(Photo: Daniel Maurer)
Yesterday organizers of SantaCon announced that the annual Santa swarm wouldn’t be coming to Bushwick after all, because the neighborhood didn’t have “the capacity to be an appropriate destination for this year’s celebration.”
With a location still TBD, East Villagers will have to stifle those sighs of relief that the red tide won’t flood their hood this year.
But whether or not SantaCon ends up coming to their part of town, East Village cops will be on red alert. Tuesday, when it was still thought that the all-too-jolly ol’ St. Nicks would gather in Brooklyn, the Ninth Precinct’s commanding officer told a group of residents that he was “anticipating overflow from their festivities.”
“We hope they get everything out of their system [in Brooklyn],” joked Deputy Inspector Peter J. Venice. “But the [East Village] bars will still be crowded and we’ll be ready with extra officers.”
On the sober Santa circuit, Neil Barsky, president of the Ninth Precinct Community Council, announced that the group’s annual holiday party is slated for Dec. 20. Free new toys for underprivileged children will be handed out from 9am to 2pm in the parking lot across from the station house, at 321 East Fifth Street. There will be hot chocolate and cookies and music (sorry, no Jaeger bombs).
“It’s for the kids of this neighborhood who come here by the thousands,” Barsky said, asking the locals at the meeting for donations of toys and money “so these kids get to have a real Christmas.”