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The loosely organized event, which moves every year to a
different neighborhood of the city, has become notorious for
leading to public drunkness and rowdy behavior by some of its
participants.
This year, merrymakers gathered at midmorning in Times Square,
one of Manhattan's busiest crossroads, after organizers posted
online the list of taverns that were officially participating
this year.
"This is my second time," Joe Fox, 23, an engineer from Long
Island, said as he sipped an alcoholic drink while waiting in
Times Square for the festivities to begin. "I'm going to be
crawling home."
After indications that SantaCon would come to Brooklyn's
Bushwick section this year, some bars in that neighborhood asked
to be excluded from the event rather than deal with unruly
patrons.
Organizers announced this week that they were scaling back
SantaCon's presence this year, limiting the event to a narrower
list of 30 Midtown watering holes.
The gesture was in part a response to widespread complaints
about public urination and vomiting by SantaCon revelers in
years past. But it was also an effort to separate the event from
a huge rally and march against police violence planned for Lower
Manhattan.
Vinnie Connors, the manager of Jack Dempsey's, a narrow Irish
pub on 33rd Street, said early Saturday afternoon that his
patrons have been well behaved so far.
"I haven't had one issue," he said. "But it's still early in the
day."
Outside, there were long lines of revelers, costumed for the
most part as Santa Claus - but also as elves and reindeer -
waiting to get into three bars on the block. Curious onlookers
snapped pictures from across the street.
Volunteers providing security were more numerous this year, said
Mike, a former Marine who asked to be only identified by his
first name. He was part of a group of volunteers assigned to
call police in case of disruptive behavior.
"Before there was 20 of us altogether," he said. "Now there are
15 of us just in this bar."
(Reporting By Frank McGurty)
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