After five years on the Hudson River, the July 4 fireworks are returning to the East River this year, Mayor de Blasio announced on Monday.
It was a great run, and we knew this was coming. It would be hard for the mayor of New York to justify giving people from Hoboken such a good show and leaving Brooklyn and Queens in the dark.
Check out video from the 2009 celebration as filmed from Riverside Park below, and some more fireworks photos here.
Photo from Riverside Park by George Guerrero.
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It would be nice if the fireworks alternated each year – east, west, east, west. That way, everyone gets a chance at a nice view from their neighborhood periodically.
sorry New Jersey – no more free show.
For decades the fireworks were done in the Hudson. They were only moved to the east river for a short few years. During that time they could be viewed in Man, Queens and Brooklyn. They have been moved this year to be only off the wealthy/hip parts of Brooklyn. They will not be visible from Queens.
The word is out in NYC political circles that Macy’s was strong armed into it by the Mayor. Macy’s has long fought the land marking of it store in downtown Brooklyn, the former A&S. Marty Markowitz had pushed landmark it and many other buildings with out success for years. The city also apparently “suggested” to them that the cost/amount/type of insurance the city required along with the NYPD, ESU etc overtime cost might have to be reconsidered if Macy’s didn’t come around to the Mayor point of view. I thought he was supposed to be the Mayor of all the people not just the 1% in Brooklyn Heights.
Don’t think for a minute that they will move from there until he leaves office after 4 years.
Also this in a National holiday, not a city one. The idea of having them in the Hudson, was that people from more than one state could see the fireworks.
The Macy’s 4th of July fireworks started in 1976 in the East River to commemorate the bicentennial, and was held there until it moved to the West Side in 2009 in honor of the 400 th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s discovery of a river the native Americans had known about for thousands of years. They were suposed to move back to the East Side the next year, but somehow never did. Now mayor DeBlasio is correcting another mistake made by Bloomberg and returning the fireworks to their rightful place, where more New Yorkers reside and can see them, and not just those who either live in New Jersey or spend their lives staring at Jersey from the UWS.
Thank you Mayor DeBlasio, for once again doing the right thing, not the white thing.
Lotta rich corporate sponsors in this city. Would it be far-fetched to have TWO July 4th fireworks displays? One on the East River, one on the Hudson. Both at the same time would make for an awesome display.
Another reason to dislike Da Blaz
For those of us who saw them from our rooftops in the 1960’s, in the Hudson Fiver run by the Grucii (pardon the spelling) family as a yearly gift to the city. There was an accident on a fireworks barge That stopped it for a few years. In 1976 they came back for the bicentennial.
And if ref to Bobbi’s comment: “Thank you Mayor DeBlasio, for once again doing the right thing, not the white thing”, this is just the problem his election has caused. Thinking of ME first, it is offensive to make this a debate of race. The celebration on our nations birth is not white or black,
it is for everyone to celebrate the great nation that we live in, no matter what your ethic, religious etc background is. Its not perfect, but I have to say to all those people that live here and say its “so bad”, why don’t you leave? Or at least stop complaining and fix it yourself, with out turning to government to fix it for you and/or pay for. There are millions of people trying to come here so we must be doing something right.
There may be a lot of good arguments for having them in the East River, but I imagine this is more about the mayor’s continued promotion of his home borough. I like the idea of alternating them each year.