On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio reportedly announced the cancellation of the Puerto Rican Day parade. The 63-year-old annual celebration was scheduled for June 14.
New York has the largest Puerto Rican population outside of the island. The parade’s cancellation is part of a package of large, culturally significant Summer events that will be postponed due to the mayor’s decision to cancel all non-essential permitted events for the month of June. As he stated, that doesn’t mean they won’t happen at all—they just will certainly not take place in the month of June.
“It’s not a happy announcement,” the mayor said. “But it’s one we have to make.”
Although several states have come together to entertain the idea of reopening (while others like Florida already have), Dr. Anthony Fauci said that when it comes to rash decisions like those, “it’s going to backfire.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo agrees. “We need to get testing up to scale,” Cuomo reportedly said. “It’s not a question of happy—it’s a question of life and death.”
Typically, June includes many beloved celebrations like the Pride March, Mermaid Parade, Salute to Israel Parade and more.
“They will be back… that joy and that pride that all of these events bring… that celebration will be back,” de Blasio said. “We’re gonna do it when it’s the right time.”