IT’S SAINT PATRICK’S DAY!!

IT’S SAINT PATRICK’S DAY!
Parade tips:

I’ve walked the parade 20 times, and have been caught in crowds in other years.

There will be tremendous, tremendous numbers of people on 5th Avenue sidewalks in Midtown, as you can see from my 2018 photo. You can bypass all that by going up to the expensive apartments and mansions of upper 5th Avenue.

The best place, in my opinion, to view the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade is on 5th Avenue North of 59th street.  That’s across 5th from Central Park. Don’t stand in the park. There’s a wall and you might not be able to see over it.The parade will march northward from 44th street up to 79th. You might get a good spot right at the railing.

This photo was taken at the corner of 51st and 5th looking South. Saint Patrick’s would have been to the rear left. The building in foreground is the British Empire Building of Rockefeller Center. If you need to get down to 48th street and don’t want to walk sideways very slowly, go west – right – on 51st to Rockefeller Plaza. Walk through it to 48th or whatever, then wade back to 5th.

It’s virtually impossible to cross 5th Avenue except at the wider, 2 way traffic streets like 72nd and 57th.

PARADE HACK: if alone, you may be able to inveigle yourself into marching the whole way by buying a big (at least 6′ x 4′) tricolor flag on a flagpole, then walking amongst the AOH groups from 44th to 48th streets before 10 AM. Ask them, while displaying your flag, if they happen to need a flagman/woman in their group. You must commit to walking the entire route of nearly two miles. This hack worked for me 15 years in a row.

Trust me, I’m not only an O’Connor: I was related to Cardinal O’Connor.