West Indian Day Parade Fans Out

On what was surely one of the most beautiful "last day of the summer" in recent memory, millions of people celebrated in Brooklyn at the 38th West Indian American Day Carnival and Parade. While people with roots in the Caribbean were the main participants, they weren't the only ones: The NY Times reported that "four rabbinical students donned do-rags with the colors of the Jamaican flag." And Gothamist's favorite quote comes from Newsday, where Jason Ridges said, "I'm not from any island but Coney Island. This is the one day of the year I can feel Caribbean."

The Mayoral would-bes and the Mayor were on hand at the parade, with the Times calling the race "recharged" as they raced to shore up support at the biggest public event before the primary next week. One fascinating quote was from a black woman who told the Times, "Virginia is a strong black woman (and the mother of two sons, ages 9 and 10), and I love her, but I'm actually voting for Bloomberg. Bloomberg has made the schools better, no question. He ended social promotion. My boys' future is in those schools, and Bloomberg cares about that." But, according to the Times, some paradegoers shouted "17 seats!" at City Councilman Gifford Miller, referring to his plan to reduce class size, former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer was welcomed mostly warmly and Congressman Anthony Weiner rallied support possibly by imitating a Jamaican accents, while Manhattan BEEP C. Virginia Fields was the most popular candidate.

If you didn't make it out to Eastern Parkway, you can revel in the brilliant colors of the parade by looking some photograph: Here's a set by Staceyjoy Elkin and one by Ranjit Bhatnagar; plus, here's the Flickr tag for "West Indian Day." And link to your pictures in the comments.

Photograph by Staceyjoy Elkin