Mayor Wants St. Pat's Parade Day Moved To a Wednesday; 34 Arrests Made This Year

The Hoboken Police Department arrested 34 people during the St. Patrick's Day Parade this year—nine more than in 2010—Mayor Dawn Zimmer announced on Tuesday afternoon. She also said that because of the unruly drinking and two alleged sexual assault cases over the weekend, the parade will be held on a Wednesday next year. 

The city issued 296 summonses, the mayor also announced. The city wrote 115 summonses for open containers (down from last year's 154), 32 summonses for drinking publicly (down from last year's 77) and 40 for unruly houseparties (down from last year's 51). The number of summonses issued for public urination went up from 41 last year to 59 this year, Zimmer said. 

"Despite our best efforts," Zimmer said, the drinking after the parade was "still out of control." Zimmer also mentioned . Some of the "efforts" the mayor referred to were the $2,000 fine and the zero tolerance policy. 

The mayor also mentioned that a group of fire fighters was harassed by intoxicated people throwing beer and flowerpots at them on parade day.

Fire Chief Richard Blohm said that the fire department broke up 28 house parties on Saturday, as well as 21 more with the help of the Hoboken police. Although the fire department responded to more than 80 calls, Blohm said, only one fire occured. 

Director of Transportation and Parking Ian Sacs said that the parking utility issued 680 tickets, totaling about $32,000, for illegally parked cars on Saturday.

The mayor said it was still unclear how much the city had spent in overtime on Saturday. The Parking utility, Sacs said, spent roughly $9,000 that day, adding that the revenue generated by his department was about $69,000 (including tickets, parking garages and boots issued). 

By moving the parade to the afternoon of a weekday, the mayor said she hopes to curtail the drinking and wants the day to be safe to residents, visitors and city employees. 

"During the parade," Zimmer said, "I was proud of Hoboken." 

The decision to change the day of the parade is one that can be made by the administration,  Zimmer said, and the council does not have to vote on it. Zimmer said she reached out to the Parade Committee.

"I'm not trying to make it so that people can't come," Zimmer said, adding she wants the parade day to be "an event everyone can enjoy."