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By Caroline Spivack<\/p>\n
Brooklyn Paper<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Now they can never change the parade route.<\/p>\n
The city honored a Bay Ridge tradition by co-naming the corner of Third Avenue and 74th Street “Ragamuffin Way” on Sept. 17 in honor of the neighborhood’s annual costume march, which will tramp down the avenue for the 50th year on Oct. 1.<\/p>\n
And there was no more apt way to celebrate the procession’s anniversary than by putting its name on the very street that carries it, a local pol said.<\/p>\n
“We have many traditions in Bay Ridge, but few have come close to the popularity of the Ragamuffin Parade,” said Councilman Vincent Gentile (D–Bay Ridge), who sponsored a bill to designate the block. “There’s no way better to commemorate its 50-year anniversary than hosting a street co-naming for Ragamuffin Way.” <\/p>\n
The first Ragamuffin Parade took place on the corner in October, 1966, when Father James McKenna and parishioners of Fourth Avenue church Our Lady of Angels held an event for parish children clad in their parents’ over-sized duds, according to information from the Ragamuffin Parade Committee.<\/p>\n
The next year, it was a public march, and since then the parade has grown into a Bay Ridge tradition that boasts hundreds of marchers along Third avenue each year.<\/p>\n
50th annual Ragamuffin Parade [76th Street to 96th Street in Bay Ridge] Oct. 1 at 1 pm.<\/p>\n
Reach reporter Caroline Spivack at cspivack@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260–2517. Follow her on Twitter @carolinespivack.<\/p>\n
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