After more holiday-themed mayhem, will Bhalla cancel Hoboken’s SantaCon?


With the arrests from Hoboken’s SantaCon more than tripling from last year, city officials are already discussing the possibility of making this the last Saint Nick-themed bar crawl in the Mile Square City.

Hoboken SantaCon

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

The annual bar crawl that spans through most of Washington Street took place on Saturday and led to 17 arrests, 51 city ordinance summonses, 32 motor vehicle summonses, 55 people were transported to the hospital, according to Police Det. Lt. Edgardo Cruz.

Cruz also said that the police department received 289 calls for service between the 16-hour period between 12 noon and 4 a.m.

Those numbers all show a significant jump from last year, were only five people were arrested and just 30 city ordinance summonses were written.

Police Chief Kenneth Ferrante, who is notorious for live tweeting the alcohol-induced chaos throughout the Mile Square City, noted that no officers suffered serious injuries, though one was punched in the face and another was spit on.

In one example of the drunken belligerence that has caused many city residents to disdain SantaCon, Janelle Chirino, 21, of North Bergen, was exiting Hoboken Bar & Grill when staff advised police they were having a problem with her.

According to authorities, Chirino became “extremely agitated and unruly” as police tired to calm her down, later refusing medical attention and hit one of the officers in the face, as well as an EMT, as she was placed on a stretcher.

She received a summons and continued to be a hassle as she was transported to the Hoboken University Medical Center, officials said.

Early on during SantaCon, Ferrante also mocked the fact that the event was supposed to be for charity.

Also on Twitter, Mayor-Elect Ravi Bhalla said he “will review every available option” to prevent the bar crawl from taking place next year, later urging his followers to sign an online petition asking to stop SantaCon.

A spokesman for Bhalla did not immediately return an email seeking further comment.


  1. People need to get a grip on the fact that some of these incidents occurred before midnight and some after, which is technically a different date so it probably averages out to pretty standard weekend fare. We don’t need another micromanaging big-government snowflake mayor turning Hoboken into a nanny state, moving St Patty’s to a weekday was bad enough.

    • You’re joking right? Walking around Hoboken the morning after and it looked like a warzone, beer cans, vomit and trash everywhere. I don’t have numbers to back this up but I’d bet a lot that a normal weekend from Friday to Sunday (even on a crazy football Sunday) there are nowhere near 17 arrests and 55 transports to the hospital. It was out of control, and a pain to go anywhere or do anything. The bars made a KILLING at the expense of residents, bottom line.

  2. You mean a new day starts at midnight? Clearly, you’re a genius. Hope our micromanaging big-government snowflake mayor listens to local residents and gets rid of this con nonsense. Zero tolerance. Stopping puking on our stoops, peeing in our alleys, throwing crap in our streets, and screaming loudly. Stop hassling our cops and bugging the residents. Enough.

  3. Why do the politicians and police tweet. If there was such mayhem where did they find the time.
    We pay them to problem solve not play on twitter. Sounded more like a government that had no clue what to do.

  4. Ravi’s a lawyer and knows that you can’t stop peaceful gatherings of people, kind of unconstitutional and all. Campaign is over, time to stand up to Trump and stop the tax plan in congress!

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