At The New York Times today, East Village resident Jason O. Gilbert, a writer and editor at Yahoo News, puts in an opinion piece about SantaCon.
To an excerpt!
Perhaps most distressing about SantaCon is its size and the way that it shuts down and befouls dozens of blocks. Any East Villager (I am one) can tell you that the event makes doing absolutely anything beyond one’s front stoop an impossibility, unless you own swamp waders and a riot shield. Last year, an estimated 30,000 carousers participated in the festivities.
But really, it’s not the disruption or the noise that rankles. New Yorkers can endure street closures and inconveniences for any number of events so long as there is a beneficent impulse, or an obvious reason for the disruption. For a New York City event of its size, however, SantaCon is distinctive, and arguably impressive, in that it contributes absolutely zero value — cultural, artistic, aesthetic, diversionary, culinary or political — to its host neighborhood. Quite simply, SantaCon is a parasite.
Read the whole column here.
Meanwhile, we're still waiting for a positive counter-point… someone to discuss how awesome SantaCon is now, not what it may have been 15 years ago.
48 comments:
I do believe there is a law in place about masks. It occurs to me the santa disguise amidst 1000's of santas would be perfect cover for a robbery or other crime. Where do I buy those santa pubcrawl suits?
Well, we've established it's supremely annoying... so much so that I'm at a severe disadvantage even defending the concept of a costume parade against people who suggest all the parades should be banned, bars should close at 5pm, etc.
What do you think is going to happen this year, EV? Will any of the mitigation measures help? Will it be more tolerable if the whole thing starts in the area (and moves on) rather than ends here? Will it actually be worse if more people show and fewer bars let people in?
Santacon is getting way too much hate. I don't take part in it, but when they say there is zero value, they sound like a bunch of crotchety old geezers. The value is that it's FUN. All the santas seem to be having fun. It's a great excuse for girls to dress up like slutty Santas. It's not sponsored by Citibank or Duane Reade or anyone. What could be wrong with it? It's fun walking home and seeing a bunch of drunk santas. Sure, they're all frat boys and bridge and tunnel idiots, but it's that way in the East Village every weekend. Have there been reports of santas wilding on the streets, or santas raping elves? Just a little extra puke to clean up. What's the big deal? Lighten up.
I appreciate Jason writing about this. It's not fun for the residents of the neighborhood, especially women, to deal with the onslaught of drunken Santas. People need to look out for each other on Saturday.
An organized event, even one which is in constant chaos is different from a pub crawl which involves perhaps 10's of thousands of participants which sole purpose is to get drunker than drunk in a neighborhood(s) that do not welcome the event and are left to clean up the aftermath. Your "fun" ends when it involves vomiting on our streets and doorsteps, you fun ends I cannot use a public sidewalk and must pass you by walking into traffic to get about my business, your "fun" ends when I have to step over your urine, vomit and your passed out ass stretched out on a sidewalk. The city's blind eye to this event may be Commissioner Kelly's parting shot at NYC for dissing his "stop and frisk" or there are a lot of former frat bros in NYC government.
One more time: It's NOT fun for the elderly RESIDENTS, people who have to get to their errands, jobs, take their kids to the doctor, have to do ANYTHING other than get drunk. It is nearly impossible for people with walkers, crutches or canes on a TYPICAL day.
This is not about outlawing fun.
This event is really disruptive to the community. It's way past being a "little thing".
Accompanying that piece are plenty of idiotic "lighten up" type comments from half-tards in the buttfuck states who think they are smart because they read NYT.
Hopefully the impending storm will slow it down a bit, or at the very least make it much less pleasant than if it was a nice sunny day. Remember to call 311 to complain if you have any problems. They said last year there were no "official" complaints...using that as an excuse to not do anything.
If participating in a massive-scale master-planned pub crawl is your idea of fun, you are a thick-headed, uninteresting drone.
Judging by some of the comments on the NY Times piece, a lot of people don't understand how many people take part in this event. It isn't a few dozen slightly buzzed people running around acting silly. It's thousands and thousands of people sometimes congregating in groups of hundreds and hundreds pissing, vomiting, taunting... It is out of control and dangerous not only to the residents but to the people who take part. I have seen them walking into the street oblivious to cars and passed out on sidewalks and on streets. I am surprised more of them don't get run over.
@ 10:20 AM
You mean like the comment here at 9:40 AM?
Just as SantaCon has gotten a bit out of hand these past few years, so has the SantaCon hate and handwringing.
I've never participated, but six or seven years ago, when it was still relatively small and innocuous, I was tempted. And while no one can argue that it has since morphed into a colossal truckload of fratty douchebaggery, I believe that it is not much beyond an affront to our senses and a damaging sortie on the self-awareness and "cool factor" that New Yorkers too often refuse to admit guides their attitudes.
But how much actual damage does SantaCon cause? Annoying Santas everywhere for a day: check. More vomit than usual: check. An even higher incidence rate of "wooooo!"s: oh hell check. All annoying stuff, for sure. How do you think the bar owners feel, though? All those unique small businesses (watering holes, bodegas, restaurants, etc.), the very ones that people on this blog are so quick to defend...they love SantaCon. Love it.
So we have happy revelers, an annoyed neighborhood, ecstatic bar owners, some puke on the ground...does it really merit all this faux outrage? It's one annoying day. Get over it. Let the young drunk idiots have their fun...unless it becomes a weekend. Then DEATH TO SANTACON!!!!!!
Weather should slow the drunks down a bit.
Wish I could find a comment I saw on one of the Santacon Facebook pages a few weeks ago, in which one of the organizers accused the journalist who wrote about the backlash of being a lonely, miserable…atheist. Because obviously Santa is such a vivid reminder of the religious basis of the holiday, turning up as he did with the three wise men to bring the baby jesus gold, frankincense, myrrh and a Scaletrix set.
It'll be interesting to see how the NYPD will deal with these bufoons tomorrow with all eyes on them thanks to the much needed anti-Santacon media blitz.
But more importantly, what will Susan Stetzer be wearing on her Santacon parade float?!
"but it's that way in the East Village every weekend."
I find that to be a key comment. I wonder if neighborhood residents didn't already feel so overwhelmed by constant intruders expecting us to turn over our streets to them regularly, that maybe one day of the year wouldn't be so bad.
But now, SantaCon just might be a symbol of the larger nightly conflict in the area that has gotten out of hand, and the empire is attempting to strike back.
But lets not get vigilante about it folks. Please, I don't want to read afterward about a granny playing the Knockout Game with one of those fratty santas.
I see lots of white people with white beards. As Ray Kelly said: "It makes New York New York"
"I believe that it is not much beyond an affront to our senses and a damaging sortie on the self-awareness and "cool factor" that New Yorkers too often refuse to admit guides their attitudes.'
So in other words you're saying that if a crowd of 'self aware, cool factor' bohemians descended en masse complete with a hardcore punk/performance art festival and puked all over frat row at Douchebag University they wouldn't get shit from the Bros and Woo-bimbettes? Please. They have their enviornment, we have ours. And yes this is not what this community is about, or is saying that being too cool for school...
Let's see how many people need to 'lighten up' when they have to deal with the immediate outcome of this 'event'.
...just back from my neighborhood liquor store. Owner gearing up, but dislikes it, even though it brings more business. And other merchants feel the same way according to this morning's informal poll.
When people have to start drinking at 10 in the morning (and the people in my building started at 8 am last year, woo hoo), it's not an indication of "creative" activity.
SantaCon is juvenile and dumb (and describing it as a "parasite" is not a bad description), but saying:
"Any East Villager (I am one) can tell you that the event makes doing absolutely anything beyond one’s front stoop an impossibility, unless you own swamp waders and a riot shield."
Is factually incorrect. Somehow I've had a completely productive day the last couple of SantaCons. Feel free to call out SantaCon on its negative attributes, but don't manufacture BS excuses.
And anyone that has spent anytime on the hate-spewing Yahoo "Opinions" pages knows a parasite when he/she sees it.
Waltie,
People see what they want to see. You see white douchebags wearing white beards. I see douchebags of all races wearing white beards.
NYPD Cracks Down On SantaCon With New Rule: Now Santa's Must Remove Fake Beards Before Being Served Alcoholic Drinks
SantaCon pub crawl revelers must remove fake beards to be served: NYPD
Way to go, NYPD, making people take off their beards to drink will surely make this years drunken slut and bro fest a much more safe and peaceful affair.
And if any Santas have a real beard they better bring a razor and a can Barbasol just in case.
Is there ever a more pointless and counterproductive suggestion than "get over it" or "lighten up". If you ever resort to these cliches, you and I cannot hang.
I miss the days of East Village events like Wigstock where it wasn't all about getting drunk and careening around in a mob picking on people but it was celebrating art and life and community.
An insult to parasites everywhere!
nygrump,
Interestingly, the question of whether laws banning wearing masks in public is a hotly contested constitutional law question. A 1845 ban on masks in New York:
"The ban on masks in New York State dates to 1845, when it was adopted in response to events in the Hudson Valley, where local tenant farmers disguised as American Indians had attacked and killed landlords. The law includes exceptions for masquerade parties and similar events."
Most recently this law was used to arrest protestors outside the Russian Embassy after the Pussy Riot convictions. Also, it was commonly used against OWS.
Not surprisingly, it's a tool of authoritarians.
This is what I call the left-wing police state. When cranky liberals in the East Village call on a police crack down of a fun, harmless event because it means the streets will be crowded. Rather than petition the city to help clean up the mess they complain about, they call on the police to get out the riot gear and shut the whole thing down. I'm guessing that most of these people felt very different about doing that to the Occupy Wallstreeters.
@ anon 9:40, who asked, "Have there been reports of santas wilding on the streets, or santas raping elves? ... What's the big deal?"
From Gothamist:
"Gothamist photographer Katie Sokoler was grabbed and kissed (against her will) by a drunk man dressed as a Christmas tree, and she also witnessed inebriated Santas falling onto terrified children on the subway train. Meanwhile, a group of intoxicated Santas on Houston Street deliberately knocked over a disabled man with a cane."
Source: http://gothamist.com/2011/12/12/its_time_for_santacon_to_stop.php
Yup, I'm older been here 32 years, I worked and played in the clubs and bars and resturaunts. I remember it a genuine fun. Didn't need to yell and scream for no reason other then attention. I'm on a busy corner with plenty of it. How I have fun onthe weekends now, is throwing garbage (carrot peals, eggshells, onion peals ect along with cooked dollar store pasta out the window. Join me, it gives them something to yell about...
Organizers of this event keep saying that his isn't a pub crawl, and they're right, it's a drunk crawl. They're already drunk and and almost literally crawling during this douchefest. And this year will only be worst since they can't drink on the trains from whatever suburbs they came from. Meaning they'll be purchasing alcoholic drinks from Duane Reades and 7-11s and bodegas alike, instead of being at a bar since they won't be drinking there. The bar owners and bartenders attest themselves that most order water and do not tip. This is only fun to the residents that live in their ivory glass condo towers, since they have the building management clean up the sidewalks for them and most likely has some sort of concierge service to do their errands for them and car service to whisk them around town.
This event is really scary for women, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear that there are a lot of incidents well beyond the ones documented by Gothamist that aren't reported because women are embarrassed or figure the police aren't going to do anything about it.
...meantime, your facebook fans are grossing me out with their "I'm so old school East Village" stuff.
I'm carrying a knife tomorrow.
To suggest this binge drinking festival is somehow OK because rapes are not widely reported is breathtakingly imbecilic. In general, rape is the LEAST reported crime.
Sophie's, Mona's, and Josie's have banned SantaCon. So come hang out at a REAL neighborhood bar and enjoy watching them all get REJECTED.
I invited Jason, the writer of the NYT piece and told him his money is no good at Josie's that day!
Thanks so much Jason for telling it like it is!
For those taking the side of the Satancon participants, if thousands of drunk out of control old geezers were a loud moving mob vomiting and pissing all over the place would you still support such an activity? Calling it fun does not justify bad behavior or the Bowery could have been considered the funnest place on earth 30 years ago.
The Grassroots Tavern and 11th Street Bar are not allowing any Santas in either.
...It is also worth noting that for people with claustrophobia and panic disorder, the streets can cause fear any day of the year, but during this, it's so much more daunting!
I have started an alternative to SantaCon which I'm calling SantaCalm (#santacalm). SantaCalm encompasses the following:
- Not wearing a Santa suit
- Staying in Saturday afternoon
- Doing some LIGHT reading
- Catching up on to-do's
- Answering e-mail correspondence
- Napping
- Enjoying some coffee or tea IN MODERATION
The idea came to me while half asleep this morning. #santacalm
I wish the bars would let the Santadouchebroers in and just contain them there where they can entertain themselves and have distractions. With most bars banning them, they'll be out in the streets and public places or a longer period of time and become restless. Combine restlessness and fueled alcohol consumption, well, we all know what the result of that.
Btw, if you check their FB account, guess who are the people most excited about this douchefest? Yup, the suburbans, e.g. Connecticut, Long Island, Philly, other parts of PA, upstate, etc.
@2:32
It's "peel" not "peal".
Don't forget to take pics and vids of the unruly, disruptive, and wayward participants and send them to Stetzer, Kelly and your local precint.
My eyes started crossing after comment 20, the slush should help move the vomit along, one positive. Think tomorrow, "This too shall pass". Or you can go to dollar store and buy bags of marbles and release when you see a pack of Santas, then have a camera phone ready to tape, then post on you tube. Sounds viral.
I guess you can't stop it. As an EV resident I get both sides of the coin. I think the real beef is that people who aren't from the neighborhood already treat it as their own private amusement park on the weekends (which is expected and comes with the territory), but it sucks when a giant mob of drunks run wild in your neighborhood in the middle of the day if you have kids, are elderly, or just want things to be quiet and normal.
In terms of comparing it to St Patty's day, and Halloween. Those have been institutions for quite some time. They are also spread out more throughout the city, even the Halloween parade. Santacon is a relatively new institution that clearly has lots of haters. Those feelings don't jump out because people are uptight, bloombergians, etc etc etc. I think people have had a real negative experience with this, and that's why so many people don't want it in their neighborhoods.
anonymous 1:08 PM
I'm guessing that had the OWS folks acted like the santa con folks it wouldn't have taken an hour for the police to break up the crowd and arrest as many as possible.
I want to thank the people behind Santacon. It's the one day of the year I DON'T miss New York. And to the Occupy Wall Street remark, they kept the park cleaner than what it was before they arrived and they built a library there. They kept the noise level down after dark and behaved in a peaceful manner. And then, as blue glass noted, they all got arrested and beaten up by the police. #Bloomberg
"And to the Occupy Wall Street remark, they kept the park cleaner than what it was before they arrived and they built a library there. They kept the noise level down after dark and behaved in a peaceful manner. "
Are you kidding? They chanted and drummed all night. They filled the square with tents. And in the end, there was a rape in there. It started off as a real protest, but eventually it got taken over by weirdos thinking it would be fun place to hang. Maybe like Santacon.
@Anonymous 8:48AM: I was there three times after 11PM and there was no drumming or chanting. They got called out on that early on and stopped it. I just think it's ridiculous to compare Occupy Wall Street to Santacon.
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