花車游行（Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade）一直以來都是紐約市的感恩節傳統項目。自1924年第145屆感恩節花車游行起，這一游行的路線就一直延續到現在：上起77街、中央公園西，途徑百老匯大街，最后匯集到先驅廣場。而今年，由于紐約市政府將百老匯大街接近時代廣場和先驅廣場附近區域改為步行街，所以花車游行被迫改道至美國大道。這一改，可引起了不小的波瀾。由于反響太過激烈，市政府于是宣布成立專人小組，對此事進行商討。而游行的熱衷群眾也紛紛表示，改變游行路線就是破壞感恩節傳統，讓人無法接受。

Change the parade route? Can they even do that?

From Felix the Cat in 1927 to Bolt the dog in 2008, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has adapted, over the years, to changing times and cartoon fashions.

But one thing has always been constant: the final stretch of the parade route, down Broadway from Columbus Circle to Herald Square, through crowds lining the Great White Way.

That tradition appears to be doomed. The main culprit is the plan, unveiled last month by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, to turn Broadway into a pedestrian-only zone around Times Square and Herald Square this spring. If you can't drive a car down Broadway, you can't drive a float down it either

And so the city has begun the process of figuring out where the cat might hang his hat in November. Crain's New York Business, in its most recent issue, reported that the city was considering shifting the parade to Avenue of the Americas.

Scott Gastel, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, confirmed on Sunday that "a working group has been assembled on this matter, and recommendations will be made."

The president of the Times Square Alliance, Tim Tompkins, said the Avenue of the Americas was not the only route option. City officials told him, he said, that they were looking at the possibility of shifting parts of the parade to Seventh Avenue north of Times Square, which would keep the floats closer to Broadway.

Neither the Department of Transportation nor the mayor's office would say when a decision would be made or provide further details about the options.

For Macy's, a move off Broadway would be a major one.

"Broadway is part of the parade's history," said Elina Kazan, a spokeswoman for Macy's. "It would certainly be a bittersweet moment for us if we were to leave. But we're working with the city, the D.O.T. and other city agencies to come up with alternatives that will make it the best parade experience for everyone.”

盡管群眾呼聲強烈，然而百老匯大街在近年的游行中確實顯得越來越不夠用。2005年的時候，游行中漂浮大氣球的線就曾纏繞在途徑的一棟大樓上，并導致兩人受傷。百老匯大街的寬度僅有39英尺，而游行要求街面至少要達到62英尺。如果真的轉移到美國大道，就不存在這個問題了。

Even without the addition of a pedestrian mall, Broadway has come to seem less and less an ideal parade route in recent years because, despite its name, it is not particularly broad. After the ropes tethered to an M & M balloon caught on a streetlight at 43rd Street in 2005 and injured two people, an investigation found that the clearance there was only 39 feet wide, when Macy's own guidelines called for 62 feet of space. (After the accident, Macy's said it had submitted a plan to the city to "recontour the parade route," but no action was taken.)

No such strictures exist on Avenue of the Americas: it is six lanes and at least 60 feet wide.

而時代廣場附近的生意人更是擔心改變路線會影響他們在感恩節的收益。因為通常在這一天，人們會到沿途的賓館訂房間、以方便觀看游行。相關的產業也會帶動起來。而如果不從這里經過，生意一定會受創。

The news was greeted with some consternation in Times Square. Mr. Tompkins of the business alliance there said that moving the route would be "an economic hit to the neighborhood," particularly to hotels along the viewing route, like the Marriott Marquis, at Broadway and 46th Street, where rooms with views sell out months in advance.

In addition, he said, a shift would be "a missed opportunity for the city to put its best face forward. After all, what do you want to show the world, the razzle-dazzle of Times Square or sleepy old Sixth Avenue?"

He said the pedestrian mall could be set up in such a way that impediments to traffic could be moved for the parade.

At Embassy Electronics, on Seventh Avenue near 47th Street, a few feet from Broadway, Mustapha ben Khallouk, a salesman, shook his head at the prospect of a Thanksgiving without a parade passing by.

"It's not good for Times Square," he said. "Thanksgiving is one of the busiest days of the year for us — people stay all day. They already have most of the parades on Fifth and Sixth, so we should at least get to keep this one."

The parade, the only annual major march that uses Broadway, originally started at 145th Street in 1924. It now steps off at 77th Street and Central Park West, heads along the park to Columbus Circle, then moves down Broadway to Macy's at 34th Street.

（來源：滬江英語，英語點津Julie編輯）