Back in March of 2001, 40th Street in Sunnyside, Queens, New York had only recently managed to convince the Transit Authority that it is no longer named Lowery, but a number of businesses flanking the 40th Street intersection with Queens Boulevard still beg to differ. The green sign adorning the lamppost commemorates the upcoming St. Patrick's Day. Actually, Sunnyside already had its parade. It was an alternative celebration set up to get around the main 5th Avenue parade's exclusion of Gay organizations being able to march under their own banners. In addition to Gay groups, the Sunnyside parade was designed as a fairly multi-cultural affair, embracing numerous ethnic groups. Whatever the social, political or religious motives of such events might be, I'm sure it wasn't a hard sell to hold such a parade in Sunnyside, given the still heavy and long standing Irish presence here, and the fact that it wasn't held on the same day as the main Hibernian Order led parade.

Back in March of 2001, 40th Street in Sunnyside, Queens, New York had only recently managed to convince the Transit Authority that it is no longer named Lowery, but a number of businesses flanking the 40th Street intersection with Queens Boulevard still beg to differ. The green sign adorning the lamppost commemorates the upcoming St. Patrick's Day. Actually, Sunnyside already had its parade. It was an alternative celebration set up to get around the main 5th Avenue parade's exclusion of Gay organizations being able to march under their own banners. In addition to Gay groups, the Sunnyside parade was designed as a fairly multi-cultural affair, embracing numerous ethnic groups. Whatever the social, political or religious motives of such events might be, I'm sure it wasn't a hard sell to hold such a parade in Sunnyside, given the still heavy and long standing Irish presence here, and the fact that it wasn't held on the same day as the main Hibernian Order led parade.