By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN — Midtown’s Community Board 5 is trying to re-route a handful of major city parades to keep the post-celebration bashes away from Madison Square Park.
Board members argued the parades have grown too large for the space, with some now attracting upwards of 20,000 people a year. And while the crowds have swelled, the park has not, causing damage and driving residents mad from the noise, they said.
To solve the problem, the board has come up with a plan now being reviewed by the city that would reverse the routes of five annual cultural parades. Instead of traveling south down Madison Avenue from Midtown and ending in front of Madison Square Park, the parades would begin on Madison Avenue between East 26th and 27th streets and travel north to East 39th Street, Ron Dwenger, Chair of the Board's Consents and Variances Committee, said at a meeting held earlier this week.
The parades affected by the new route would be: The Muslim Foundation of America's September Muslim Day Parade, the Sikh Cultural Society's April Sikh Day Parade, The Federation of Indian Associations' August India Day Parade, the Pakistan Independence Day Parade and Fair in September, and the Philippines Independence Day Council's June Philippine Independence Day Parade.
The post-parade festivities would then be held on East 41st Street between Fifth and Park avenues and along Madison Avenue between East 39th and East 42nd streets, where there are far fewer residents, Dwenger said.
The move comes as the board has taken an increasingly harsh stance against potentially disruptive events in the neighborhood, including the annual "Mad. Sq. Mark't" and summer street fairs.
But parade organizers were outraged by the idea of being forced to change their plans.
"It sounds kind of ridiculous," said Sikh Day Parade organizer Rajinder Garcha, who said parade-goers typically end the celebration gathered around and in the park, sharing a meal prepared at churches before the march.
"I just can’t imagine, when the parade ends, where the people are going to spread out and eat," she said, leading a chorus of complaints that the proposed new site is neither big enough nor appropriate for the groups' celebrations.
Other parade organizers also argued that they are always meticulous about clean-up and careful to keep the volume down.
But Tom Reidy, director of park operations at the Madison Square Park Conservancy said that, despite organizers' efforts, the festivals take a toll on the park. He showed the board pictures of the lawn strewn with litter, which he said routinely takes a day and a half for his staff to clean up.
A representative from the Office of Citywide Events Coordination and Management, which is responsible for granting parade permits, said the agency is reviewing CB5's proposal for the move.
But Jack Taylor, a public member of the board, said he felt the plan was misguided and would simply move the parade problem from Madison Square Park to East 41st Street, shifting the burden to residents there.
"It was robbing Peter to pay Paul," he said after the vote.
