Dear Friends…Today the whole NY City celebrated the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade. This is by far the largest gathering of people marched through the 5th Ave. Thousands of people especially Puerto Rican descended marched wearing colorful costumes and dresses on the 5th Ave.
[/caption]Puerto Rican Day Parade

Today a very long blocks of 5th Ave was closed from morning till 6 p.m. in the evening. Even though the 5th Ave and the cross streets were supposed to be closed from 11 a.m but in reality the NYPD and DOT started to close the cross streets from 8 o’clock in the morning. This parade is the largest parades in the city so the preparations had to be also a very big one.

Parade goers started to gather on the both side of the 5th Ave from morning. They came with drums, American and Puerto Rican flags, colorful dresses and so on..it looked great to see all those people were enjoying the not so hot day in Manhattan. I wanted to go and enjoy with all those people but was confined in my taxi as I have to pay my bills..life has taken so many things from me….but I have to move on..work hard and pay the bills…

I have no problem with the parades the city hosts throughout the city during the Summer but the problem is that almost all the weekends the city closes various streets and avenues and that makes it very hard for us the Taxi Drivers to move around. Sometimes 2 downtown bound like 5th Ave and Lexinton Ave or 2 uptown bound avenues like 6th Ave and Madison Ave are closed at the same time and that makes almost impossible to go uptown as 2 back to back northbound avenues are closed. Sometimes 2/3 cross streets are closed while 2 other avenues are closed at the same time.
I understand that there are many groups of people live NY City and it is hard to manage all the groups in 4/5 months of times. Either the city totally stops all those parades and festivals or give permission to every group seeking permission. I also understand that it is a big business for the city and NY City just can not afford not to have those parades.
But the problem is closing all those roads at the same time. I want to propose that let the 1st ave and 11th ave be used for parades and any other food festivals. If it can be done then the mid town where most of the traffic stays will be congestion free and traffic would be able to move freely and thus reducing traffic jams.
Remember the roads are basically for auto traffic..not for partying..

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