De Blasio: NYC to hold parade for heroes of COVID pandemic on July 7
New York City will celebrate the essential workers who got the city through the coronavirus pandemic with a July 7 ticker-tape parade up the Canyon of Heroes, Mayor de Blasio announced Monday
Health care workers, first responders and a variety of frontline workers will get the hero treatment, he said.
“We are going to hold a parade to honor them, to thank them, to celebrate them,” de Blasio said at a news conference.
It will be the first major parade since the citywide shutdown in March 2020 and comes as most restrictions on daily life have been eased amid a historic vaccination effort.
Details of the forthcoming “Hometown Heroes Parade” were still being worked out, but de Blasio said it would feature floats honoring health care workers, first responders, educators, municipal workers, transportation workers, grocery and bodega workers, and delivery people.
“It’s going to be an example of the great tradition of ticker-tape parades,” the mayor said. “They’ve happened for generations, but this one is going to have a special spirit to it, a special heart and soul, because it’s about celebrating everyday New Yorkers.”
Previous parades in the Canyon of Heroes, a strip of Broadway in lower Manhattan, have honored everyone from the troops who won World War II to the U.S. women’s soccer team.
City Councilman Mark Levine (D-Manhattan) applauded the idea.
“Essential workers in this pandemic have served, sacrificed — so many have gotten sick because they’ve been out there and exposed and a heartbreaking number have died,” he told the Daily News.
“They are absolutely worthy of the city’s gratitude, and what better way to do it than a ticker-tape parade? It’s the ultimate honor here in New York City,” added Levine, chairman of the Council’s Health Committee.
As the city comes out of the pandemic, officials have been looking for ways to memorialize those lost to the deadly virus.
Last month, the city unveiled the first statue honoring victims of COVID.
In March, the city held a day of remembrance for those who lost their lives to the virus — a number that stood at 33,344 as of Monday morning, according to the Health Department.
Levine has been pushing for the city to set up a task force on creating a permanent memorial to essential workers who died of COVID. The commission would consist of labor leaders and family members of those who died, under a bill he introduced last year.
“We want to get that going now so we don’t have the kind of delays we had with the 9/11 Memorial,” Levine said.
Both the infection rate and number of new deaths have undergone steep declines in recent weeks, as more and more New Yorkers get vaccinated.
More than 8.7 million doses have been administered citywide, though de Blasio recently said the Big Apple will not meet his goal of having 5 million people fully vaccinated by the end of the month.
With News Wire Services
