Macy’s Is On 34th Street . . .

. . . but the wide-open Greenpoint waterfront is a much, much better place to station fireworks barges in front of:

Organizers of the annual pyrotechnics spectacular moved the East River display so far south this year that a horde of sightseers – unaware of the changes – made a last-second dash from Long Island City toward the Brooklyn border to get a glimpse, witnesses said.

Stunned crowds that had waited all day at Gantry Plaza State Park bolted down Center Blvd. and Second St. when they realized the fireworks barges had moved.

“It looked like a slow lava flow of people – thousands of people rushing – women, children, babies,” said Steve Loehner, 45, who watched the scene unfold from his 40th-floor apartment on 48th Ave. near Center Blvd.

“If you’re going to break with the tradition there, you’d like to think that you’re improving upon it, that you’re not really messing it up for a huge amount of people,” Loehner added.

Fikre Ayele, 43, felt sorry for guests at his Fourth of July party, who put up with security checks and parking headaches to get to his sixth-floor apartment.

As it turned out, the best view they got was on TV. “It totally defeats the purpose,” Ayele said.

Equally disappointed were customers at waterfront eateries who hoped to see the fireworks up close.

“We could still see them, but it’s not anywhere near the impact of having them directly in front of you,” said Andrea Botur, 40, vice president of Tennisport, a mixed tennis facility and restaurant at Second St. and Borden Ave.

Macy’s spokesman Orlando Veras explained the move was an attempt to let more New Yorkers — albeit along the FDR Drive and not in Queens — see fireworks that explode only 300 feet high.

Normally, viewing on the FDR Drive is from 42nd St. to 23rd St., but this year it extended down to Houston St. — just a few blocks shy of the Williamsburg Bridge.

. . .

NBC spokeswoman Wendy Luckenbill denied reports the network pressured Macy’s to switch this year’s location.

Hmm.