I somehow doubt the bar owners, pizzeria owners, burger joint owners, and nearly every other business that profits from the parade will let this whole thing stand. Its like Black Friday for beer and greasy food.

Not to mention with the 250+ citations, the municipality had a potential earning of $500,000.

I suspect either the city will revisit the issue before next year or the bars will promote a St. Patrick's Day celebration sans parade. No one will probably even notice that there isn't a parade.

Hoboken mayor calls for shifting St. Patrick's Day Parade to Wednesday from now on to clamp down on drinking, lewd behavior and crime

Wednesday, March 09, 2011
By KATIE COLANERI
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

HOBOKEN - Even though police statistics seemed to make the case that this year's St. Patrick's Day Parade weekend was a tamer affair than last year, Mayor Dawn Zimmer announced yesterday intentions to move the parade to Wednesday.

"Despite our very best efforts, we have a situation that puts . our public safety at risk," Zimmer said at a City Hall press conference yesterday afternoon.

The hope is that moving the parade to Wednesday "will reduce the amount of partying," said the mayor, flanked by Police Chief Anthony Falco and Fire Chief Richard Blohm.

The parade, which was held Saturday, has been traditionally held the first Saturday of March. But the parade, a 14-block march that moves along Washington Street, has for many become secondary to the main activities, which include drinking heavily at the city's bars, engaging in lewd behavior, and whooping it up at raucous house parties.

Even radio jock Howard Stern joked about rowdiness at this year's parade on his show yesterday morning.

This year's tally of mayhem included two allegations of sexual assault, 34 arrests - up from 25 a year ago - and firefighters being doused with beer, officials said yesterday.

In the case of the firefighters, Blohm said yesterday that his department responded to a fire at 805 Washington St. on Saturday and the fire had already been put out.

But firefighters encountered several people on the fourth-floor balcony of the building that threw a flower pot, spat, and dumped beer onto the responders, he said.

"It's reprehensible," Blohm said.

The overall crime statistics city officials released yesterday seem to indicate overall improvement from last year.

The Hoboken Police Department handed out a total of 296 citations and 80 traffic violations; both figures significantly lower than last year's tally of 555 citations and 222 traffic violations.

The top citation offense was possession of an open container with 115 reported incidents, followed by 59 citations for urinating in public.

Police responded to 470 service calls this year, down from last year's 717 calls.

The crime statistics from this year's event showed "significant improvement" in some areas, and a downgrade in others, Falco said.

Helen Cunning, founder and chair of the parade committee, couldn't be reached for comment last night.

Journal staff writer Vishal Persaud contributed to this story.