Good morning. It’s Thursday, the day when the New York Knicks will go where they have never gone before: the Canyon of Heroes in Lower Manhattan. We’ll look at what you need if you want to see the parade. We’ll also get details on the city’s newest area code.
For the first time since the days of Bill Bradley, Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe in the 1970s, the Knicks are N.B.A. champions. And for the first time ever, the team will be hailed with a parade through the Canyon of Heroes in Lower Manhattan. There will also be a ceremony at City Hall Plaza, with the Knicks’ receiving a newly redesigned key to the city.
The parade could be the largest event of its kind in the city’s history, larger than the first (for the dedication of the Statue of Liberty, in 1886), the one for Charles Lindbergh (after the first solo nonstop trans-Atlantic flight, in 1927) or the one for Lieut. Col. John Glenn Jr. (after he became the first American to orbit the Earth, in 1962).
The advice from Jessica Lappin, president of the Alliance for Downtown New York, the nonprofit that manages the business improvement district south of Chambers Street? “Come early. Bring water. Bring patience.”
Here’s what else to know if you’re planning to attend.
Where you can watch
The parade is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. at Bowling Green and travel north along Broadway to City Hall.
You can watch from anywhere along the parade route, but you can enter only at one of 23 designated access points. And first you will have to be screened. You can find the access points here.
If you work in a building on the parade route or nearby, be prepared to show identification along the way. The same goes if you live in the area.
How you can get there
Take the subway, but note that the Wall Street station for 4 and 5 trains and the City Hall station for R and W trains will be closed starting at 4:30 a.m. The Police Department will also close some streets in Lower Manhattan.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority suggests using these stations near the parade route: South Ferry (1 train); Rector Street (1); Rector Street (R, W); WTC-Cortlandt Street (1); Wall Street (2, 3); Park Place (2, 3); Fulton Street (2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, J, Z); Bowling Green (4, 5); Chambers Street (A, C); World Trade Center (E); Broad Street (J, Z); Cortlandt Street (R, W); and Whitehall Street (R, W).
Don’t ride your bike or your scooter — you can’t take them onto the parade route.
When you should get there
As Lappin suggested, go early. The city’s website suggests arriving at least two hours before the parade starts. The viewing areas will be filled first come first served, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Wednesday. Once they’re full, people will either be redirected to other locations or turned away.
What you can take
Yourself. Identification. A cellphone or a camera. A plastic water bottle (not a glass or metal one). And maybe a raincoat or poncho, since you can’t take an umbrella on the parade route.
The list of other prohibited items includes backpacks. Bags. Chairs and coolers. If you have a pet, the city says to leave him or her at home, no matter how much he or she may love the Knicks.
What’s happening at City Hall
There will be a ceremony at City Hall Plaza, scheduled to begin at noon. In contrast to the parade, admission is by ticket only, and it’s too late to get one. The lottery for 600 tickets ended yesterday.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani will present a key to the city designed by Aneesh Bhoopathy, who was the designer behind Mamdani’s campaign visuals and now works at City Hall. The key was fabricated by Azra Khalfan-Kermali of Plaques by Azra of Elmhurst, Queens.
“The fact that it’s being presented to the Knicks means a lot,” she said.
Is she a big Knicks fan? “I am now,” she said.
What’s in the forecast
The National Weather Service says that showers are likely, and the city says that the time of the parade could shift. It could even be postponed to another day.
“It won’t be a washout,” said John Cristantello, the lead meteorologist for the Weather Service’s New York-area office. “It’s not going to be an all-day rain. The main theme here is there are going to be scattered showers around. Whether they travel over the parade — — ” Here his voice trailed off.
The city will post updates on the parade website and on social media.
And …
Everybody calls a parade like this one a “ticker tape parade,” but there won’t be any ticker tape. What investment adviser depends on an old-fashioned stock ticker that prints out share prices on a little strip anymore?
The confetti today will be shredded recycled paper — 2,500 pounds of it, purchased for $7,500 from an office supply company in Wisconsin, according to Lappin of the Downtown Alliance.
Weather
Expect cloudy skies before the sun comes out, as temperatures near 88. Showers and thunderstorms are likely. Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low around 71.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Friday (Juneteenth).
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Aside from the Knicks, it’s another thing to be proud of in New York.” — Peg Breen, president of the nonprofit New York Landmarks Conservancy, on the city’s $21 million renovation of Grand Army Plaza at the southeast corner of Central Park.
The latest New York news
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Life sentence for Gilgo Beach serial killer: Rex Heuermann, who pleaded guilty to murdering eight women in the so-called Gilgo Beach killings, was sentenced to multiple terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole, concluding a case that took more than a decade to solve.
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Mangione to use mental health defense: Luigi Mangione’s lawyers plan to argue that he was experiencing “extreme emotional disturbance” when he killed a health care executive in Midtown Manhattan in 2024, a state judge said on Wednesday.
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Death involving a carriage horse ride: An 18-year-old tourist from India died in a fall from a horse carriage in Central Park after the horse bolted when its driver stepped away to take a photograph of the passenger and his group.
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U.S. sues N.Y. State over a home health care program: The Justice Department accused officials of failing to take action against a vendor it said had siphoned off millions of dollars. A spokeswoman for Gov. Kathy Hochul called the lawsuit “another sad attempt by the Trump administration to weaponize the justice system.”
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A House Democrat’s support of Israel may cost him his seat: Representative Dan Goldman is being challenged over his stance on the war in Gaza, as he faces Brad Lander in the Democratic primary for New York’s 10th Congressional District.
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Seeking a bigger cut: The Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, on Long Island, earns millions as host of its sport’s U.S. Open. But the Shinnecock Indian Nation, from which the golf club takes its name, long received only a fraction of the earnings — and has negotiated more.
Will you be a 465?
First there was 212, just after World War II.
Then came 718 in 1984. Then 917 in 1992, followed by 646 and 347 in 1999. And 929 in 2011, and 332 in 2017.
Now New York is getting yet another area code, 465, because the city keeps running out of unique telephone numbers. It’s the city’s first area code that contains a 5. (There are 5s in five of the area codes upstate.)
Each area code corresponds with specific sections of New York, and 465 will cover the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the Marble Hill section of Manhattan. It’s an “overlay,” meaning that it is an addition to the codes already in place for those areas — 347, 718, 917 and 929. If you live where 465 is making its debut, your number won’t change.
But area codes are not just numbers. They are also status symbols and figure in pop culture. In the first “Sex and the City” movie, Carrie Bradshaw described herself as a “917 gal.” And the rapper Azealia Banks, in the song “212,” acknowledged how Manhattan-centered that area code is: “I was in the 212 on the uptown A.”
METROPOLITAN diary
His shot
Dear Diary:
I had been called for jury duty. The judge asked the group I was in whether any of us had essential medical procedures or other unavoidable conflicts coming up.
A few people raised their hands: an old man getting eye surgery; a woman getting a hip replacement. Then a tall young man raised his hand.
“It’s not medical, but I’m a musical theater actor,” he said. “I have my final callback for ‘Hamilton’ on Thursday, and I’d really like to be there.”
He was excused.
— Daniella Berman
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.
Sarah Maslin Nir, Davaughnia Wilson and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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The post The Knicks Parade: Come Early, and Bring Patience appeared first on New York Times.
