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The Labor Day Parade — Brooklynian

The Labor Day Parade

sleighb76
sleighb76
edited November -1 in Prospect Heights
This is going to be my first Labor Day in Pro/Cro and I hear that the parade is pretty big. I'm assuming that an affair this large comes with traffic issues. I have a car and live on Park across from the shuttle and I just wanted to know how far that traffic will span and how long it lasts.

Comments

  • t-fal
    t-fal
    i'd suggest not using your car that day. man, i remember bringing a uhaul through that day years ago helping a buddy move in. an experience i NEVER want to replicate.
  • roux42
    roux42

    Subject: Labor Day Parade

    The parade is amazing wonderful and crazy. It also lasts all day. Actually it begins Saturday night...

    Get ready and have fun. There are quite a few sites that have pictures and information about the parade. I think it is the biggest and most attended in the New York City area.
  • carnivore
    carnivore

    Subject: Re: Labor Day Parade

    roux42 wrote: The parade is amazing wonderful and crazy. It also lasts all day. Actually it begins Saturday night...

    Get ready and have fun. There are quite a few sites that have pictures and information about the parade. I think it is the biggest and most attended in the New York City area.
    Saturday night is Juvee. It's actually crazier than the parade itself, and many times more dangerous.
  • jml
    jml
    It starts Saturday night and ends sometime early monday morning. I remember one year, someone set up giant speakers in front of the Bodega on Sterling and Underhill and the party there continued all night. Traffic moves ok, but not so well. They used to send the floats down Underhill after the parade. It was pretty intense - my whole house shook.

    A few years ago, the police had some absurd pedestrian traffic control system set up. The result was that it took literally an hour to go a block. Last year seemed a bit less crowded, but I did go sort of late.

    The Brooklyn Carnival parade is the largest in the world (including any carribean country), I've been told. Something like two million people. And the corn on the cob is fantastic.
  • roux42
    roux42
    The food is all incredible! Try the roti... Nothing like roti and a cold beer. Guliani''s quality of life nonsense laws have still not affected the parade. It is still the mellowest and yet the rowdiest parade out there.
  • bluedove
    bluedove
    What's the parade route? We're always out of town, but I might actually be around this year...
  • pitu
    pitu
    The parade heads down Eastern Pkwy and finishes at the Grand Army Plaza. I've never gone past Nostrand, but that seems to be mid-parade...
    Many side streets are closed off as feeders to the march -- there's huge floats and lots of people to line up.

    Whatever you do, don't get in your car in Brooklyn on Labor Day. The traffic jams radiate out for miles away, with parts of Flatbush and Eastern Pkwy closed off.

    Jouvert starts in the middle of the night, but isn't it over on Flatbush near the park?

    http://www.carnaval.com
  • anonymous
    anonymous
    Lots of info on the parade here: http://www.wiadca.org - Official Website of the West Indian-American Day Carnival Association
  • alafairnadia
    alafairnadia
    last year was completely absurd. Saturday night the there were like 10 billon (give or take a few billion) people streaming up toward c.heights on st.johns, going to ripple, etc. there were like 5 cops down there just ...observing (in all fairness, there was no controlling this crowd). and that madness started around 2 a.m., loud steel drums, whistles, the whole bit. I was pretty thankful that my bedroom is in the back of my building.
  • daveb
    daveb
    Christ, my living room looks right out onto the street. :x
  • alafairnadia
    alafairnadia
    yeah, same here. I sat in my little window seat and watched the madness and then started having panic attacks about 'wait, what if I need to leave the building? what if there's a fire? all those people. what if they go crazy and start throwing things?' etc and forced myself to have a shot of vodka and go to bed. I'm leaving town this year.
  • emily
    emily
    Yeah, I found it fairly annoying last year, mostly because I didn't realize that it would be noisy the night before and therefore planned a quiet (ha!) night in. Part of me wants to learn from that experience and leave town...and part of me wants to stay inside for the whole weekend! I think knowing what it's like will make it easier for me to plan around it--last year I had no idea that there was a parade-eve component.

    The corn on the cob sounds good, but I'm not much of a parade person--crowds that big make me nervous...
  • dailyheights
    dailyheights
    I don't have anything to add, but I wanted to contribute to this thread because it seems to be losing the "dueling West Indian Day Parade threads" contest.

    Oh wait, I do have something to add. Since alcohol sales are now banned, are the police tolerant at all of brown bagging?
  • carnivore
    carnivore
    dailyheights wrote: I don't have anything to add, but I wanted to contribute to this thread because it seems to be losing the "dueling West Indian Day Parade threads" contest.

    Oh wait, I do have something to add. Since alcohol sales are now banned, are the police tolerant at all of brown bagging?
    I like to bring a thermos full of rum to add to the pina coladas and other tropical drinks they sell.
  • daveb
    daveb
    dailyheights wrote: I don't have anything to add, but I wanted to contribute to this thread because it seems to be losing the "dueling West Indian Day Parade threads" contest.

    Oh wait, I do have something to add. Since alcohol sales are now banned, are the police tolerant at all of brown bagging?
    Police don't do much of anything aside from standing around, at least as far as my experience went. Lotta drinking, lotta bottles in the street.
  • whyfi
    whyfi
    Carnivore wrote:
    I like to bring a thermos full of rum to add to the pina coladas and other tropical drinks they sell.
    that's a damn good idea!!! i here i thought that i was cool making rum punches and drinking 'em out of gatorade bottles!
  • bluedove
    bluedove
    Curry chicken from The Islands + bottle of Coke + individual-size bottle of rum from liquor store on corner + Ronald McNair Park = heaven
  • carnivore
    carnivore
    bluedove wrote: Curry chicken from The Islands + bottle of Coke + individual-size bottle of rum from liquor store on corner + Ronald McNair Park = heaven
    That sounds awesome. That sounds like my next weekday off right there (maybe shrimp curry instead of chicken).
  • carnivore
    carnivore
    "The Labor Day Parade" must defeat "When's that West Indian Parade?"!!!

    If I have to, I'll bring up the fireworks topic here, dammit!
  • bluedove
    bluedove
    Just make sure to ask for extra napkins :wink:
  • anonymous
    anonymous
    My first post:

    I've never really considered the parade/festival dangerous. But, last year, you'll recall that Labor Day was the final day of the Security Event of the decade - the Republican Nat'l Convention. You'll also recall how tense it was in the City during that event - what with people getting arrested just for walking down the street, nets being used to arrest bikers en masse, etc. So by the time the parade rolled around, the air in the NYC was quite sour. It didn't help that NYPD had helicopters circling Pro Ho from 6 am on. I felt like I was living in Belfast or something.

    Around mid-afternoon I went to the parade, got a nice rum punch and started sampling the eats. The dangerous incident and thus the reason for the post, occured when a fight errupted about a block away. About 30 of New York's finest ran to the incident with billy clubs at the ready. The crowd reacted by moving away from the incident quickly. Unfortunately, with all the people there, sudden movement like that is very dangerous. For several blocks people were pinned up against the concession stands, grown men were wimpering in fear, several people tried to climb under the stands. It was a dangerous mess.

    The parade isn't dangerous because of a random murder at one of the pre or post parties. The parade is dangerous because of crowd mentality. I still plan on going though!
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