Organizers Of Queens St. Pat's Parade Upset With MTA Over Planned Subway Track Work
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Sunnyside's annual St. Pat's for All Parade will be held as planned Sunday, despite the fact that there will be no subway service through the neighborhood.
Service will be suspended on the No. 7 line between Times Square-42nd Street and 74th Street-Broadway from early Saturday to early Monday due to planned track work.
Organizers of the annual Queens event want the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to reschedule the work.
"The MTA adjusted their work schedule to accommodate the Lunar Parade in Flushing, and this is, of course, right," parade founder and co-chair Brendan Fay told 1010 WINS. "We're just baffled by the fact that they're refusing to treat St. Pat's for All likewise."
Fay said they have groups coming from the five boroughs, New Jersey, Washington and Boston.
"They're going to be arriving in the city and trying to figure out how are they going to get to Skillman Avenue in Sunnyside," Fay said. "Organizers at the parade to group leaders to local businesses are very frustrated and very upset with the MTA leadership and the refusal just to accommodate the needs of New Yorkers who want to get to Skillman Avenue."
MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said the Lunar Festival attracts a larger crowd than the upcoming event and the planned work is too critical to cancel.
"That is an event that draws paradegoers in the thousands. This parade is a parade that draws people on the 7 line, maybe a couple hundred," Ortiz told 1010 WINS. "The event simply does not draw enough ridership to warrant a delay in this vital work that we need to do."
Ortiz said there are alternatives to get to the parade.
"Customers can hop on the Q32 bus. They can hop on the Q60 bus. These two lines provide direct access to the parade route," Ortiz said. "Customers can also take the R train to 46th Street, transfer for the Q104 bus, which also puts them right in front of the parade."
Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito are expected to march in the parade, which was founded in 1999 as an LGBT-friendly alternative to the Fifth Avenue St. Patrick's Day Parade.
