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| left panel: Hansen-Ballicus, the human leprosy virus right panel: Fratus-Obnoxioucus, the human leper-con virus |
Guilty!
So what did you think of our new Hoboken event, Leper-con?
My Leper-con story is this: I wanted to limit the possible debauchery LA (Little Avenger) might witness, so took her on a long walk out of the country of Hoboken- beyond Timmy's freshly-painted NJ Transit overpass into the 4th Ward of Jersey City.
As we walked south on Clinton street, we passed numerous gangs of roaming 'Leper-cons'; gals looking like green petit fours in their sexed-up Leper-gear and Leper-muscled frat guys toting cases of Leper-brew...
They were largely polite, not leprous at all, but Leper-whoops and hollers could be heard the entire way out of the country of Hoboken. And those Leper-hoots didn't stop until we were out of earshot in a Leper-free land.
We walked to Best Buy where my prodigious little reader finally got her wish: a Kindle Fire.
(Parents, skip the iPod. Get your kid a Kindle or a Nook or a similar gizmo that puts a library at their little fingertips.)
No Lepers were spotted at Best Buy. Nor at Pier1 or Target.
Phew. The infection had not spread; it was contained within our Hoboken nation's borders.
Later, as we re-entered our country, north of Timmy's spankin' clean NJ Transit overpass, here's an exchange I had with my 9 year-old:
LA: Did that guy's shirt say "I love drunk sluts"?Thank you very much, foul jerk-off.
GA: Yes, honey.
LA: What does 'slut' mean?
Going north on Clinton Street, we passed roaming bands of cute Leper-girls and beer-toting (anticipatory-*wink, wink*) Leper-boys. Polite. No problems.
And that was the extent of our Leper-fling. The rest of the day was spent in a non-leprous fashion.
GA stayed off of Washington Street.
Overall, I observed this day a much smaller footprint on our City than former parade days. Attendees seemed more homogenous; barely-legal to 20-somethings. Dressed for a lusty, good time.
Folks, my Leper-days are over. I'd like to relocate this Leper-fest to Secaucus. They send their lepers here, right?
But, it's not about ME. Or you. Unfortunately. I wish it were. A city-wide bar crawl is not a benefit to this nation. What do bands of young, out-of-town drunks do for us?
Unfortunately, a shot of penicillin won't make it go away.
So if Leper-con is here to stay, let the revelers remember they are GUESTS. Then we can all live happily ever after.
The day wasn't much calmer downtown at mid-day than in years past. For most Hobokenites, the monumental inconvenience and expense are simply not worth it.
ReplyDeleteThe cancellation of the parade by its own committee left us with yesterday's event. Could we have stopped it? Yes, because no group should have been allowed to do what Jaime Darrah and the co-organizers did.
Darrah, using social media and other tools, coalesced with bar owners to create this event. They successfully orchestrated a city-wide onslaught in which thousands of people converged on our town for a prescribed period for one purpose - the reckless enjoyment of the few at the expense of the many. Frankly, I'm sick of picking up the tab for their binge-drinking and having to plan to be away.
Hoboken should have treated it as more than just a policing nightmare. When 495 Productions wanted to bring the white-trash "Jersey Shore" crowd to Hoboken, the city wisely said "NO" due to the disruption to our quality of life. This event is no different in that regard.
Darrah incorrectly stated in the Jersey Journal that:
“It has purely grown out of the fact that there's such a massive demand for people to celebrate Irish heritage and St. Patty's in Hoboken on the first Saturday of March,” said Jaime Darrah, a co-organizer for the event, “There shouldn't have a situation where City Hall is dictating when people are allowed to have fun.”
How naive does Darrah think we are? And exactly how was Irish heritage celebrated yesterday?
Leper-Con, its organizers and the bars who actively promoted it - should it ever happen again - must be required - as any large event would - to obtain the city's permission in the form of the permitting process, providing proof of insurances and posting an enormous sum in the city's escrow account to cover the anticipated costs of policing, cleanup and porta-johns.
When the circus comes to town, they need a permit.
When film production crews bring trailers, vehicles and crowds to town, they need a permit.
When the St. Patrick's Day parade organizers marched in the past in town, they needed a permit.
And so too, when someone like Darrah and the bar owners endeavor to bring a deliberately organized group of "over-privileged suburban white twenty-somethings gone wild" to descend upon our town, they should need a permit.
I would vote for not extending such a permit - at any cost.
Oracle, I agree with everything you've said.
ReplyDeleteAs for Darrah's claim to a "massive demand" for a Saturday bar-crawl to celebrate the life of that pious servant of G-d St. Patrick,who spread Christianity throughout Ireland, I'm guessing he's talking about himself and his drinking buddies.
Yesterday didn't seem nearly as bad as past years
ReplyDeleteIf only now we could get Bars to pay for the OT and trash collection
"social media and other tools, coalesced with bar owners to create this event". Your quote is correct....it was a social media event attached to bar owners.
ReplyDeleteMy bldg which is notorious with house party's was loud during the day, fun and happy loud but very quiet when it got dark. We had excellent security in our building.
My view.....these young targets wondering around were not from house party's.....they were released right back onto the streets from the bars....it upset me last night knowing a lot of these young may have met the wrong person, ended up in the hospital or jail. If they were lucky they made it home. Is there a list of the amount of kids that ended in the hospital?
Quality of life needs to get tough with these bar owners.....who pay NOTHING for the HIGH Quality of police presence. I was highly impressed with the police service yesterday.....it wasn't all arresting but a lot of helping these party kids. Police need to ask where they came from and get of list of these bars.....this is an every weekend thing here. The money the bars are taking as cover needs to go in a city kitty.....maybe ONE rehab for all these bars....there is a bar or liquor store on almost every square block in town.
I hope we have lots of Leper-Convicts paying huge fines and cleaning our streets, or better yet scrubbing public bathrooms with toothbrushes, as part of their community service. Stil, it would be preferable if this bullshit didn't happen at all.
ReplyDeleteOne way to slow it down in the future would be to prevent the bars and restaurants from serving booze until noon. The archaic opening hour of 6 or 7 am is a vestige of when Hoboken was a factory town with round-the-clock shifts, and someone getting off work at 6am was ready to start their "evening". No need for that now.
YES YES and YES.
ReplyDeleteThis was nothing more than a flash mob created by dimwits and endorsed by greedy bar owners.
I would love a FULL accounting of how much this "unofficial event" cost the city and how much the city "took in" through tickets...and Mr. Darrah and EVERY bar in town that promoted the event should be sued for the difference.
Yes, there is NO reason for bars to be open before 12 noon.
House Parties: The city should pass an ordinance about the number of people permitted per square foot for house parties. Public businesses have "occupancy limits" as part of the fire code, this should be extended to private residences.
It looks like he's a she. Miss Darrah.
DeleteI'm trying to find out what this cost the City if anyone gets it first let me know.
Perhaps Miss Darrah and her buddies can split the tab.
i thought i saw posts from her on boken.com, live blog last night saying what a success that was,...but the tweets are gone today...
ReplyDeleteand large cover from 20.00 to over 50.00 is what some kids told me
ReplyDeletei must officially be an old fogey because i absolutely cannot imagine paying ANY cover to get into ANY bar in hoboken (except to see a band at maxwell's). $25? $50?? you gotta be kidding me, what suckers.
ReplyDelete