Whenever I’m in New York on business, I always have a late afternoon meeting at One State Street Plaza, which is practically the southernmost building in Manhattan (you can catch the Staten Island Ferry across the street). When I’m done and bid my colleagues goodbye, I walk north up the very beginning of Broadway, where the charging bull statue sits poised to charge, divert west to pay my respects at Ground Zero and then return to Broadway.
This southern end of Broadway up to City Hall Plaza is known as the Canyon of Heroes, and is where the legendary ticker tape parades began when the city wanted to honor those who were deemed worthy of the city’s ultimate affection. If you walk up Broadway from here, there are plaques in the sidewalk that note the date of the earliest parades and who they honored. The first parade was in 1889 in honor of the 100th anniversary of George Washington’s inauguration. Parades occurred regularly from 1919 (General Pershing, King Albert of Belgium and Edward Albert, Prince of Wales) through the twenties, thirties, forties, fifties and sixties.
What’s remarkable in this period, besides the sheer number of parades held each year, is who the city honored. The vast majority of recipients were foreign leaders and war heroes. Reading them is a who’s who of 20th century foreign and U.S. military history. In no particular order, New York honored everyone from legends like Winston Churchill to leaders of disparate countries like France, Italy, Romania, Korea, Pakistan, Turkey, Chile, Liberia, Indonesia and even Ethiopia, where Rastafarian demigod Haile Selassie received TWO parades in different decades. Even dictators (albeit U.S. allies) like the Shah of Iran and South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem were honored with parades. Did every foreign leader who visited New York receive a parade? I don’t know, but think of the pride they must have felt, and the impression they took home of America, after everyday New Yorkers showered them with ticker tape and affection.
Military heroes also received kudos. Following World War II, Eisenhower, Nimitz, Halsey, Clark and other top generals and admirals were honored. Extraordinary heroes like astronauts and icons like Amelia Earhart, Pope John Paul II, Howard Hughes and Nelson Mandela received parades. And of course veterans and athletes have been honored as well.
The odd thing is when you get to the 1970s, the parade lineup changes. First, while the fifties and sixties featured dozens of ticker tape parades, the 1970s feature just two. The 1980s had four, the 1990s had nine, and the last parade happened on October 30, 2000, to honor the New York Yankees’ World Series championship. And the honoree also changes – since the 1970s, parade recipients have overwhelmingly been athletes. There are some exceptions – John Glenn, Mandela, the Pope – but New York also seems to have deemed foreign leaders unworthy of parades after President Chung Hee Park of South Korea in 1965.
I can speculate on several reasons for this change. Even before 9/11, the security, sanitation and logistical costs to stage these parades impacted their frequency. New York almost went bankrupt in the 1970s and could barely afford to pay its employees, let alone eat the cost of a parade. And there are plenty of other parades in Manhattan and the other boroughs for almost every race, ethnic group and sexual nature. These parades also tie up traffic and parking for miles, and can be a real pain if you want to cross Fifth Avenue without going miles out of your way. And one minor point – ticker tape doesn’t exist anymore with the advent of technology, but the name “ticker tape parade” has stuck.
But instead of spending resources on the April Fool’s Day Parade or the Brazilian Independence Day Parade, I think the city should get back to honoring real heroes. And don’t limit heroes to local sports teams – that sends the wrong impression that only athletes are worthy of great admiration and accolades. More than ever today, people need to appreciate the unsung heroes around us and kids can learn you don’t have to be an athlete to be considered great. Here are my recommendations for people who are worthy of a ticker tape parade today:
· The New York Fire Department – Heroes not just of 9/11, but every day.
· The New York Police Department – Ditto
· Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Great Britain – Our greatest friend and ally and a true world leader. This would be a nice throwback to the old days of honoring foreign leaders who have assisted us.
· Rudolph Giuliani – One of the greatest mayors not just of New York, but anywhere. Imagine where New York would be today if he was not there to lead the city’s 90s renaissance, and help it through its darkest day. His legend will grow in time.
· The Human Genome Project Architects – A slew of U.S. and international scientists who have identified every gene in human DNA, which has the potential to revolutionize the medical, scientific and social science worlds for decades.
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