Brooklyn and Manhattan politicians and residents pleaded yesterday for the return of the Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks to the East River.
“The current configuration favors New Jersey and excludes the majority of New Yorkers,” said public advocate Bill de Blasio, referring to the fireworks being held on the Hudson River, where they have exploded for the past four years.
“This is not how it’s supposed to be,” de Blasio added at the press conference at Brooklyn Bridge Park.
State senator Daniel Squadron urged New Yorkers to sign a petition to show Macy’s they meant business.
“This is the time, and this is the way to do it,” Squadron said, waving a petition sheet in the air.
The fireworks have not been on the East Side since 2008. In 2009, Macy’s moved them to the Hudson River to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage, and they have been there since.
At the time, Macy’s officials assured East Side residents that the move would be temporary, according to Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.
“Obviously I want them here,” Brooklyn resident Val Peterson said. “More of New York is on this side, and it just seems more fair.”
Squadron said local officials would talk with Macy’s officials in the “next few days” in an attempt to move the fireworks back for 2013.
Macy’s spokesman Orlando Veras said the location of next year’s fireworks probably will not be decided for a while.
“We have no permanent fixture, because we have many factors to consider,” Veras explained. “We have to decide what the show’s going to look like, and then we ask, ‘Where can we put it?'”
Squadron and de Blasio said even if the fireworks location changed every year, it would be better than having it stay on the Hudson.
