Mayor Marches In Sunnyside
By Thomas Cogan
‘T

Photos Walter Karling A rainy afternoon didn’t keep members of the Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens from joining in the fourth annual Sunnyside-Woodside St. Patrick’s Day Parade last Sunday, March 2. Mayor Michael Bloomberg (c.) was joined at the Sunnyside-Woodside St. Patrick’s Day Parade by (l. to r.) Congressmember Joseph Crowley, Assemblymember Eric Gioia, Council Speaker Gifford Miller and Congressmember Anthony Weiner.

here’s the mayor," a mother said to her young daughter, as they stood at the corner of 56th Street and Woodside Avenue on Sunday afternoon. Mayor Michael Bloomberg probably didn’t hear the woman say that, but did notice her and the little girl dressed in bright green rain gear, standing by themselves behind a wooden police barrier. He turned from the parade that brought him to that junction and went over to shake their hands. He turned around and squatted between them for a photo op, making several photographers scramble to accommodate him and the two surprised spectators. Then he went back to the parade. He had only five blocks to go to become the first front rank politician to march the entire course of the St. Patrick’s Parade; indeed, at that point, he was the only politician of any sort remaining.

It finally rained on this, the fourth St. Patrick’s Parade, the one that calls itself "all-inclusive." Rain was a threat last year, and even came down a little, just before the parade began, but then it let up and spared all participants, Senator Hillary Clinton and Bloomberg included. Not this year. Though the sun actually shone before nightfall, at 1 p.m. in the afternoon rain was falling steadily, letting those about to march know that this time it would have to be endured.

By then, the politicians had gathered at Skillman Avenue and 43rd Street, Congressmembers Joseph Crowley and Anthony Weiner, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, City Councilmembers Helen Sears, Melinda Katz and Eric Gioia and Assemblymember Brian McLaughlin among them. They all arrived knowing what they would find. Unlike last year, when Clinton and Bloomberg caused great surprise by showing up, this year the mayor let everyone know he would be at the parade and would not just give it a sendoff, as he did in 2002, but would march too. Before noon, there were signs of preparation that one would not have noticed on previous St. Patrick’s Parade days. Department of Sanitation vehicles scrubbed Skillman Avenue clean and several men in black traversed the area at 43rd Street, checking everything out. Within an hour, the object of their concern, the mayor, arrived amidst the usual surge of reporters, photographers and television cameramen. He was dressed in a rain jacket, ready to march.

He spoke briefly, but only after some other speakers got in a few words. Brendan Fay, organizer of the parade for all four years of its existence, could have reminded listeners of the recently departed Fred Rogers as, with rain pouring on him, he hailed this "beautiful day for Queens, Ireland and the city of New York." He was followed by State Senator Tom Duane Manhattan, who said he’d love to march on Fifth Avenue but would not as long as the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 17, to which he referred, prohibits the inclusion of gay and lesbian groups. Bloomberg, who has displeased those groups by saying, that he will be marching in the March 17 parade, tried to see the good in the weather by saying, "It makes you feel you grew up in Ireland," but had to admit, "Sorry folks, that’s the best I could do."

Police from Manhattan and the 108th Precinct in Queens were anxious to get the parade started, and finished, so after a vanguard of uniformed students began to march up Skillman Avenue, the mayor soon followed. He was in the company of politicians, Fay and other parade stalwarts behind a white and gold banner proclaiming inclusiveness. After them came the New York All City High School Marching Band and Korean and Mexican groups, as well as the Gay & Lesbian Big Apple Corps, a marching band with rainbow decorations on their white uniforms. Peace activists marched, several of them bearing tributes to Philip Berrigan, the former Josephite priest and anti-war protester, who died in early December. The Lesbian & Gay Fighting Irish of Notre Dame/St. Mary’s and the Sunnyside United Dog Society (S.U.D.S.) made their presence known.

There was just a little hostility. "Go back to Bermuda!" somebody shouted, and one man stood in the doorway of a coffee shop between 46th and 47th Streets and booed lustily. But between 50th and 51st Streets, some people waved and called to the mayor, and he responded by breaking from the parade for the first time to say hello and shake hands. He was at the spot where Clinton took her leave in 2000 and 2002, and the irony was that he was not leaving but the other politicians were—taking a rain check. Bloomberg proceeded to the turn at 56th Street and on to Woodside Avenue, where the little girl and her mother awaited him, then on to the end, at Woodside and 61st, Street where security forces and other officials guided him to the van that bore him away.

The rest of the parade soon reached the final too, soaked, bedraggled and small. The parade to be held in Manhattan March 17 may get wet too, but will remain large and unyielding, and include Bloomberg to boot. But the Sunnyside parade gained the participation of an inclusive Republican mayor. For next year, organizers look forward to a nicer day and another appearance by other politicians, possibly the junior senator, Hillary Clinton.