When NYC reopens, there will be a ticker-tape parade for health care workers and first responders
“The first thing we will do, before we think about anything else, is we will take a time as only New York City can do, to throw the biggest, best parade to honor these heroes,” said Mayor de Blasio in his morning press conference, referring to his announcement that the city will hold a ticker-tape parade down the Canyon of Heroes for health care workers and first responders as soon as things reopen. “This parade will mark the beginning of our renaissance.”
As 6sqft previously explained, ticker-tape parades “originated spontaneously on October 28, 1886, when Wall Streeters began throwing ticker-tape out their office windows as an enraptured public marched down Broadway to the Battery to celebrate the dedication of ‘Liberty Enlightening the World,’ or the Statue of Liberty as we know her.”
For the past 120+ years, heroes from Teddy Roosevelt and General John Pershing to Charles Lindbergh and Neil Armstrong to sports stars like Jesse Owens and Joe DiMaggio have all been celebrated along the route, but Mayor de Blasio said that this parade may be the greatest of all. “This one will speak to the rebirth of New York City. This one will speak to a kind of heroism that is intrinsic to who we are as New Yorkers.”
“The day is coming when I’m going to be able to tell you we can gather again; the day is coming when I’m going to tell you, in fact, we will be having the concerts and the street fairs and the parades again. But I want to guarantee you one thing, that when that day comes, that we can restart the vibrant, beautiful life of this city again, the first thing we will do is we will have a ticker-tape parade down the Canyon of Heroes for our health care workers and our first responders. We will honor those who saved us.”
