If you love parades or you are a runner, this weekend is shaping up as one to enjoyat Numerous NYC street Two fairly sunny days with temperatures in the high 50s. Two days for marching, running or spectating.
If you have somewhere to go and plan to drive and the trip involves Manhattan, your experience will probably be different. You may find yourself snarling about snarled traffic.
Why? Because it is a weekend with what Sarah Kaufman, the director of the Rudin Center for Transportation at New York University, called “a confluence.”
Tomorrow, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade starts up Fifth Avenue at 11 a.m.
On Sunday, the New York City Half Marathon will work its way from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Mile 11 of the 13.1-mile course starts in Times Square. Race officials say it will be the only time other than New Year’s Eve when Times Square is closed to traffic.
No wonder the “weekend traffic advisory,” the city Transportation Department’s list of streets that will be closed at times between now and Monday, is 16 pages long.
“This is a weekend to not even think of taking your car if you’re going to Manhattan,” said Samuel Schwartz, who was the city traffic commissioner in the 1980s and is now a consultant. “Stay on your own two feet or stay underground.”
He, of course, means walk or take the subway, which are often the fastest ways around the city anyway.
The detours this weekend may affect pedestrians and cyclists, too. More than 20 streets in Manhattan will be off limits to traffic on Saturday or Sunday while cranes do work at construction sites that cannot be done on a weekday.
The Transportation Department says that street closings, even those that are scheduled, happen at the Police Department’s discretion. The police said it would have “an adequate security overlay deployed” on Saturday and Sunday., but a spokesman for the department would not discuss specific arrangements.
St. Patrick’s Day Parade
It will take place a day before the holiday this year, as is the custom when March 17 is a Sunday. The organizers expect 150,000 marchers and two million spectators. State and local officials, including Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams, will take part.
Schwartz said the parade would complicate getting across Manhattan.
“It’s a block from Radio City and two blocks from the theater district,” Schwartz said. “The theaters have matinees going. People trying to get there from the east, driving from Brooklyn and Queens, will have to cross the parade unless Waze tells them to go around the horn, up the F.D.R. and down the West Side Highway, because there’s effectively a wall at Fifth Avenue. Occasionally the police let some traffic through, but it’s pretty hard going for anybody on the cross streets.”
The race will begin on Washington Avenue near the Brooklyn Museum, with the first group scheduled to head out at 7 a.m. From there, participants will thread their way through Prospect Park on the way to Manhattan. After reaching Times Square, they will head north on Seventh Avenue, turn onto Central Park South and loop their way through Central Park. The finish line will be on the west side of the park, near Tavern on the Green.
There will also be the Times Square Kids Run, on a one-mile out-and-back course, beginning at 7:35 a.m.
And on Staten Island
Adams’s office announced last month that Staten Island, the city’s most conservative borough, would have two St. Patrick’s Day parades. The second, the Forest Avenue St. Patrick’s Day Parade, will begin at noon on Sunday and will be open to L.G.B.T.Q. groups. The other parade, the only one in the city that still does not allow L.G.B.T.Q. organizations to take part, was held on March 3. Adams, a Democrat, has boycotted the Staten Island parade in past years; a spokeswoman for the mayor said last month that he would attend the Forest Avenue event.
There are going to be many street closures in NYC due to multiple St. Patrick’s Day Parades and the United Airlines Half-Marathon being held this weekend.
Staten Island is going to be buzzing on Sunday with its second St. Patrick’s Parade of March – being held on St. Patrick’s Day for the first time, the parade will include LGBTQ+ groups marching under their own banner and is sponsored by the Forest Avenue BID.
Unusually, the NYC parade will not be on St. Patrick’s Day. This year, Manhattan will be hosting the annual NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Saturday, March 16 at 11 a.m. The parade will begin on 5th Avenue at 44th Street.
Formation:
Vanderbilt Avenue between 43rd Street and 46th Street
43rd Street between Vanderbilt Avenue and 6th Avenue
44th Street between Vanderbilt Avenue and 6th Avenue
45th Street between Vanderbilt Avenue and 6th Avenue
46th Street between Vanderbilt Avenue and 6th Avenue
47th Street between Park Avenue and 6th Avenue
48th Street between Park Avenue and 6th Avenue
The routes are by follow:
5th Avenue between 83rd Street and 43rd Street
Dispersal:
5th Avenue between 86th Street and 79th Street
79th Street between Park Avenue and 5th Avenue
80th Street between Lexington Avenue and 5th Avenue
81st Street between Lexington Avenue and 5th Avenue
82nd Street between Lexington Avenue and 5th Avenue
83rd Street between Lexington Avenue and 5th Avenue
84th Street between Madison Avenue and 5th Avenue
Miscellaneous:
49th Street between Madison Avenue and Rockefeller Plaza
50th Street between Madison Avenue and Rockefeller Plaza
51st Street between Madison Avenue and 6th Avenue
53rd Street between Madison Avenue and 6th Avenue
58th Street between Madison Avenue and 6th Avenue
62nd Street between Madison Avenue and 5th Avenue
63rd Street between Madison Avenue and 5th Avenue
64th Street between Park Avenue and 5th Avenue
65th Street between Madison Avenue and 5th Avenue
70th Street between Madison Avenue and 5th Avenue
71st Street between Madison Avenue and 5th Avenue
72nd Street between Madison Avenue and 5th Avenue
78th Street between Madison Avenue and 5th Avenue
Madison Avenue between 42nd Street and 86th Street
The United Airlines Half-Marathon will also be held this coming Sunday, March 17th at 7:00 a.m. The route starts in Brooklyn on Washington Avenue near the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, where runners will make their way over the Manhattan Bridge, through Times Square, and finish it off in Central Park.
SUNDAY, MARCH 17, 2024: STATEN ISLAND ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE STREET CLOSURES
Formation:
Forest Avenue between Hart Boulevard and Randall Avenue
Route:
Forest Avenue between Hart Boulevard and Broadway
Dispersal:
Forest Avenue between Broadway and Clove Road
The Brooklyn St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be held this Sunday, March 17th at 1 P.M. The parade will start at Bartel-Pritchard Square on 14th Street.
SUNDAY, MARCH 17, 2024: BROOKLYN ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE STREET CLOSURES
Formation/Dispersal:
Prospect Park West between 15th Street and 9th Streets
Route:
15th Street between Prospect Park West and 7th Avenue
7th Avenue between 15th Street and Garfield Place
Garfield Place between 7th Avenue and Prospect Park West
Prospect Park West between Garfield Place and 15th Street
SUNDAY, MARCH 17, 2024: UNITED AIRLINES HALF-MARATHON STREET CLOSURES
Formation:
Brooklyn Portion:
Eastern Parkway between Franklin Avenue and Flatbush Avenue
Washington Avenue between Eastern Parkway and Empire Boulevard
Sullivan Place between Washington Avenue and Franklin Avenue
Classon Avenue between Washington Avenue and Eastern Parkway
Union Street between Classon Avenue and Franklin Avenue
Empire Boulevard between Flatbush Avenue and Washington Avenue
Willink Drive between Flatbush Avenue and East Drive
East Drive between Willink Drive and Grand Army Plaza
Center Drive between West Drive and East Drive
Flatbush Avenue between Empire Boulevard and Grand Army Plaza
Grand Army Plaza Oval
Flatbush Avenue between Flatbush Grand Army Plaza and Fulton Street
Flatbush Avenue Extension between Fulton Street and Nassau Street
Manhattan Portion:
Manhattan Bridge Upper Level (Manhattan-bound)
Forsyth Street between Canal Street and Dead End
Canal Street between Chrystie Street and Allen Street
Allen Street between Canal Street and Division Street
Pike Street between Division Street and Cherry Street
Pike Slip between Cherry Street and South Street
South Street between Pike Slip and Montgomery Street
Montgomery Street FDR Entrance Ramp
FDR Drive (Northbound) between Montgomery Street and 42nd Street
42nd Street FDR Exit Ramp
42nd Street between FDR Drive and 7th Avenue
7th Avenue between 42nd Street and 59th Street
59th Street between Columbus Circle and 5th Avenue
Grand Army Plaza between 59th Street and 60th Street
East Drive between Grand Army Plaza and Terrace Drive
Terrace Drive between East Drive and West Drive
Terrace Drive between Central Park West 72nd Street and West Drive
West Drive between Terrace Drive and Center Drive
67th Street / Warmer LeRoy Place between Central Park West and West Drive
Center Drive between West Drive and Center Drive
Central Drive between East Drive and West 59th Street/6th Avenue
West Drive between 102nd Street Crossing and Terrace Drive
East Drive between 102nd Street Crossing and Terrace Drive
102nd Street Crossing between West Drive and East Drive
Columbus Circle Entire Circle
Central Park West between Columbus Circle and 72nd Street
72nd Street between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West
69th Street between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West
67th Street between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West
64th Street between Broadway and Central Park West
63rd Street/Sesame Street between Broadway and Central Park West
62nd Street between Broadway and Central Park West
61st Street between Broadway and Central Park West
60th Street between Broadway and Central Park
49th Street between Broadway and 7th Avenue
46th Street between 7th Avenue and 6th Avenue
45th Street between 7th Avenue and 6th Avenue
44th Street between 7th Avenue and 6th Avenue
43rd Street between 7th Avenue and 6th Avenue
6th Avenue between 43rd Street and 45th Street