Hills & Gardens—November 8, 2012
Super storm Sandy sandbagged the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade and tabled Park Slope’s, but with the help of Captain Jeffrey Schiff, who honored a permit, and the multi-tasking officers of the 76th Precinct, the Cobble Hill Costume Parade was a “go.” As with all city parks, Cobble Hill Park entrances were cordoned off with yellow police tape, but parade goers squeezed onto brimming streets around the park awaiting the music of the Jah Pan Steel Drum Band to signal the beginning of the march through the neighborhood. Police officers diverted traffic so that little revelers could revel.
The precinct estimated the crowd at 5,000, which is easy to believe as the shoulder-to-shoulder masses made it difficult to take photographs. Roy Sloane, president of the Cobble Hill Association, told us that the organization had pushed for permission to proceed. If there was ever a Halloween that needed to be celebrated, it was Halloween 2012, he said, adding that the collective mood was even more ebullient than in the past.
Indeed, the costumed witches, warlocks, and whatevers had to be less frightening to young children than the television images of floods, fallen trees, fires, and bereft New Yorkers Sandy left in its wake.