Melissa Bailey Photo
As the white stuff began to pile up on streets and sidewalks Friday, organizers of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade started to get flooded with calls: Will downtown still go green on Sunday?
The answer is yes, parade Grand Marshal Joseph Lynch (at left in photo) announced Friday afternoon: “We are going on with the parade.”
Mayor John DeStefano (at right in photo, donning a ceremonial sash) said the most recent storm was nothing compared to Winter Storm Nemo. “This is Miami Beach at this point,” he said.
DeStefano said it is important to keep the tradition going, in part because it is the “biggest day of the year” at downtown restaurants.
The city is imposing a downtown parking ban from midnight Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday so the city can clean up the streets.
The parade will kick off on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. outside the Hospital of St. Raphael campus of Yale-New Haven Hospital. Lynch said he expects 300,000 people to descend on the city from as far away as Florida, Nevada and California.