Members of the Hoboken St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee have opted to cancel the annual festivities, after the city made the “insulting” decision to move the event to a weekday saying, “the idea of marching in a parade, in the dark, on a week night, is as insulting as it is unreasonable”.
The committee announced the cancellation of what would have been the parade’s 26th year on its website:
The Hoboken St. Patrick’s Parade Committee met earlier this week to discuss what would have been our 26th annual parade. After a long, arduous and sad meeting, the committee has decided to cancel the 2012 Hoboken St. Patrick’s Parade. The City of Hoboken’s inability to protect our spectators, bands and participants led us to this heartbreaking decision,” adding that “for those who were not here in the beginning, or think that 26 years is not long enough of a tradition, we remind all that the parade was a strong catalyst in the revitalization of the Hoboken we love so dearly today.
The parade was canceled after concerns after member of the community expressed over safety. While the committee has opted against resuming the festivities on a weekday, they said that moving forward they “will proudly consider the gracious invitations they have received from other communities” to host the parade. They even get a little snippy: “[E]vidently, there are some elected officials elsewhere in the state who have figured out how to protect their residents during ethnic, religious and other community celebrations.”
After word of the parade’s cancelation got out, many Hoboken residents and fans of the parade took to social networking sites, sounding off on the parade’s cancellation:
Hoboken St. Patty’s Day WILL GO ON With or Without The Parade!
eatdrinkhoboken.com/?p=12870— EatDrinkHoboken (@EatDrinkHoboken) January 13, 2012
How New York’s population of dudebros will survive after the loss of their annual spring mating festival remains to be seen.
