Bars donate $6,500 to Hoboken for St. Patrick's Day costs - Hoboken Now

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Permalink Reply by Overtaxed on March 16, 2010 at 10:34am

Zimmer said that if the cost of the Parade is not covered by the donations, then this is over! I hope Zimmer will hold her promise! The Parade should be done!

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Permalink Reply by FAP on March 16, 2010 at 10:35am

Don't forget the "donations" of our less than hospitable guests. Those donations could be sizable.


Overtaxed said:

Zimmer said that if the cost of the Parade is not covered by the donations, then this is over! I hope Zimmer will hold her promise! The Parade should be done!

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Permalink Reply by NiceGuyEddie on March 16, 2010 at 6:08pm

I've mentioned this before on this site, but I don't know why the city didn't charge a fee for bars that wanted to open early, and why they don't collect a % of the cover charges, which were up to $30 this year, from all the bars.

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Permalink Reply by Tony Soares on March 17, 2010 at 12:23am

Actually FAP, fines are not a guarantee.

The Police officers must still appear in Court (Paid)
The Judge may throw tickets out
We pay the Judge
Cases can be postponed into the next fiscal year

The Mayor stated within TWO months after St Pats she wants a good faith effort to raise 1/2 the costs and
Councilman Lenz went even further when he said if we don't cover all our costs the event is done.
So before we start back peddling or making excuses let's see what the Council does in the next few days

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Permalink Reply by David A. Liebler on March 18, 2010 at 11:30am

The hospitality industry is fragmented at best in Hoboken. I was surprised by how little they donated and by whom. It is clear that the "Hoboken Hospitality Assocation" is not a unified front to ALL owners, so to condem those who did contribute is not fair. It is a far cry from what they should have donated and that is something we can all agree about.

To ask them for donations this year is one thing, but to ask an industry that has been beaten down over this last year to open up pandora's box and make this a regular donation is what they are worried about.

There needs to be more conversations between, city hall, HHA, St. Pat's committee and other business owners to find a way to compensate for the cost, as taxpayers, we should not have to pay. This year they did a decent job advertising at the bars "Zero Tollerance", what they now need to do is enforce and advertise "Zero Tollerance" for house parties and increase the fines, as that is where a lot of the problems with over drinking occur.

Few last points:
A. Opening up at 9am was a stupid idea
B. Asking a business owner to share their "door cover" will never happen and is unrealistic
C. House parties are the real problem
D. The industry does alot for the town in regards to charity event fundraiser for EVERYONE and for the towns Revenue and as so they should not be viewed as the enemy. St.Patricks Day for the bars and restaurants is considered the 13th month for them and they deserve to make money from visitors to Hoboken for the day.
E. The St. Pat's Day Committee and the town need to celebrate this day, embrace the tradition and work together in extending the festivities to include more "Family oriented" activities post parade to include the town and the NON bar participates. This would make for a more enjoyable day.

Thanks,
David "Irish" Liebler

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Permalink Reply by scott m siegel on March 18, 2010 at 2:21pm

The police audit called for a special tax for large events. The time has come, I agree with Fernanda. From now on no event should be scheduled unless it is paid for.

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Permalink Reply by Dave Kaplan on March 18, 2010 at 3:48pm

I don't see why the city can't charge a bar $500 or some other amount if they want to be open on certain hours during the day on HSPD. If they don't want to pay, they don't have to be open.

The businesses of hoboken benefit from this event. If they want it to continue, they should pay the extra cost of it. The city simply can't afford the extra cost at this time.

However, lets not confuse the issue here -- which to me is solely the cost of it.

David A. Liebler said:

The hospitality industry is fragmented at best in Hoboken. I was surprised by how little they donated and by whom. It is clear that the "Hoboken Hospitality Assocation" is not a unified front to ALL owners, so to condem those who did contribute is not fair. It is a far cry from what they should have donated and that is something we can all agree about.

To ask them for donations this year is one thing, but to ask an industry that has been beaten down over this last year to open up pandora's box and make this a regular donation is what they are worried about.

There needs to be more conversations between, city hall, HHA, St. Pat's committee and other business owners to find a way to compensate for the cost, as taxpayers, we should not have to pay. This year they did a decent job advertising at the bars "Zero Tollerance", what they now need to do is enforce and advertise "Zero Tollerance" for house parties and increase the fines, as that is where a lot of the problems with over drinking occur.

Few last points:
A. Opening up at 9am was a stupid idea
B. Asking a business owner to share their "door cover" will never happen and is unrealistic
C. House parties are the real problem
D. The industry does alot for the town in regards to charity event fundraiser for EVERYONE and for the towns Revenue and as so they should not be viewed as the enemy. St.Patricks Day for the bars and restaurants is considered the 13th month for them and they deserve to make money from visitors to Hoboken for the day.
E. The St. Pat's Day Committee and the town need to celebrate this day, embrace the tradition and work together in extending the festivities to include more "Family oriented" activities post parade to include the town and the NON bar participates. This would make for a more enjoyable day.

Thanks,
David "Irish" Liebler

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