By Bill Parry
Mayor Bill de Blasio will be joined by most, if not all, of the City Council in the 15th Annual St. Pat’s for All Parade in Sunnyside Sunday.
De Blasio confirmed with organizers of the inclusive alternative parade Tuesday, the same day that Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito (D-Manhattan) announced the Council’s boycott of the Fifth Avenue St. Patrick’s Day Parade citing the traditional parade’s exclusion of openly gay participants.
“This City Council is committed to celebrating and respecting the diversity of New York City and that is why we’ve decided to not participate in the parade,” Mark-Viverito said in a statement.
While individual Council members can still participate in the Manhattan march, they are all expected to join the rest of the city’s leadership in Sunnyside.
“They’ll all be here at the St. Pat’s for All Parade,” Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) said. “And why wouldn’t they rather be here. Having been a founder of the parade, I can tell you it encompasses the true meaning of the day, that everyone can be Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. It’s a true representation of Queens, the borough of nations.”
The parade kicks off at 1 p.m. at 47th Street and Skillman Avenue and continue to 58th Street in Woodside. This year more than a hundred organizations will march, featuring a wide spectrum of LGBT groups, immigrant communities and civic groups.
Last year, the FDNY Emerald Society Pipes & Drums marched on Skillman for the first time and this year they return with a larger contingent to lead the parade.
“I’m very heartened and proud that this is all happening in Sunnyside,” Co-Chairman Brendan Fay said.
The parade’s other co-chair, Katherine Walsh D’Arcy, said, “I’m so thrilled with the way it’s grown and the way the neighborhood has accepted us.”
Walsh D’Arcy mentioned several business groups that have promoted the parade and singled out one, Saints & Sinners, a restaurant at 59-21 Roosevelt Ave. “They’ve hosted our after-party all 15 years and in the early days it was tough on them. Woodside wasn’t as accepting as they are now,” she said.
On Saturday, an even bigger parade takes place in Rockaway. The 39th Annual Queens County St. Patrick’s Day Parade gets underway at 1 p.m. at Beach 130th Street and the route finishes at 101st Street and Rockaway Beach Boulevard.
This march has drawn more than 50,000 spectators in the past but is still coming back from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy.
“It’s our second parade since the storm and it’s a great way for the community to be together after a tough winter,” organizer Michael Benn said. “We’ve got 23 bands this year from all over the tri-state. Mother Nature was hard on us this winter, but if we could get over Sandy, we can get over the winter.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
