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Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Rerouted Again

By DNAinfo Staff on March 7, 2011 6:11pm  | Updated on March 8, 2011 5:52am

By Jill Colvin

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MIDTOWN — The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade route will change again, DNAinfo has learned.

"After extensive discussions with the City, it has been decided that the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will move in 2012 from its current route passage through portions of Seventh Avenue to a new, wider route following Sixth Avenue from Central Park South to 34th Street," Macy's spokesman Orlando Veras said in a statement.

In 2009, the city moved the parade from Broadway to Seventh Avenue because of the new pedestrian plaza in Times Square. That route will remain in effect this year, City Hall spokeswoman Evelyn Erskine said.

The parade traditionally made it's way down from the Upper West Side along Central Park West and then down Broadway to Herald Square. The city changed the route from Broadway to Seventh Avenue between Central Park South and to Times Square. From there, the parade turned onto West 42nd Street and headed toward Sixth Avenue, where it turned again before reaching Herald Square.

Business leaders, who have spent weeks in negotiation with Macy's and the city about the parade route were shocked by the decision to move the route away from Times Square in 2012.

The parade currently ends at West 34th Street and Seventh Avenue.

"We are baffled," said Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, "after two successful years on Seventh Avenue, we have yet to hear a sound reason from Macy’s on why a world famous parade should go through a corridor of empty office buildings on Sixth Avenue rather than Times Square, a globally recognized symbol of New York’s dynamism and energy, where thousands more people can enjoy it both on the ground and from their hotel rooms." 

Neither the Mayor's Office nor Macy's immediately commented on the route change.

The friendly neighborhood Spider-Man thrilled crowds.
The friendly neighborhood Spider-Man thrilled crowds.
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DNAinfo/Gabriela Resto-Montero
The Smurf balloon hovers over the crowd during the 83rd annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on the Streets of Manhattan on November 26, 2009 in New York City.
The Smurf balloon hovers over the crowd during the 83rd annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on the Streets of Manhattan on November 26, 2009 in New York City.
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Michael Loccisano/Getty Images