The closing ceremony of New York City’s ticker tape parade honoring essential workers on Wednesday will be “stripped down” due to the city being under a heat advisory, New York Mayo Bill de Blasio announced on Tuesday, the New York Post reported.
The parade is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. in Battery Park, with thousands marching up Broadway to City Hall. The event will finish with a planned ceremony at the end of the Canyon of Heroes route, de Blasio said, but will now include fewer people than originally planned, as the real-feel high forecast is expected to reach 105 degrees.
As a precaution against the heat, the city will also add cooling and water stations along the parade route, the mayor added.
Despite the smaller scale, de Blasio insisted that the event will be “memorable” and a “major celebration.”
“We’ve got a lot to celebrate and a lot of people to celebrate,” he said. “This is going to be memorable, this is going to be a parade for everyday people, for working people who made a difference for this city.”
This will be the city’s first ticker tape parade in nearly two years, with Sandra Lindsay, a Queens critical care nurse and the first American to receive Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine in December, serving as the event’s Grand Marshal, according to NBC New York.
Last year, during the worst of the pandemic, de Blasio had vowed to honor the city’s essential workers who were putting their lives on the line once the coronavirus safety restrictions were lifted, the New York Post reported.
Last month the mayor announced July 7 as the date for the parade.
During the press conference on Tuesday, de Blasio emphasized that “Without these folks, New York City wouldn't have made it through. It's as simple as that," NBC New York reported.
"This was the biggest crisis in the history of New York City.” the mayor said. “These are the folks who were the heroes. They're everyday working people. They often don't get the accolades they deserve. Here, we're treating them like, you know, the generals of wars and the astronauts and the champions in different sports."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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