Pride March about-face: Will end in Chelsea
permit using last
year’s route when
Gay City News,
a sister paper of
this newspaper,
contacted them
for comment.
The March
19 press release
that announced
the 2019 route
quoted Julian
Sanjivan and
Chris Frederick,
two senior HOP
members, Mayor
Bill de Blasio
and Corey Johnson,
the openly
gay speaker of
the City Council.
Johnson represents
Chelsea,
along with the
West Village and
This year’s Pride March will start
in the Flatiron District, head down
to the Village and then finish in
Chelsea.
Hell’s Kitchen, and has had to contend
with the competing demands of residents
there and the broader L.G.B.T.Q.
community.
“As we commemorate the 50th anniversary
of the Stonewall Uprising,
it is fi tting that we will march down
Fifth Ave., past the Stonewall Inn and
Williams talks on traffi c tax, SBS, Two Bridges
my only caveat,” Williams said, of keeping
an eye on where the funds go.
Williams was also queried about the
proposed Two Bridges towers development
plans.
“The fact that they went around
ULURP is ridiculous,” scoffed Williams,
referring to the review process
that the City Planning Commission allowed
the towers to avoid.
He noted that the public advocate,
in fact, can appoint people to the City
Planning Commission.
“I want to put someone in who has
a different point of view with that, because
overdevelopment obviously is a
huge issue,” he said.
Williams noted that, even if developments
were being properly devoted to
affordable housing, most people don’t
want to live next to tall buildings.
“I’ve called for a moratorium on most
rezonings,” he said. “And I’ve also called
for a racial-impact study to be done before
rezonings go through, because we
are failing. And if we’re going to ask
people to accept some density, it should
be for the housing that we actually need
— and I haven’t seen that.”
A number of C.B. 3 members told
Williams that the new M.T.A. plan to
reduce stops on the M14A and M14D
— the 14th St. crosstown bus — while
implementing a Select Bus Service for
those routes, would harm the community.
through the neighborhoods of Greenwich
Village and Chelsea, cradles of
the modern L.G.B.T.Q. civil rights
movement,” Johnson said in the press
release. “I want to thank Mayor de Blasio,
the N.Y.P.D., NYC Pride and all
their partners for their hard work in
planning WorldPride NYC 2019, a tremendous
logistical feat.”
HOP, which also goes by the name
NYC Pride, is expecting 150,000
marchers this year — three times
last year’s total, in large part because
WorldPride is taking place simultaneously,
the fi rst time the global gathering
will be held in the U.S. Since 2010, the
city has required that all parades last
no longer than fi ve hours. The Pride
March, which is one of the four largest
public events in the city, has not come
close to that target in years. The 2017
march was just under 10 hours long,
and the marches in 2016 and 2015 were
each more than eight hours long.
“That’s the big thing now is fi guring
out how to get this moving,” Fallarino
said. “We want everyone to be seen and
we want them thinking about everybody
else, as well.”
One member called the plan horrendous
and a disservice that would
disenfranchise older people, who would
have to walk extra blocks to reach a bus
stop.
“We need your help in saving the M14
bus stops,” C.B. 3 member Lee Berman
urged Williams.
The public advocate said he was still
learning about the issue and didn’t have
a full answer. He assured board members
that he had also listened to local
residents’ testimony criticizing the plan
during the “public session” at the start
of the meeting.
Among those speaking against the bus
plan was Kate Puls, co-chairperson of
the Ninth St. A1 Block Association. She
said she was representing the group’s 80
members, plus hundreds of seniors, parents
and children in Alphabet City.
“The SBS will be welcome, but we
rely on all the stops,” she stressed.
C.B. 3 District Manager Susan
Stetzer said that SBS being added to a
local route could actually decrease ridership
on local buses, which happened
to the M15. She said that change led to
local buses arriving as much as 20 minutes
apart. Stetzer urged people to ask
questions about the full impact of having
SBS and local routes, because even
if all stops were kept, it could still have
negative results.
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
After saying as recently as January
that this year’s Pride March
would be staged in Chelsea and
end at 29th St. and Fifth Ave., the organization
that produces the parade and
related events has reversed course. The
march will now be staged in the blocks
above 26th St. and Fifth Ave., in the
Flatiron District, and will end at 23rd
St. and Seventh Ave.
“Our intention originally was to go
the exact same route as last year,” said
James Fallarino, the spokesperson for
Heritage of Pride, the group that produces
the march and related events.
“After we got the community feedback
and we spoke with folks in the Mayor’s
Offi ce, Corey Johnson’s Offi ce and the
N.Y.P.D., all of us got together to fi gure
out what made the most sense.”
The 2019 march commemorates the
50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall
Riots, which mark the start of the modern
L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement. The
fi rst march took place in 1970 and it
has taken various routes in the years
since. This year, the march will head
south on Fifth Ave., west on Eighth St.
and Christopher St. past the Stonewall
Inn, then north on Seventh Ave. to the
dispersal area.
In 2018, the
march was staged
in Chelsea, which
enraged some local
residents, in
part because they
were only told of
the plan very close
to the date of the
event. The march
always occurs on
the last Sunday
in June. Heritage
of Pride promised
Chelsea residents
that contingents
would only
briefl y test sound
systems during
the day and that
discipline held in
the morning, but
collapsed by the
afternoon. The
last contingents, which were comprised
of an estimated 50,000 marchers, left
Chelsea at about 7 p.m. The last marchers
arrived at the dispersal area at 9:14
pm. The march always begins at noon.
This year, some Chelsea residents
were angered because they fi rst learned
that HOP had applied for a city parade
BY GABE HERMAN
Just a week into his new job as the
city’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams
visited Community Board 3
on March 26.
Williams said he came to say thank
you and hear from board members
about what concerns are most pressing
in the East Village, the Lower East
Side and Chinatown. Issues raised to
him included proposed changes to the
M14 bus routes and congestion pricing.
Williams received a warm reception
as he was introduced at the meeting,
held in the auditorium at P.S. 20 at 166
Essex St.
“Community boards are dear to me,”
Williams said, noting he started out as
a member of Community Board 18 in
Brooklyn 20 years ago.
He said he knew how critically important
community boards are, and he
thanked those who voted for him in the
race for advocate.
“For those who didn’t, I’m still your
public advocate,” he said to laughs. “I
have a job to do and that includes making
sure your issues are heard, as well.”
Nancy Ortiz, the board’s second vice
chairperson, asked Williams to give his
position on congestion pricing.
“I may get some boos, but I do support
congestion pricing,” he responded,
mostly to applause. Williams called the
Jumaane Williams speaking at
Community Board 3 on Tues.,
March 26.
initiative “critically important.”
It’s a matter of parity, he said, since
subway riders are usually the ones asked
to pay, but drivers should contribute
funding, as well, for the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority.
Williams said he was open to exemptions
on the congestion surcharge,
such as for disabled and elderly people.
And he stressed that he wants to make
sure the funds actually would go to the
M.T.A.
“I do not trust the governor. That is
Schneps Media CNW April 4, 2019 3