HOBOKEN AND BEYOND — Every year, more and more people hear about the partying atmosphere that comes to Hoboken on the first Saturday in March. The partying originally accompanied the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which is traditionally held early in the mile-square city so as not to compete with other towns for bands and crowds. But young people took it upon themselves to host house parties and patronize the bars as early as 11 a.m., and a daylong party was born.
Last year, Mayor Dawn Zimmer announced her intention to crack down, saying she would only permit the parade on a Wednesday in 2012. The St. Patrick’s Parade Committee, an independent group of Hoboken residents of Irish heritage, rejected this idea, and canceled the parade for this year.
But the partying is still going to happen on Saturday.
A group of residents announced a bar crawl called Lepre-Con, and thousands of people have said on Facebook that they plan to attend. Some may drink at the bars, which by law can open as early as 6 a.m. (although some have agreed to wait until 11); others will have house parties.
In preparation, the city said on its website this past week that it will enforce fines for quality of life violations pertaining to alcohol consumption (it’s not allowed on the street) and other matters. Fines can climb as high as $2,000.
The story has been picked up far and wide. The San Francisco Chronicle ran a Bloomberg News story on Friday saying, ”
The parade is off and the party is on — so on that the square-mile city of Hoboken, New Jersey, is doubling the number of portable toilets for a crush of thousands paying tipsy tribute to St. Patrick.” They report that 60 toilets will stand ready for service.
Watch Hudson County, New Jersey’s Hoboken-based newspaper group,
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