{"id":3592,"date":"2008-07-11T08:42:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-11T13:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/?p=3592"},"modified":"2008-07-11T08:43:13","modified_gmt":"2008-07-11T13:43:13","slug":"macys_is_on_34th_street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2008\/07\/macys_is_on_34th_street.html","title":{"rendered":"Macy’s Is On 34th Street . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

. . . but the wide-open Greenpoint waterfront is a much, much better place to station fireworks barges in front of<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

“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. <\/p>\n

“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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

As it turned out, the best view they got was on TV. “It totally defeats the purpose,” Ayele said. <\/p>\n

Equally disappointed were customers at waterfront eateries who hoped to see the fireworks up close. <\/p>\n

“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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

. . . <\/p>\n

NBC spokeswoman Wendy Luckenbill denied reports the network pressured Macy’s to switch this year’s location.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hmm<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. . . 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,53,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-follow_the_money","category-jerk_move","category-queens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}