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Ramcharger
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Username: Ramcharger

Post Number: 129
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 7:35 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The thread from last month about the Thanksgiving Day parade’s new route is closed so I’m starting a new one.
What I have not heard answered by the Parade Company or the media is why the shortened route. When the parade started at Mack Ave. in years past the excuses given were poor attendance and not enough money. How much more can it cost to parade two miles as opposed to one? Did the city have something to do with this decision? Is there not enough money in the DPD’s budget to police the additional mile?
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Eric
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Username: Eric

Post Number: 604
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 8:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Shortened? Mack to Congress is two miles. The is just a return to the traditional parade route
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Ramcharger
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Username: Ramcharger

Post Number: 132
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 9:14 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Mack Ave. to Congress St. is 1.3 miles. And the traditional parade route (1924 to 1982) was from Amsterdam St. to Congress St. which is 2.8 miles. So yes, I would say that is shortened.

(Message edited by Ramcharger on November 19, 2006)
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Detroitplanner
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Username: Detroitplanner

Post Number: 381
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 11:50 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

huh? The parade was only N of Mack for about ten years (when santa would stop at the DIA). Where are you getting your dates and lengths??? Its been starting at mack for what?? 10-15 years now? I can remember many years ago going to the pre-magic stick Garden Bowl / Union Street area to hang out weds night while they would set it up. I'm pretty darned sure that my Dad would not take the kids on the bus downtown (and transfer with kids in tow) if he could have taken the warren avenue bus to the parade when I was real young!

I can remember watching the parade in my early 20's from inside Foran's so this is the original route.

What difference does the length make anyways? Would you rather see the St Patricks Day parade return to its original route from the Fox to Kennedy Square?
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Ramcharger
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Username: Ramcharger

Post Number: 135
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Sunday, November 19, 2006 - 7:05 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)


quote:

"Where are you getting your dates and lengths???"



Detroit's Thanksgiving Day Parade by Romie Minor and, Laurie Ann Tamborino

When I was young my dad would take us kids to the parade every year so that we wouldn’t be under foot while my mom prepared the Thanksgiving feast. His favorite viewing location was in front of the Vernors Woodward Ave. bottling plant, many blocks north of Mack Ave. When I played in my high school band (Cody HS) I marched in the parade twice. I remember how long the parade route seemed clutching a cold brass trombone in freezing temperatures and dodging surprises left by the DPD’s mounted division a few units ahead of us. Prior to the closing of Hudson’s the only stop Santa made was the Hudson’s marquee. That was the whole point, to lure shoppers to Hudson’s. Since 1983 the parade route has changed many times, including a few years when it traveled all the way down to Jefferson Ave., turned east and continued past the RenCen.

The difference is that a shorter route bunches the crowd up and cuts many midtown businesses and residents out of the fun.
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Themax
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Username: Themax

Post Number: 400
Registered: 09-2005
Posted on Sunday, November 19, 2006 - 8:33 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Bunching the crowd makes it look like there are lots more people watching. It's all for the TV cameras.
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Jjaba
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Username: Jjaba

Post Number: 4479
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Sunday, November 19, 2006 - 4:02 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

No mattah how you slice it, tis colder than a Kalamazoo County well digger's ass.

Pay to see it at Max Fisher's place.

jjaba.
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1953
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Username: 1953

Post Number: 1146
Registered: 12-2004
Posted on Sunday, November 19, 2006 - 4:45 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I feel like the parade should always be in the heart of downtown, since that is the civic center. If people or businesses want it to go by their places, maybe they should move downtown.

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