HOBOKEN—Saturday’s LepreCon bar crawl saw 20 arrests on Saturday, March 2, said city spokesman Juan Melli on Monday. This is two more than last year but still a 41 percent decrease from 2011, which was the final year that the former St. Patty’s Day parade was held, Melli said.
Mayor Dawn Zimmer had requested last year that the 25-year tradition of the St. Patrick’s Day parade be moved from Saturday to Wednesday. The independent committee that previously put on the parade was not in favor of the weekday switch.
The 2013 arrests, ambulance calls, city ordinance violations, calls for service, open container violations, drinking in public violations, disorderly house parties, urination in public, and disorderly conduct numbers show a significant decrease from 2011, Melli said.
Looking at 2011 to 2013, arrests went from 34 to 20, ambulance calls from 136 to 49, city ordinance violations from 292 to 84, calls for service from 525 to 338, open container violations from 115 to 9, drinking in public from 32 to 5, disorderly house parties from 40 to 20, urination in public from 59 to 17 and disorderly conduct from 26 to 9.
“Since 2011, calls for service to our Police Department are down 37%, arrests are down 41%, ambulance calls are down 64% and city ordinance violations are down 71%,” said Mayor Dawn Zimmer. “By decoupling the parade from the first Saturday in March, we have dramatically improved public safety and the quality of life for Hoboken residents.”
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