Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Gets New Route For 2012
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Will Spiderman and Snoopy make their last flight through Times Square this year? The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City will be moved from Seventh to Sixth Avenue next year.
The President of the Times Square Alliance tells WCBS 880's Sean Adams that he wants to work out a way to keep the parade where it is
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The city said that changes being made to Times Square in 2012 would make it difficult to hold the parade on Seventh Avenue after this year. Modifications to the area include installation of curbs around the pedestrian plaza that opened in 2009.
Tim Thompkins, President of the Times Square Alliance, said he believes the real reason behind the route change is that Macy's just wants it.
"We can all work on this together, we're totally willing to sit down and talk about it," Thompkins told WCBS 880. "We're not planning on moving New Year's Eve to Sixth Avenue, so we can work it out."
Thompkins said the proposed construction aims to "declutter" the area and make major events in Times Square easier.
It's not the first route change for the parade.
In 2009, it was moved from Broadway to Seventh Avenue when vehicles were banned from parts of Broadway.
Thompkins thinks the change would be a major bust for local businesses. He said there are 7,000 hotel rooms around the Crossroads of the World and calls Sixth Avenue "a corridor of empty office buildings."
A local business owner tells 1010 WINS' Stan Brooks that the change will hurt them
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"It's going to really affect us, we're going to lose a lot of traffic and a lot of sales during that day, it's not going to be good for us," one local business owner told 1010 WINS' Stan Brooks.
The portion of the parade along Central Park West, however, will continue unchanged.
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