Hoboken Resident Asks for St. Patrick's Day Parade Back in Open Letter to the City
Hobokenite Sean Iaquinto argues why the parade should return.
Thousand of people are about to paint Hoboken green on Saturday.
And while the partying may resemble previous years, most people know by now that the parade will not be returning for the second year in a row.
Opinions differ on the topic. From "Fine, because that day was too raucous" to "Why don't we do it on a weekday" "people will come and drink anyway so let's keep the parade!"
It has all been said at this point.
On Monday, local blogger and longtime Hoboken resident Sean Iaquinto argued for the parade back on his blog, suggesting several possible compromises from holding the on a Sunday to moving it to Sinatra Drive.
An Irish festival will be held by the city in lieu of the parade on March 13.
QJ201
9:41 am on Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Patch, the JJ and others can flog this all they want. There is not Parade this year. Instead of waiting until a week before the first saturday in march, why don't those who want this parade so damn badly start meeting with the Mayor...you know MONTHS in advance.
This is just whining.
Rory Chadwick
11:52 am on Tuesday, February 26, 2013
I concur with Sean. In light of the hurricane, the city needs all the attractions in can get to draw people here but I think it can go beyond just the parade to help our local economy. The parade for the most part attracts to mostly sober people and it's those people that shop, and the people who come to drink stay in the bars. The 2000 - 3000 parade goers are a good bump for local retailers.
Aside from the parade, the arts and music festival needs to be revamped and cultural affairs needs a volunteer brigade to make it bigger and better. Geri Fallo seems t work it by herself and with extra hands and minds it can be better for all of Hoboken, for instance having the boots in the middle of the street as to force people to walk on our sidewalks rather than have Washington Street blocked off to them, forcing them to only patronize booths. Or even having the arts and music festival along the waterfront with NYC as a backdrop, allowing people to park on Washington St and other parts of town and visit more local businesses since they wont be hidden by massive tents and sausage trucks.
I like the job the mayor does and will be voting for her again but there is a way to make everything work, it involves teamwork and it seems everyone has a my way or the highway mentality.
Smokestack
8:27 pm on Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Just remember .....the mayor was not the one who cancelled the parade.
CuriousGal
4:15 pm on Thursday, February 28, 2013
Smokestack encourages us to "Just remember." It IS important to remember... I remember dawn and her council made such aggressively egregious and restrictive demands that the parade committee felt they had no choice. Read for yourself:
"The idea of marching in a parade, in the dark, on a week night, is as insulting as it is unreasonable. While we remain devoted to our heritage, we love our city too much to lower ourselves to the level of those (dawn and dawns pawns) who speak from a place of ignorance and ethnic/religious intolerance*." -Hoboken St. Patrick’s Parade Committee (1/13/12- http://tinyurl.com/7lk7jxq)
*Some will recall Dawn's unfortunate tirade and heated confrontation at a Roman Catholic priest after he served mass the year before. To her credit, mayor zimmer apologized for the outburst (http://tinyurl.com/bjxr79z). Nonetheless, dawn's actions that Sunday afternoon back by her aggressive parade restrictions likely contributed to the committee's assertion of "ignorance and ethnic/religious intolerance."
Outofcontrol
2:23 pm on Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Just remember...the Mayor wanted it her way or no way. She killed the parade by trying to manipulate the committee.
PeoplePlease
4:11 pm on Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Just remember, there will still be 10,000 visitors coming to Hoboken Saturday. The bars, shops and restaurants will still make their money and those that wish to celebrate St Patricks Day in the town they call home, will once again be herded into a dark, fenced in area along the Hudson River.
Smokestack
1:46 pm on Friday, March 1, 2013
QJ201 is right. This is just whining. This is being used as a political issue and nothing more. Any excuse by the opposition to attack a popular mayor. She didn't kill anything. She just wanted to limit the mayhem of past years.
As PeoplePlease points out ..."there will still be 10,000 visitors coming to Hoboken Saturday. The bars, shops and restaurants will still make their money". Only now they won't be able to use the official Irish parade as an excuse. The majority of these visitors are not Irish and don't come to Hoboken to march in a parade, celebrating their Irish heritage. They come to here to get drunk, party and act like fools. As a frustrated resident, who is sick of this BS, my support for Dawn ZImmer has only grown because of this bold action on her part. Go Dawn Go!