After The Parade, A ‘Giant’ Mess
It’s not every year that one has the opportunity to go to the celebratory parade honoring the hometown team’s championship win. That being said, when given the choice to go to the New York Giants’ Super Bowl victory parade down the Canyon of Heroes in Lower Manhattan, I couldn’t resist. My friend and I got off the subway at City Hall Plaza amidst hundreds of other Giants gear-bedecked fans, and followed (read: was propelled by) the crowd to what we assumed was the parade route.
Eventually, we were able to make our way up to a barrier, right on the street. Being near City Hall, the end of the route, we figured we had the perfect spot. I’m short, so whenever I have a clear view, it’s cause for celebration. Someone in the crowd said where we were standing was the turn-around point. He was right; it was the turn-around point…for the marching bands and media trucks! The floats carrying the players and team personnel were across the pavilion and continued on passed us. Even with the zoom on my camera all the way out, I could barely see the players waving (although, if you zoom in on one of the pictures even more, you can make out Justin Tuck and the Mara family).
That Drum Looks Heavy
However, we did have a front-row…stand to the talented high school marching bands and the bagpipe and drum troupes for the various city departments, including none other than the Department of Sanitation’s (DOS) award-winning Emerald Society Pipes and Drums band and Honor Guard. Thinking of this blog, I immediately starting taking pictures, especially when a mini-parade of DOS trucks drove by, some of them sporting ironic shreds of toilet paper stuck in the cabs and wheels. At that point there wasn’t even a whole lot of garbage to clean yet.
DOS Truck Sporting Some TP Ribbons
We watched the mess of paper and tickertape (actually, it’s just shredded newspaper as tickertape is a thing of the past now) accumulate. People in the surrounding high-rise buildings threw out shredded and full sheets of paper out of windows. Others tossed whole rolls of toilet paper around as if trying to TP the whole city. Poppers filled with brightly colored strips of shiny paper exploded over the crowds, covering people, trees, traffic lights and streets alike. Bits of paper, large and small, flew and wafted lazily on the wind, eventually adding to the debris on the ground.
Just like after New Year’s at Times Square the DOS was at the ready to clean up the tremendous amount of litter and debris. Approximately 336 men and women operated 30 mechanical sweepers, 14 collection trucks, 129 backpack leaf blowers, and other street cleaning equipment in order to clear the streets. Any recyclable paper swept up following the parade was recycled.
Look At All The Paper!
Sanitation Commissioner John J. Doherty said, “The Department has a long-standing tradition of cleaning up after victory parades. We congratulate the New York Giants on their phenomenal Super Bowl victory, and are honored to be a part of the celebration.”
In parts of the parade route along Broadway the tickertape and other papers was thick enough to make it seem like it was actually a snowy winter’s day, instead of a balmy 40-odd degrees. It was a beautiful day, in both weather and spirit. I’m glad I had the opportunity to go, regardless of how far from the team we stood. Congratulations to the New York Giants on their spectacular Super Bowl win, and to the DOS for a clean-up job of championship proportions.
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Wow that was a big clean up! Looks like an awful lot of fun though!
Best wishes
Ann and Claire
Workplace Cleaning Solutions Ltd
Ann Brebner recently posted..Key Holder … What If?
All that mess for a celebration of the Super Bowl Championship? Then again, that is what makes the parade have that festive air.
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How did they cleaned all that mess? I don’t think the mechanical sweepers and collection trucks is at the tail end of the parade.
Looks like a lot of fun though.
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