Organizers and new petition want floats back in Raleigh Christmas Parade
READ MORE
Raleigh Christmas Parade Coverage
On Nov. 19, 2022, the driver of a truck towing a float in the Raleigh Christmas Parade apparently lost control of the vehicle. A young girl died after she was struck. This is ongoing coverage by The News & Observer.
Expand All
Organizers of the Raleigh Christmas Parade want city leaders to allow the parade to proceed with vehicles and floats.
“We are asking the Raleigh City Council to permit the parade as requested with motorized vehicles and floats,” said Jennifer Martin, The Greater Raleigh Merchants Association’s executive director, in a text message to The News & Observer.
Raleigh initially denied parade organizers a permit last week “out of an abundance of caution for parade participants and spectators, as well as respect for Hailey Brooks’ family and friends,” according to the city.
Hailey, 11, was killed in last year’s parade after a driver lost control of a vehicle pulling a floate. Her family, however, said they wanted the parade to continue with additional safety rules, and the city reconsidered, eventually allowing a parade to proceed without motorized vehicles.
Along with the merchants group, a new petition from “Citizens of Raleigh” is asking for floats and motorized vehicles to be allowed back in.
“We have fond memories of attending the parade with our families since we were just children,” the petition states. “The sight of beautifully decorated floats and vehicles gliding through the streets filled me with wonder and ignited my holiday spirit. It was an experience that brought our community together like no other.”
Martin said the merchants group was not behind the petition.
No safety meeting
The city did not meet with parade organizers to discuss additional safety measures before denying the permit, Martin said
“Our organization requested numerous times to meet with city staff in various departments, including the special events office and Raleigh Police Department,” Martin told city leaders Tuesday afternoon. “Our requests were left unanswered.”
“The Christmas Parade is a complex and unique event, and we perceived a greater expectation from the public that the city ensures safety at this event,” Robin Deacle, the city’s communications director, said in an emailed statement Wednesday morning. “After considering the permit application and safety plan from the Greater Raleigh Merchant’s Association, we informed them on [last] Thursday that we would decline their permit as submitted. Since then, city staff have continued conversations with GRMA to find an alternative to allow this holiday tradition to continue in some form.”
The city’s statement did not answer whether city staff met with parade organizers to review the safety plan.
Safety consultant
In a follow-up interview Tuesday, Martin said she asked to meet with city staff numerous times to see what else organizers could do.
“We told them we were convening a committee to come up with the new requirements and that we had identified a safety consultant that we would be hiring,” Martin said. “After submitting the event application we also told them we wanted to share additional safety plans but that there was no place on the application to do so, and we were told they would be in touch about this.”
Instead, Martin said she got an email last Thursday morning about joining a zoom call at 2 p.m. It was then she learned the permit would be denied. A statement from the city was released to media and the public an hour later.
The next day, Friday, Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said the parade would be allowed without motorized vehicles.
At first, Martin accepted the plan.
“The 2023 event will not include motorized vehicles or floats, but still promises to be one that’s entertaining for all ages,” she said, in a previous interview.
When and what did the council know
Martin said city staff members told her the City Council had weighed in on the decision to cancel this year’s parade, so she was surprised to learn that some didn’t know the permit had been denied.
“It is now our understanding that the Raleigh City Council had no input in this decision,” she told the council Tuesday.
Approving or denying a special-event permit is a staff function that doesn’t require a council vote. But some members were told “in passing” after the council’s Sept. 12 meeting that the permit would likely be denied, said Baldwin.
Two council members, Christina Jones and Megan Patton, posted videos last weekend about the parade. Jones said she was not told about the permit being denied until last Thursday.
“I do think it’s important that the public understand what is happening and what is not happening behind closed doors,” Jones said in the video. “When I ran for office I did so because I wanted a seat at the table. Not for Christina. But for residents.”
Patton addressed the issue during the meeting Tuesday, citing “poor moments of communication across this body.
“I know that information moves quickly and situations move very rapidly, but I think we can all agree that we are better leaders to our residents when we are working from the same set of facts and working toward the same set of outcomes,” she said
She confirmed she knew about the permit possibly being denied on Sept. 12 but didn’t know the parade was back on until media outlets reported it Friday.
The city’s Wednesday statement did not answer The N&O’s question about how city leaders were told about the permit denial.
‘Who had the audacity’
Two other people spoke to the council about the parade Tuesday afternoon.
Robert Courts, a local business advocate, called for a third-party, transparent investigation into how the initial decision to cancel the parade was made.
“I want to know who had the audacity to make this decision without citizen input,” he said.
Gene Alston promised to dress up as Santa and walk through downtown if the parade doesn’t happen.
“What happened was an accident,” he said. “It was a tragedy. And it took one of my kids away. But the other kids not going to be able to see the floats or Santa or anything like that, that’s not right. That’s not doing something for that young girl. It’s not doing something for her. We need safety measures just like we do the fair. We check every ride. We need to check every car.”
This story was originally published September 20, 2023 at 9:05 AM.
.JPG)
