Asbury Park SantaCon canceled as promoters fail to secure permits

A planned SantaCon event in Asbury Park has been canceled.
Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn says an out-of-town promotions teams had planned to host the event at Porta, but then the city learned it would be a pub crawl. She says the promoters also failed to secure city permits.
Quinn says the organizers were charging registration fees, which would not benefit local businesses.
"Across the board, it's not benefitting Asbury Park and we don't need huge, huge groups of people coming to Asbury Park going to the bars," Quinn said. "We are in a different place. We attract a lot of people to Asbury Park to support the businesses and the last thing we want to do is attract an unruly group that's going to cause my police, my firefighters, my retail businesses, my restaurants grief."
Last weekend, Asbury Park hosted its annual Santa 5K run, which benefits local charities.