Save our parades

Good evening. Thank you for your service and thank you for letting me speak.

Parades are rich expressions of a city’s culture, creativity, and community spirit. They are the signature event for many cities: Philadelphia’s Mummers Parade; New Orleans’ Mardi Gras parades; Savannah’s St. Patrick’s parade; San Francisco’s Chinese New Year parade. And Raleigh for 78 years had the Christmas parade, the largest parade of any kind between Washington and Atlanta. Thousands participating, 80,000 lining the streets to watch it, and 200,000 more watching it on television. 

I want to thank at least three members of this Council willing to support a motion to allow vehicles in the Christmas parade: Councilors Melton, Jones, and Black. Unfortunately nobody made that motion, so staff was allowed to ban vehicles. Then, predictably, staff banned vehicles in the Veteran’s Day parade. Then, predictably, the organizers canceled the parade. They did not want 85-year-old veterans having heart attacks trying to march up Fayetteville Street. Talk about a dangerous situation! 

The City issued a statement saying “We expect that parades will look different in the future.” If that means parades will have no vehicles, we will likely have no parades.

This year we will have a small Christmas parade, but we might not have one next year. As I mentioned last month, the floats sponsored by businesses were the major fundraiser for Shop Local Raleigh, which organizes the parade. Without that fundraiser, Shop Local Raleigh might not survive. Other parades will become so small, nobody will come out to see them.

Remember, the City does not put on the parades. Citizens do, and it is already challenging. If the City makes it too challenging, the citizens will give up. 

Among the reasons given to ban vehicles was the proposed N.C. Senate bill requiring cities to inspect parade vehicles within seven days of the parade. But that bill was sent to committee in April and hasn’t been seen since. That’s what Senate leadership does when they have no intention of passing a bill. There is no way our legislature wants to kill Christmas and Veteran’s Day parades across the State. If a rich city like Raleigh is unable to perform the inspections, how can poor cities like Rocky Mount or Goldsboro perform them? 

Speaking of politics, next year’s possibly canceled Christmas parade and Veteran’s Day parade will be in November, the same month as City Council elections. Wouldn’t you like to be seen as the heroes who saved our parades, rather than the Grinches who canceled them. Please direct staff to allow vehicles.

If you appreciate the kind of reporting we bring to you