Here are a few scenes from the latest SantaCon invasion on Saturday afternoon... the first batch of photos are by Derek Berg...
Readers/residents in general felt as if there were more participants this year. (I also heard from people who thought the crowds thinned out earlier than in previous Cons.) Complaints about this alleged charity event included the usual sightings of Santas throwing up and using the sidewalks as a toilet ... as well as a general obnoxious indifference about blocking sidewalks, forcing residents — ones who didn't feel like plowing through the crowds — into walking on the streets.
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EVG correspondent Steven took these photos from Second Avenue and Ninth Street, always a SantaCon stronghold ...
Once again, Solas on Ninth Street served as a "Special Santa Venue" ...
While the 13th Step and the Copper Still were not official "SantaCon Charity Venues," they each drew large crowds ...
... with the 13th Step charging a $5 entry fee...
I'd prefer a Mrs. Claus Con where everyone just drinks a glass of wine alone and exhales in their living room in NJ.
ReplyDeleteI don't care if it was "less worse" this year than previous years; I just want them to move to another borough—or city, if possible. Bah humbug!
ReplyDeleteIt's time for this atrocity to be be banned.
ReplyDeletevery much “Con” very little “Pro”
ReplyDeleteRemember this from 12/18/2014 (Bowery Boogie Blog):
ReplyDelete"FIGMENT NYC Board Member ‘Costume’ Jim Glaser Resigns in Light of SantaCon Connection"
https://www.boweryboogie.com/2014/12/figment-nyc-board-member-costume-jim-glaser-resigns-light-santacon-connection/
SantaCon is a charity fraud and needs to be investigated by the NYS AG Letitia James. Here's the compliant link:
https://formsnym.ag.ny.gov/OAGOnlineSubmissionForm/faces/OAGCFCHome;jsessionid=RG8O2X9eVOi4h96rjEkA8yOD2QaPRvgtSaz5HIvJ6xEjlOcDWRyX!1592193724
I will always fail to understand the significance of this insufferable event and how it compels others to show their most undesirable selves I imagine wandering the city like an obnoxious drunk and a mindless lunatic must be appealing. So happy this shit show is over for the next 363 days.
ReplyDeleteMore restaurants ought to enforce a no-Santas policy, not just bars. I went into a sit-down place (without a bar!) on the outskirts of the Santa zone and had to stand up and walk right back out when a raucous table of Santas walked in behind me (I can't make this loud, drunk conversation between two of them up: "WhERe are yOu fROm?" "I'm FrOm NEW JERSEY!!!!!"). Felt bad for the waiter (we hadn't ordered yet) but it was clear that this one group of dopes was going to ruin the entire night. Even if we can't do anything about their takeover of the bars, surely restaurants could draw a line!
ReplyDeleteTo those dismissing SantaCon as no big deal and offering platitudes about how they are crimestoppers in disguise, please see the video of countless Santas turnstile-hopping at Astor Place. I doubt it was the only instance of such behavior.
ReplyDeleteI hate Santa Con but I LOVE these photos. Great work Derek. These bozos provided you with amazing material and you ran with it!
ReplyDeleteThoughts and prayers to those who survived this douchemageddon.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is how they invade and deploy their charitable suburban white samaritans of this ever so philantropic and jolly event https://www.instagram.com/p/B6ES789l0J9/
Where are the NYPD drawing their gun on these Santa white privileged turnstile hoppers?
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/IamClassicBeatz/status/1206433869215551488
And where are Cuomo's 500 extra transit officers to “improve public safety, protect workers and combat fare evasion”. Must be busy arresting old ladies selling churros.
The lines at the ATMs were almost s long as the lines at the bars. That's what this is all about... and the city loves it!
ReplyDeleteI feel saddest seeing the females participate. The males, well they don't really have much choice but to conform to the herd. The young ladies, I feel, should (and do) know better.
ReplyDeleteThey had to call it SantaCon because “The Drunken Morons Dressed Like Santa Bar Walk” was already taken.
ReplyDeleteThis year it was bigger, younger and whiter than ever before, which just means it’s never going away until the city decides to ban it.
Why anyone thinks it’s a good idea to tolerate an event that promotes binge drinking among an age group that clearly can’t handle their alcohol is a mystery.
@12:39pm: Giovanni, you nailed it completely, particularly your last sentence.
ReplyDeleteMy father was in the Merchant Marine in the 1940's-50's, and on shore leave he and his fellow sailors didn't even come close to debasing themselves the way these hyper-privileged white bro alkies did this weekend.
It’s fun when you’re in your 20s but for the rest not so much
ReplyDeleteMore bars participating in this brohaha is preferable--keep them away from the streets and outside and contained and corralled them inside like squealing pigs they are.
ReplyDeleteIt's the east village, happens one time a year, lighten up. Area has bigger daily problems, like the homeless situation.
ReplyDeleteSantacon does not represent the East Village.
DeleteHere, here.
DeleteSantacon is a big problem for the EV. Increases the number of douchebags that use the neighborhood as a toilet, which drives out more and more of the people that held it down, kept it weird, made it work, made it cool and made shit happen. If the future of the EV is bro-bags in onesies, no one here will care enough or be smart enough to worry about or deal with issues such as homelessness.
Boy do I miss the days of the Telephone Bar and Grill...��
ReplyDeleteIzF
I've lived in the East Village for almost 27 years. If you were in your 20s back then (the early 90s..that is) and you said you were thinking about doing a pub crawl during the holiday season with a bunch of people dressed in Santa suits, you would've been LAUGHED OUTTA THE GODDAM ROOM. Your friends would have also (pre-social media) 'unfriended' you toot-sweet.
ReplyDelete