Hoboken officials are touting the low police response needed for LepreCon, a holiday-themed bar crawl that was hosted to coincide with their first St. Patrick’s Day celebration since 2011.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
While the locally infamous LepreCon still took place, known to spurn rowdy and raucous behavior in the past, a “responsible” bar crawl that at one point listed 14 downtown bars participating cancelled their event.
“It’s clear that as each year goes by, the annual unsanctioned bar crawl events on the first weekend in March continue to have substantially reduced participation and are now tame events, compared to years past,” Mayor Ravi Bhalla said in a statement.
“I am greatly appreciative to our public safety officers who worked hard to ensure the safety of our city throughout the weekend, as well as our residents who refused to participate in an event that has previously caused mayhem within our city.”
The Hoboken Business Alliance hosted a celebration on Saturday that included a float, pipe band, and dancers, which they said was welcomed after they put out a survey in November.
Bhalla also thanked them and the bar owners who didn’t participate in LepreCon.
According to public safety spokeswoman Marci Rubin, calls for service were down nearly 58 percent from 2020 (377 vs. 159), just two arrests were recorded (down from six), and only four ambulance runs (down from 12) – both decreases of 66.7 percent.
Additionally, special summons complaints went from 16 to 5, with 13 motor vehicle summonses issued, compared to 32 three years ago.
“I’d like to thank the hard-working members of the police and fire departments, the Office of Emergency Management, and the members of Hoboken EMS and Volunteer ambulance corps for being at the ready,” added Public Safety Director Ken Ferrante.
“I am relieved to report that the number of calls, complaints and arrests were significantly lower than this weekend in years past. In fact, the call volume was less than a typical Saturday in Hoboken and many were not related to the bar crawl event.”
Maybe I’m ignorant because I never attended the St Patrick’s day parade in Hoboken. All I know is if you tried to shut down an Italian festival in this town, and replaced it with a solitary pickup truck driving around on fully opened roads, there’d be hell to pay.
That parade was a joke and the more I read about the history the more I realize what Zimmer and the pearl clutchers took from us.