NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade, one of many events that may congest streets this weekend

MIDTOWN, Manhattan (PIX11) — Life in New York is enhanced by its many large, special events.

This weekend, a variety of them are on the calendar, in addition to the city’s usual weekend hustle and bustle. The combination of them all could make for a couple of days of significant congestion in the city, particularly in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Traffic and security professionals are advising people to leave cars at home to best manage the crowds.

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The really big event is the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the world’s largest, on Saturday, in Manhattan. Some two million people are expected to be in attendance. On Friday, at the official kickoff of the weekend’s festivities the flag-raising of the Irish tricolor, along with the Stars and Stripes, at Bowling Green, in the Financial District attendees said that they are in great anticipation of the parade.

“You need to be there to see what it means,” said Barbara Heslin, who had come to the city from central Ireland for the St. Patrick’s Day Weekend events.

Margaret Flaherty, who will be marching in the parade in the Roses of Tralee group, came to the city from the San Francisco Bay area.

“This is special beyond words,” she said. “Special beyond words.”

Along with the fun, though, comes something else, according to “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz, the city’s former transportation commissioner, who is now a traffic consultant.

“This is going to be a really tough weekend for a lot of people,” Schwartz said in an interview. “Some will be caught off guard.”

He pointed out that because of a more than 260-year-old tradition of holding the parade on Saturday when the holiday falls on a Sunday, many people headed to the city for non-parade events on Saturday may get a very unwelcome surprise: street closures straight up the middle of Manhattan for about 40 blocks, with many side streets also shut down.

The shut-down grid will be in place for a good reason, as Hilary Beirne, the chairman of the parade said in an interview.

“We have frozen zones, traffic-wise, all over the city,” he said, “especially along the parade route. That helps the parade flow better.”

The route is on Fifth Avenue, from 44th Street up to 79th Street, but staging areas and other street space related to the parade extends the route by additional blocks.

It is all done in the interest of having a successful event for the millions of people on hand in person, as well as the millions more watching in other media.

However, some other people may see it all another way, according to the traffic expert.

“It’s like a wall, right in the heart of Midtown,” said Sam Schwartz. “Tough to get across.”

His advice for everyone is to take public transportation.

That advice came the day after there was a severe shooting on the subway. Despite that, the NYPD agreed with Schwartz’s recommendation.

“We encourage people to take the train,” said NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey at a transit security news conference on Friday morning. “We don’t want people getting in any kind of peril. We will have numerous cops out there,” he said about coverage at the parade on Saturday.

The weekend, however, has two days.

On Sunday, the city hosts one of the largest half-marathons in the world. It starts at the central traffic point of Brooklyn — Grand Army Plaza — and therefore chokes off traffic on every major road artery leading into and out of the plaza. The event also shuts down Times Square for runners to pass through there.

The entire 13.1-mile event closes down many roadways in both Brooklyn and Manhattan, including the FDR Drive on Manhattan’s east side.

That begins on Sunday morning. Then, early Sunday afternoon, just a few hundred yards from where the race starts, another event commences.

“The Brooklyn St. Patrick’s Parade,” said Schwartz.

He said it is all the more reason for people to take the subway, and, if they cannot, to plan well ahead regarding their travel.

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