a resolution calling for better police enforcement of laws against open containers and urinating in public, and a crackdown on bars that violate their liquor licenses.
After hearing from the bar owners and parade leaders, the City Council voted down the ordinance and the resolution by a 6-3 vote. It is assumed that no one is condoning any drunken behavior - but if there is to be heavy drinking in the morning, the City Council wants to make sure it is not a BYOB event.
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Drunks need not apply
City cites 'zero tolerance' on St. Pat's - but bars can still open at 6 a.m.
By Michael D. Mullins
Hoboken Reporter
02/11/2007
Hoboken bar owners and their employees breathed a sigh of relief this past Wednesday as the City Council rejected a resolution and ordinance that, if passed, would have prevented pubs and liquor stores from selling alcoholic beverages prior to 11 a.m. during the city's 2008 St. Patrick's Day parade celebration.
The proposal would not have been passed in time for the 2007 St. Patrick's Day parade, to be celebrated this March 3. Hoboken traditionally celebrates its parade early so that it won't have to compete with other towns' parades for the best bands. Partiers from around the state usually come to Hoboken on parade day to line up outside the bars.
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