A day of green? More like GREED (snap)!!

I completely respect business practices that earn you money, but at what point does an establishment cross the line of being "smart" and into the realm of being greedy? Lets take Hoboken's (early) St. Patrick's Day celebration, shall we?

Evidently, last year the city made in the ball park of half a million dollars in fines for the St. Patrick's Day celebration alone. Excluding the added commerce their local businesses get, that's $500,000 in one day. What do they do in response? They raise the penalties to an astronomical $1,000 per offense. I guess they figured that $500,00 for ONE DAY wasn't quite enough money. I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they raised the fines to discourage illegal activities like public consumption, public urination, and disorderly conduct.

I'd LIKE to give them that benefit, except that the entire day reeks of greed (and alcohol and urine).

Like the bars, which are filled to the brim from the moment they open (usually around 11 am) until last call/close (about 3 am). Instead of appreciating the fact that they are getting a WHOLE lot of heavy drinkers about nine hours earlier than usual, they charge a $20 cover. This rather hefty cost doesn't come with any drink specials or a live band (two usual justifications). It's just what they charge to enter the bar.

What makes this worse is that this cover is only applicable until about 3:00 pm. My friends and I went to Bar None, which does not serve food, and at about 5:00 (six hours after we arrived) we started getting very hungry. Being that they don't serve food, you have no choice whatsoever but to leave to grab a slice of pizza or something. Except when I went to leave, I was told by the female collecting the cover charge that they aren't allowing people back in after 3:00. As far as I'm concerned, $20 should buy you a golden ticket.

Anyway, I explained to the bouncer that I was just going to grab a slice of pizza down the street, and he was nice enough to tell me that if I hurry back, he'd let me back in. Of course, there was a huge line at the pizza place, so it took me about 10 minutes to get back to the bar. Upon my return, there was a different bouncer at the door, who told me that all exits were final and that I couldn't go back in.

I kindly explained to him that the previous bouncer (who I had described to ensure that I wasn't BS-ing) had told me I could go back in, as I was only having a quick bite. He completely blew me off, and again reiterated that all exits are final. I then brought up the fact that this wasn't the case when I left just a few minutes ago, and, again that the previous said I could go back in.

At this point I started getting annoyed, and having been drinking for the past several hours or so, I was probably getting a little snarky. However, in my defense, the bouncer was on a definite power trip. While waiting on line to get back in, I realized that several other people who had been there all day, who had also paid $20, were not being let back in either. Also keep in mind that this was NOT a capacity legal issue, as several people were leaving the bar, and even before that the place was hardly overflowing. Finally, after about 15 minutes of waiting, they let people back in. And thankfully the cover girl remembered who I was, so I didn't have to pay ANOTHER $20 (the same can't be said for others, I'm sure).

Overall the day was a lot of fun, and I don't regret going. But it's not a good sign when everybody but the drunkards are a pain in the ass.