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In April 2020, Mayor Bill de Blasio said there would be a ticker-tape parade to celebrate the city's essential workers and healthcare heroes who got us through the pandemic.
Now, over a year later when our positivity rate is finally around 1 percent and more than half of New Yorkers are vaccinated, the mayor has set a date for that parade to celebrate coming through it all.
On Wednesday, July 7, essential workers and healthcare workers—nurses, doctors, educators, delivery workers, bodega and grocery store workers and others—will be thanked and celebrated and walk down the Canyon of Heroes, down Broadway from the Battery to City Hall.
Since 1886, there have been 206 ticker-tape parades on this stretch, from ones honoring George Washington's inauguration as president to the most recent—the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team.
"It has happened. It has come to pass — life in the city gets more and more energetic and more and more normal every day," the mayor said on Monday. "It was the greatest crisis in New York City. We were knocked down and we got back up. That's something to celebrate about the city. [Ticker-tape parades] have happened for generations but this one will have a special heart and soul about it because it's about celebrating everyday New Yorkers who did something so heroic and need our thanks. They did something for the ages."
"We are always going to remember the pain and tragedy of covid...but we need a day to celebrate the heroism of everyday New Yorkers," he continued. "This will be a parade you will remember for the rest of your life."
Here's what you need to know about Wednesday's "Hometown Heroes" ticker-tape parade:
When: The parade will depart from Manhattan’s Battery Park at 11am on Wednesday, July 7. It'll conclude at 2pm with a ceremony at City Hall.
Where: The Canyon of Heroes, north on Broadway from the Battery to City Hall.
Who: Queens nurse Sandra Lindsay, the first person in the U.S. to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, will serve as the parade’s Grand Marshal.
There will be 14 different floats, representing 260 different groups of essential workers, making it one of the largest ticker-tape parades in the city’s history. Floats will represent hospitals, healthcare, emergency food, community care, first responders, transportation, city workers, small businesses and bodegas, education and childcare, utilities, hospitality/buildings care, reinforcements, advocacy organizations, communication and delivery.
Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts will host the ceremony in City Hall Park to publicly thank these workers and celebrate the "Summer of NYC." There will be a performance from the Northwell Health Nurse Choir, which was recently featured on America’s Got Talent.
Can't make it? ABC 7 will broadcast the parade starting at 11am on Channel 7.