Photo by Rebecca Blinder Mets.
Balloon Kings, a balloon business on Amsterdam Avenue, created a massive display of rainbow balloons topped with letters spelling out “STRONG” on Amsterdam between 80th and 81st street. The balloons were hoisted above the avenue to show solidarity following the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando on Sunday.
“We did it to show our solidarity with the people from Orlando,” said Betty Gilliard, an employee at Balloon Kings. “Everybody in the neighborhood has been coming by, telling us how pretty it is, thanking us for doing it.”
Photo by Rebecca Blinder Mets.
Gilliard said they’d be having a ceremony at 5 p.m. on Monday, where people can write on balloons and let them fly into the air (the rainbow array will stay).
Photo by Lauren Finster before the balloons were placed in an arch across the street.
#strong #loveislove #uws Balloon release 5pm June 13 West 80th and Amsterdam #balloonkings @westsiderag pic.twitter.com/MvqDCZMxXw
— Edith Baltazar (@ebaltazar_nyc) June 13, 2016
It’s Balloon Kings- they are having a releasing ceremony this afternoon.
https://www.balloonkingsny.com/
When are the releasing them?
Thank you for giving us a voice in this moment of sadness and fear.
Awesome gesture. I cannot imagine it is easy to succeed in this business in this part of town, but they’ve certainly earned my business with this effort! Congratulations, Balloon Kings!
Yikes, do people still release balloons? It that a sound thing to do to our ecology? The sentiment is magnificent and the balloon arc is wonderful but…..releasing seems counter productive to such a fabulous display of solidarity .
Not if they are Mylar, that is very bad. Traditional balloons aren’t great either, as birds and animals get caught up on the strings, but mylar are the worst. Helium is also a precious and irreplaceable resource that we are running out of.
https://balloonsblow.org/
The sentiment is wonderful but this is not the best way to express it.
The balloons were biodegradable, and there were no strings on the balloons – we just released them. I was thinking the same thing you were – but heard the interview given by the owner of Balloon Kings – it’s all good –
We all need to beat the GOP about the head and face until they pass meaningful gun control and send it to Hillary to sign.
So you’re advocating one form of violence (physical assault) in the name of (purportedly) fighting another form of violence (gun violence).
(And lest you protest that you were merely invoking a metaphor…Sarah Palin was doing the same with her now-infamous reference to cross-hairs. Yet…yet…the hypocrisy is just incredible.)
(To say nothing of all the problems with “gun control”, which lessens the ability of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves, while doing little, if anything, to keep guns out of the hands of criminal thugs, who by definition don’t abide by the law anyway. But that’s for another time…)
Just couldn’t let it pass, could you?
The parentheses didn’t help.
OH MY GOD!! Are you even serious??
Enough with the b.s. right winger talking points. Nobody here is interested in your delusional (and humorless) viewpoints and obvious worship of The Donald, the great Orange One…
This is the Upper West Side…you know, Manhattan?? New York City?? Ever heard of it?? Take your guns and your fear back to Alabama or Alaska or where ever. Go keep Sarah and the other intolerant rednecks company.
Thanks in advance.:)
Perhaps you have forgotten how the topic of “gun rights” got raised in this thread. Allow me to refresh your memory. It was this comment by “Steve in Manhattan”, in which he not only exploited a still-raw tragedy to advance a nakedly partisan, tendentious legislative agenda but explicitly called for the use of physical violence to do so.*
(*That this much could even be subject to dispute is preposterous; just imagine if a statement like Steve’s– only with wording such as “sane, non-suicidal, patriotic immigration legislation” in place of “gun control” and “Trump” in place of “Hillary”, had been made. The outcry and uproar we would have seen– even if such a post were to be free of the invocation of violence that Steve’s included. That it was probably merely metaphorical does not excuse it; it was utterly gratuitous and downright ugly. And there is the matter of consistency that I pointed-out in my previous post.)
That, an incredibly incendiary, distasteful and utterly reprehensible comment, you (and “UWSEd”) apparently have no problem with, seeing as you expressed not even the slightest hint of objection to it. But my response to said disturbing comment, that you saw fit to use as the launching-point for an all-out attack on me–one in which, it must be noted and underscored, you harped on the parenthetical comment at the end of my post (“How dare someone dissent from a fundamental tenet of the prevailing, entrenched orthodoxy?! Deport him!”), while completely ignoring the main part of my post: my calling-out the raw, emphatic expression of hatred, intolerance, bigotry and actual physical violence that was Steve’s comment.
Does this sound like “worship”?
To the extent that I now appear enthusiastic and ardent in my support of Trump, it is only relative and in reaction-to his opponents and the current realities.
As to the rest of your wholesale, blanket characterizations and summary dismissal of the entire body of my posts “over the years” to this site — which, as I’m sure you would yourself acknowledge, are many and hardly known for their brevity– it will suffice to say that your comments reveal far more about yourself and your critical faculties than they do about me or my writing.
Thanks for proving, yet again, that those who scream the loudest about “tolerance” are among the the most intolerant.
Monk: Stupidity,ignorance, bigotry, and all of the “-phobias” are exhausting, aren’t they?
I’m working on becoming as tolerant as Monk!
Hahaha…Touche, Mr. Anon. You are quite the clever one, aren’t you.
You are right, I am intolerant, very intolerant in fact. Intolerant to violence. Intolerant to hatred, bigotry, racism and homophobia. And yes, intolerant of the stupid when that stupidity leads to the harm of other people.
But by all means, let’s have a gun rights debate in the comments of an article mourning the dozens, DOZENS!!!! of innocent people that were just murdered. I’m hardly surprised though having read Independents comments here over the years. He must be really fun at parties.:)
Passing pedestrians were asked to write their thoughts, wishes, or dreams on a single balloon. Upon finishing their thoughts, the balloon was released. Don’t know much about them (Balloon Kings), but the smiles they created this afternoon, with the young and old, was priceless. Thank you for your contribution in making the UWS look good during these tough times.
Beautiful ! Let us be strong ! Thanks BALLOOM KINGS.
Fantastic!!! Beautiful!! Three cheers for Balloon Kings.
Hello to ALL.
My name is Eugene C. Nifenecker II, (and to have a little fun) I am of the people, I am for the people and have been anointed by the people and now I am known as “King Gene”.
With a standard High School Diploma, I also proudly served (and would do it again) 6 ½ years in the United States Marine Corp from 1985 to 1992 and I was with the first unit that went in, for the Liberation of Kuwait.
For some clarification, the product I use, is made here in America. The latex balloons that Balloon Kings uses is 100% biodegradable, unlike other overseas manufactures that use harmful chemicals. The foil or “Mylar” balloons I sell are also made in America and are recyclable.
Whatever your personal lifestyle is: paper or plastic, tap or bottled water, CBS or FOX News, the right to bear or not bear arms, Democrat or Republican, I even had at least a dozen people say I should run for President. We have the right to express our views, beliefs, orientation, etc…, now we may not all agree with each other, but let’s remember we have that “Freedom”.
As I have said earlier, being a Marine, I have been around the world twice and seen a lot of atrocities and sadness at least once. On top of our own pain and memories from 9/11 that most of us still deal with.
I wasn’t taking donations, I didn’t ask for any type of payment, there was no advertisement of my logo on the balloon. It wasn’t about me, what I tried to do is for those in need here and to show to our fellow American’s and Floridian’s that they are in our thoughts, dream’s and prayer’s.
For those who do not agree with my method, I am sorry, no harm was meant. For those that shook my hand, gave me hugs, cried on my shoulder. I am there with you. Owning a balloon store, it is my job to provide happiness and that’s all I wanted to provide in this time of need.
Sincerely
King Gene