Do you even know what a “wicket” is? If not, you’re going to have a hard time sympathizing with the residents of West 9th Street in New York City, who aren’t pleased the gay pride march is headed down its street to destroy the landscaping.
With NYC budget cuts forcing all public street parades to shorten, Heritage of Pride’s NYC parade has been cut by a mile. That means organizers had to re-route the event (Disclosure: Queerty is sponsoring it) to make sure it still ends down by Christopher Street, where the Stonewall riots. So they’ve pushed its starting point down from 52nd Street to 36th Street. And instead of normally heading west on West 8th Street, and it’s now going to take over West 9th. And the West 9th Street Block Association ain’t happy:
We have just learned that the Gay Pride Parade route on June 27th has been changed this year to come down West 9th Street instead of the commercial block of 8th Street as in past years.
President Patty Brundage has been on the phone with the 6th Precinct, the parade organizers, and many others to express our outrage at a major parade coming down our residential street. Most importantly, we have just spent $10,000 to plant our wickets, plus several thousand more to replace wickets and trees, and all this new work and the trees and flowers will be threatened by thousands of spectators crowding the block.
They won’t be “threatened.” They will be trampled. By hot guys like this one!
It’s almost certain, unless the NYPD plans on outfitting each wicket with a cop in riot gear.
How about we take this to the next level?
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So, uh, what’s a wicket? I’m still not certain, though I’m pretty sure the West 9th Street Block Association isn’t using the cricket sporting reference. Which leaves, uh, this:
DM73
She can thank the Mayor for that because he’s the one forcing the changes. It’s part of his Dictatorial Mandate of leaving his stamp on the city streets from placing weird bus sidewalks in the middle of Broadway in SoHo to completely plugging up Times and Herald Squares (with Union Square soon to follow).
Call him. I believe its stil 311.
James Stoicheff
The “hot guy” in the photo looks a lot like the hot guy in the MegaMatesMet.com ad on the same page.
Yet Another
Yeah, that sucks. I’ve never been but I imagine this is probably too big an event to run down a “typical” residential street. Shouldn’t the organizers (or shameless self promoting sponsors) be the ones to field the complaints since they drafted the route?
Qjersey
oh please on and given weekend night NYU students are pissing and puking in those wickets.
Qjersey
Correction, that block has the PATH station near the corner of 6th. I’ve pissed in those wickets before getting on the train. LOL.
MICKjr
I think wickets are those metal tree guard things that unsuspecting people tend to trip over even on uncrowded streets. If you’re light weight with good balance, you might be able to stand and teeter on top of one of them and have a clearer view of the parade.
Jesse Helms
These types of perverted events should be banned from public site.
Jesse Helms
I wonder how many of these men are HIV positive? New York City has a large HIV/AIDS population.
Bisexual Vampire
Jesse Helms, do you mommy know you are playing on the Internet? If not, I am going to give her a call. Oops, I forget youare supposed to be dead.
schlukitz
And these types of perverts like Jesse Helms should be banned from public sites.
Gorbeh
Wicket is an Ewok!!! Duh!!
mike
When we were living off Prospect Park in Brooklyn, our block was regularly used for all sorts of parade events, including the anti-gay St. Patrick’s Day parade; so fuck that bitch. Its a city and everyone lives with neighbors.
To Jesse Helms: how are those hell-fires? And, what, in God’s name, are you doing cruising gay web-sites? Oh, and by-the-way, your Jesse Helms heritage folks here in NC are white-washing your homophobic bigotry rewriting your views that you were always in favor of live-and-let-live. Perhaps you ought to be haunting them instead of gay web sites. Oh, and enjoy your shit sandwiches.
Republican
Yawn. This lady is just a pathetic crybaby upset that some people will be having more fun than she could ever imagine. OK, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but really, you should sort of expect the possibility of something like this when you move to or stay in NYC. There are plenty of other areas to live where you won’t risk parades ruining your precious flowers.
McShane
Guilianni pretty much ruined NYC for it’s Gay citizenry, and has gentrified it so that gay communities can barely thrive. The strategy for shortening parade routes etc., has more to do with the quashing of freedom of speach and expression just a right wing strategy for stifeling public objection.
Maxime Faget
Rerouting the parade down 9th Street is a bad idea. It’s gonna be especially awful for spectators. Fifth Avenue, 8th Street and Christoper Streets are big commercial streets that have space for people to hang out and enjoy what’s happening in the street and on the sidewalk. Perfect for the street party atmosphere that happens at this end of the march. Every year the city makes these events harder and harder to enjoy the day. Just think of all the barricades that went up along Christopher the past few years and how hard it is to get around the neighborhood now. If folks were as concerned about the parade as this woman is rightfully concerned about her block and her widgets, it would be a better place for all of us.
Jesse Helms
Many of the homosexual men at these gay prides have AIDS or HIV. They continue to carry on like sluts and have sex with other men from across the country and infect them. Then these men return home and infect men in their towns or citys. Perverted freaks and fornicators.
Taylor Siluwé
Aww, Jesse Helms,
We know we’ll see you there. But FYI – stop feverishly masturbating over the hot guy pics, no one wants a chafed pecker poking them over a wicket.
To the matter at hand, it always amazes me when people move to the West Village and then bitch and moan about too much activity. Like, it used to be a senior-citizen haven? As its been previously stated, we’ve all pissed and puked and sometimes fornicated (ah, the good ol’ days) at one time or another on any given side street in the Village.
So, like Mike so eloquently said, ‘Fuck that bitch!’
Republican
@Jesse Helms:
“They continue to carry on like sluts”
Somebody is jealous.
Jesse Helms
@Republican: I am not jealous and I don’t have AIDS. You see, I have morals and I don’t go out to bars, parks, public restrooms looking for anonymous sex with gay men. I plan on living longer, but many of you gay men will die from your sexual appetite.
Bill Perdue
@schlukitz: welcome back
hyhybt
@Jesse Helms: I thought you were dead!
Dang overoptimistic news reports…
Jesse Helms
@HYHYBT: Sometimes I’m dead. LOL I have to come up out of my grave here in Raleigh to read you Queens regarding the truth.
mconyc08
Queerty, what’s the point of having a “Flag the comment” option if it’s not correctly enabled?
There are plenty of comments here that are completely inapropriate and should be removed since they are only written to push people’s buttons and are not contributing anything relevant to the discussion.
There’s a big difference between freedom of speech and HATE speech. Way to run a “pro-gay” media property!
hyhybt
@mconyc08: I’m not sure what you mean; does the ‘flag?’ tag do nothing at all when you click it, or were you expecting it to remove the post rather than just calling it to management’s attention?
boo
I dont understand how you people can say the stupid shit that you saying if it wasnt for pride the city would be worst then it is now and alot of you wouldnt have a job and there are police and fire fighter that all are apart of this gay pride that u dont like so much .you child is one thats why you areso up set.you dont know nothing about us .you go by what you hear .not by asking any one of us .so kiss ass .
boo
well jesse you are probly an undercover fag and is upset because dont knowbody want you .you dont know who has hiv/aids whos to say you dont .maybe your one of the people who are giving it to other.dont hate .i bet you will be ther e enjoying all the same .im gay and i dont have aids.so your wrong .lol.