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June 2, 2008

Who's Afraid of the Puerto Rican Day Parade?

2008_06_prparade.jpgWell, according to a New York Magazine Intelligencer item, it might be Madison Avenue cafe Via Quadronno. The establishment "closes for just four days each year: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and a certain spring day."

A spokesman claims coincidence. “We close that day every year for internal construction,” he says. “The last day of the first week of June.” The Puerto Rican Day Parade is on the second Sunday of June each year.
Snap! And a regular confirms to NY that "They tell you the day before—they whisper it—‘Don’t come tomorrow.'"

Back in 2005, Mayor Bloomberg told swanky Fifth Avenue apartment buildings not to board up their doors and windows during the parade because it was insulting. And last year, there were over 200 arrests at the parade, though there were questions over whether the arrests were warranted (some accused the police of sweeping up people, the police said many were involved with gangs).

This year's parade is on Sunday, June 8. It starts at 11 a.m., with the festivities traveling north on Fifth Avenue from 44th St. to 86th St. This year's Grand Marshal is labor leader Dennis Rivera.

Photograph of the 2006 Puerto Rican Day parade by Boss Tweed on Flickr

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Comments (77) [rss]

Everyone!! Okay, maybe just those people living in the neighborhoods the parade passes through.

 

@nomnomnom:


Unfortunately, I live in Brooklyn and basically make a mental note to stay close to home. Honking car horns, revelers streaming from the subways, all the rest of it.

I feel the same way about Halloween, New Year's Eve, and St. Patrick's Day.

 

LOL!!!I CAN'T WAIT FOR ALL THE COMMENTS!!!!!

 

I think ticker tape parades can be bad.

 

@matukonyc Good point. All parades where people are celebrating tend to be reasons to avoid a neighborhood. I would think crowds and participants for parades on Memorial Day and Veterans Day aren't big rabble-rousers.

 

June 8? Thanks for the warning. I have friends on the east side who leave the city every year for the PR parade. I'll just do the usual and stay far away and hope for rain.

 

Halloween is also a horrible horrible parade, but basically these parades are licenses for people (mostly from outside Manhattan) to act like total buffoons.

The simple fact is that New York on Puerto Rican Day/St. Patrick's Day/Halloween/etc. is far more dangerous than on days without it.

 

We need to stop this glut of parades. They all suck.

Or let's just create on big ass parade. Consolidation is the future. And to lead the parade of fools--Fat Al. Critical Mass can follow behind so that they can be easily arrested afterwards.


 

I plan on packing a camera and getting some footage of the tards this year...

 

it already feels like puerto rican day everyday in bushwick, so i can't imagine what june 8 will be like :(((( i'm getting the hell out of dodge on sunday, that's for sure.

 

What a day! bookended with the Israeli and Puerto Rican day parades... I thought the day would end with a whimper.

 

Who wants some action on the over/under for the number of arrests this year?

 

Rocknrope, $20 on Over 250.

 

if hillary doesn't march will you believe she's a fake after all?

 

White trash, black trash, hispanic trash... we should get rid of all of them and there would be enough apartments for all the white europeans that are coming to NY...

btw, that was sarcasm...

 

I don't mind it that much. They're proud of their culture so let them have their day and so their pride. Better than Saint Pat's with the Drunken Irish.

I just wish that the fat Puerto Rican women who want to show their pride would please chill with the tight clothing. The jelly rolls kill me

 

I swear to God, I'm gonna get a camera to record all these dickhead Boricuas in their element and put it on youtube. I wonder if they were shamed nationally would they stop. Oh wait, they already were, and they didn't.

 

"our neighborhoods" HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

That is retarded and hysterical on so many different levels.

 

It's gonna be 85 degrees this weekend. how will they cool off? I'm looking for some camel toe.
Will those two guys from public access be there?
anyway, the parade never bothered me, I'm rarely in that area though I did work during St. Patrick's day and had to be on the train with drunks.
and, Puerto Rico is called the armpit of the Caribbean. not by me, I can't afford to go to Jones beach.

 

They have a right to close any day they choose and shouldn't feel obliged to remain open on Puerto Rican Day. Next thing you know they'll be forced to serve (shudder) Armenians.

 

Its ethnic. Its cultural. Whatever. Its New York City, thank god. Let people have a good time. "I can't stand these people" "I can't stand those people" What a bunch of retarded self agrandizing backwards dumb-ass nazi whinners! If you think you are not ethnic, you are mistaken. Just thing about what your boring white ass looks like to people who grew up with a lot of passion, expression and flavor in their lives. There is no white middle-class principle dictating status quo. Get over it.

There. I fell better now.

 

Hey, whitey, I mean, slappy,

Trust me. The PRs don't have any passion, expression, or flavor in their lives. They don't even have their own country. They are all dumb Americans, like the rest of us.

 

MFer
Thanks for proving my point.

 

You're welcome for proving mine.

 

We want a wet parade.
Booty galore.
Mucho culo.

 

JacqueMehoff some of that Camel Toe will be mixed with the grotesque sight of Hippo Toe. I recommend you take extreme caution.

 

I know the Borricua are as decent as anyone else- but a commenters parade would scare the hell out of me. Or maybe not. The lack of anonymity would probably keep all the cowardly haters in their vans by the river.

 

We dont bother anyone during their parades so stay away from us or you will have your pastey, grungey, not from New York anyway wannabe faces busted open with some hardcore fists. Dont go there.

 

Mexicans respect Puerto Ricans as much as Dominicans love Haitians- it's a fact!

 

How come the puerto rican and mexican food is so bad in NYC?

 

If you want to stop their parade, eliminate cell phone service along the route.

 

Personally find nationality-based parades annoying and avoid those designated areas like the plague. Think of all the money wasted to clean up after those huge, littering crowds.

 

We should pair up these parades: Gay Pride + Puerto Rican; Greek + Turkish; Israeli + Arab

 

Yeah, West Indian with Irish Day Patricks parade.

 

The RC boat rental at the pond at Central Park is also closed on Puerto Rican day Parade.

And on a side note: tried renting a remote control boat there once when my nieces and nephews were visiting from Las Vegas (we're not white) and they said they were out of RC rental boats, but all along all these UES or WASP kids with mom & dad in tow just goes in there and were able to rent one.

Good to be white.

 

You should have busted the clerks face with a solid right to the jaw. Sure, you would have probably gotten shot by the responding cops but at least you would have busted up a RACIST hipster/chuppie . Then the Rev. Sharpton could have sued them for you getting you what you deserved. They are sickening in their hatred of people of color. They are destroying the Democrat party with their deep seated racism that they can no longer contain, its at the surface now.

You must not defer to these cowards. When they are trying to act hip in the store or restaurant, like when they try to speak spanish when they order their food, laugh in their racist faces and remind them what empty, phony, culture-less fools they are.

 

Hey Bingo, this rich white dude just bought your building, and I'm throwing your non-white ass out on the street! hahahahaha have fun in east new york, clown!

 

East New York, the place where you "rich white dudes" are afraid to go... coward. By the way, I own my house, I dont rent like all of you worms that abandoned the hell holes you used to live in you in favor of NY.

But I see for sure you are one of the hipster wannabes that brags about how you are "keepin it real in NYC' when you go home to your boring hell holes but yet you hate the people of color in NYC that you flock to live with. I saw you trying to speak spanish when ordering tacos, you fool, I was the one laughing at you, fool. That bothers it right, I got your pathetic act down and am exposing you racist wannabe hipster/yuppies.

 

Good to be white unless you want to go to the PR parade with Bingo up there.

 

I'm Puerto Rican and I stay FAAAAAAAAAAAR away from the parade every year.

Enough said.

 

Geez- sounds like some people are ANGRY and don't like being 'PuertoRicans'!

 

Nothing like a PR parade story to draw out the trolls. I've never heard that PR was armpit of Latin America or that PRcans are the white trash version of Latinos. Be that as it may, if you have never been to PR, you should go. It's a beautiful island and the people are much more genuine and friendly than the fake PRcans who flock to the parade each year, but have never been to the island. Please keep your nasty comments to yourself if you don't actually know what you are talking about.

 

Just mind your racist business, thats all. You like to brag that you live here, you masturbate over our Latinas and African queens yet you are scared off by us when we are living our culture you are so envious of. Thats why so many of you front with PR flags and hats and shirts that day while hiding in STARBUCKS.

 

envious of what culture? rattling your '98 nissan with reggaeton out of cheap subwoofers and eating big macs all day?

 

You see... you are racist hipster wannabes ... you cant contain your hatred. Yet you all claim you support Barack. Bipolar wannabes....

 

I was born in Bklyn and have lived in NYC my whole life. I've driven all over Puerto Rico and I also used to bang a gorgeous 'Rican chick on Blake Avenue in East New York. I've been the whitest white guy on Eastern Parkway during the Caribbean Day parade. But I still won't go to the PR parade because the people there have an established history of acting like animals.

And which culture is that? The one that has you dropping out of school at 16 so you can put chickens on rotisserie skewers?

 

Not that I really give a damn about any of this as I tend to not give a damn about most things, but if Puerto Ricans are so damn happy about being Puerto Rican, why are they living in New York?

 

"if Puerto Ricans are so damn happy about being Puerto Rican, why are they living in New York?"

You can substitute Puerto Ricans with:
Irish, Jews, Greeks, Italian, Haitian, Dominican, Germans, Polish, Norwegians, Cubans, Pakistanis, West Indians, Brazilians, Mexicans, Koreans, Chinese...

these are just some of the ethnic groups that I know of who holds parade in the NYC, no to mention those who don't have parades in NYC whoa re happily living in NY.

Who should then live in NYC?

 

I'm a PR'can born and raised in the Bronx and have always been embarrassed by the way 'my people' act in public arenas- namely this one. Is there a need to get sloppy drunk in public, grope women and act so ridiculously that a family can't bring their children out to the parade? Is there really a need for Puertorrican women to leave their houses wearing next to nothing? People think we are stupid because there IS a majority of Puertorricans who act that way, and of course, that becomes the stereotype. If you want the Mayor and anyone else to respect us as a culture, you need to quit acting a damn fool and earn it!

 

"Who's Afraid of the Puerto Rican Day Parade?"

Judging by the comments on this thread? Most of Gothamist, it seems.

It's tough to live in this city when you're a closet racist hipster/yuppie originally from Ohio. Oh wait, you want to take "your" NYC back.

 

Its funny. All of these hipster/yuppies/chuppies, one after another, make racist remarks above. These same clowns are making 85 % of the contributions to Barack O's campaign. Some of them we are bitch slappin it out of them, the others are just turning their pockets inside out like when they got their lunch money taking from them in the school yard. Or the other jerks that throw money at the brothers on the train because they are shittin in their pants looking at a brother one foot away saying "Give me some money.... PLEASE !!!." Either way, these jerks are giving it up. But when it comes to their racism they cant hide from it. They are all for the brother of color (90 % or better here) when they can brag about being "progressive". But the truth is they are racist cowards. Either way the jerks will do what we want and that is give their money to and vote for BO.

 

B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, and Jackass was his name-o.