Uh oh, FuHo's gone and done it this time -- Only weekday St. Patrick's fun next year

Hoboken Mayor Dawn O'Zimmer has spoken. She's got half the city congratulating her while the other half swears revenge at the ballot box. Mayor Zimmer has decided after all the arrests, open container summonses and new this year with the sexual assaults, that next year's Hoboken St. Patrick's parade will be on a Wednesday, not the first Saturday of March anymore.

Zimmer cited the sexual assaults, the public urination and attacks on fire department responders as the reasoning:

"Despite our very best efforts, we have a situation that puts... our public safety at risk".

Here's the breakdown of the misbehavior in Fuho (and we'd like to point out not everyone who got a summons or was arrested for peeing in somebody's yard are from the Mile Square City, just most of them):

34 arrests (up from 25 last year)
296 citations (115 for open container, 59 citations for urinating in public)
80 traffic violations
2 sexual assaults
And this:

Fire officials responded to a call at 805 Washington Street about a fire at the back of building, but the fire had already been put out, said Chief Blohm. But fire officials encountered several people on the 4th floor balcony of the building that threw a flower pot, spat and dumped beer onto the responders.

So FuHo, your big parades are over unless of course everyone simply takes that Wednesday off and shows up with a vengeance. We're not saying we wouldn't encourage that kind of thinking, after all we're a salacious blog, duh.

Maybe Hobokenites could take some lessons in manners from us here in Jersey City. Lessons are Tuesday nights at Skinners Loft.

Here is free lesson in manners #1:

Late night open thread

Jersey boys played a matinee over at MSG this afternoon, just not the Broadway kind. The only singing was that of Rutgers fans as they defeated fellow Garden Staters Seton Hall 76-70 in overtime in the first round of the Big East tournament.

Sing RU fans, sing


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Some lunchtime cajun music with the amazing Buckwheat Zydeco

Johnny saw Buckwheat Zydeco at the old Frog Island Jazz and Blues fest back in Ypsilanti a while back. Just an amazing musician so able to keep everyone moving around with his classic touch on songs like this, 'Mon Papa' a proper Cajun waltz.

Another quick cajun classic from The Balfa brothers

If you're a movie buff you may recognize this song from the climatic final scene in the movie 'Southern Comfort'. We'd use the clip from the movie but then you'd have to watch a pig get slaughtered and you'd simply hate that, trust Johnny.

The Balfa Brothers with 'Parlez Nous A Boire'.

Welcome to Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras 2011

Oh we'll have a lot of fun today celebrating the great cajun culture down Louisiana way as we do every Fat Tuesday. Hopefully our N'awlins reporter Ms. Oddzymandias will favor us with pictures, video and fun from her hometown today.

We'll kick it off with the Balfa Brothers and 'Les Veuves de la Coulee'

Late night open thread

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

The Saint Peter's Peacocks are going to the NCAA Tournament!

Saint Peter's has just won the MAAC Tournament with a 62-57 upset victory over the Iona Gaels. Tell ya what, the old addage defense wins championships holds true once more. Saint Peter's was the top defensive team in the MAAC and Iona had the top offense. 57 points in a title game for the top scoring team? Pfffft, that's a Peacock lockdown job.

Jeron Belin led the way with 17, Nick Leon had 15 and Wesley Jenkins had 14. Jenkins was incredibly key shooting lights out 9-9 from the free throw line during white knuckle time. Steven Samuels and Ryan Bacon each had two big blocked shots.

Congratulations to The Pride of Jersey City®, The Saint Peter's Peacocks and head coach John Dunne. This will be the Peacocks third trip to the big dance having also gone in 1991 and 1995.

Here we go Peacocks, Here we go!

Clap Clap

Camden adjusts to life with 163 less police officers

A while back we had written a tongue-in-cheek piece encouraging all the Jersey City criminals to consider Camden, who through budget cuts and no tax money coming in had to lay off almost half their police force. Well now that the new normal has set in down Camden way, one can start assessing the horror of living there via a great piece in the New York Times.

Apparently crooks love the sight of 40 something officer jumping out of police cruisers to give chase rather then their more nimble and much faster 20 something colleagues used to do.

Late night open thread

A few news and notes to wrap up this weekend's sports. Saint Peter's will play the Iona Gaels tomorrow night at 7 on ESPN2. Hopefully the regular season isn't some kind of harbinger as Iona beat the Peacocks in both meetings this year. The Devils crawled back to within in 7 points of a playoff spot with 17 games to play after their 3-2 shootout win on Long Island this afternoon. At one point this year they were 27 points out of the playoffs. It'd be great for Johnny and Devils fans if they could sneak into the playoffs and get a couple do or die games in Newark this spring. The Rangers beat the holy bejeesus out of Philadelphia this afternoon over at MSG 7-0. Ryan Callahan had four goals for the Blueshirts who remain in 7th spot in the east, 10 points up on New Jersey.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark