Jennifer Martin spoke to City Council on behalf of the Greater Raleigh Merchants Association – Shop Local Raleigh on September 12, 2023:

Councilors

The Raleigh Christmas Parade is a community tradition that has existed for over 78 years.

The event started in downtown Raleigh when local merchants came together and wanted to give a gift back to the community and thank them for their patronage and support.

The 2022 parade had a tragic accident that left us all grappling with the unthinkable and in deep stages of grief and sadness.

Vowing to honor and pay it forward, the parade organizers, the Greater Raleigh Merchants Association- Shop Local Raleigh has put in countless hours working to plan a parade that would not only honor, but one that would also heal, unite and re-instill trust for the community.

The City of Raleigh has permitted two parades since November 2022- the St Patrick’s Day Parade and Caribe Parade and has permitted an additional parade, the Veterans Day Parade. Each of these parades allowed automobiles and floats and the City imposed no additional requirements on these other parades and allowed them to proceed following City requirements.

The Raleigh Christmas Parade has not only met every City of Raleigh requirement, but has also added additional safety requirements that go above and beyond all city and state requirements and above the events that have already been permitted and held.

The denial of the Raleigh Christmas Parade permit came as a shock and disappointment to the organizers and was left with the reasoning that it was due to pending litigation (which does not impact the City of Raleigh), pending state legislation and out of respect for the family.

Our organization requested numerous times to meet with city staff and various departments including the Special Events office and Raleigh Police Department and our requests were left unanswered.

We then received an email at 11:30am on Thursday, September 14, from the Special Events office asking that we join a call for the same day at 2 pm. It was at that time we learned that the City of Raleigh was denying our special event permit. We asked for the ability to be able to share our safety plans, improvement made, and meet with the City to review all of these measures. We were informed that this decision was a nonnegotiable/non discussion item as that numerous city departments had all weighed in on this decision, including the City Council.

It is now our understanding the Raleigh City Council has had no input on this decision.  In addition, false statements have been made to the local media outlets about the permitting process and the requests that were made.  Several Council Members have contacted us and asked us to present to you today so you all could hear and review our safety changes and how we plan to implement those for this year.

Since also learning that the family wants this annual event to continue with sensible safety measurements, we believe we have not only met those requirements, but have added in additional measurements to continue to have the Raleigh Christmas Parade as one of the safest events in our community, as are all Shop Local Raleigh produced events.

Permitting other parades with less stringent requirements set a bad precedent and unfairly singles out the Christmas Parade to different treatment than other parades.

We are simply asking for the opportunity to present to you what we have worked on and how we want to help make all events in the City of Raleigh safer.

Having produced the event for 78 years, we feel strongly that our community deserves this and that those gone before us, we owe this to them.

Greater Raleigh Merchants Association – Shop Local Raleigh

Board of Directors

You can add your voice by signing the petition to bring back the parade with motorized vehicles here: Raleigh – Allow Floats & Vehicles in the Christmas Parade!  

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