April 20, 2024

Photo by Lauren Lovallo/Staten Island Advance

New York City shells out around $300,000 per year for NYPD overtime pay and Sanitation (DSNY) worker services for the annual Staten Island St. Patrick’s Parade, the Advance has learned.

The financial breakdown of services was compiled by City Comptroller Brad Lander’s office after the Staten Island Pride Center — which every year has been denied the right to march at the yearly celebration of Irish heritage under its own banner — requested the information.

Although the Staten Island Parade Committee largely explains the exclusion by referencing the teachings of the Catholic Church, the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Manhattan ended a two-decade ban of LGBTQ+ groups in 2014, while parades in Boston and Dublin have done the same. And a St. Patrick’s Parade in the Bronx this year for the first time allowed an LGBTQ+ group to march openly.

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