The Lunar New Year Parade on Sunday brought thousands of spectators to Lower Manhattan for a bittersweet celebration.
Lion dancers, dragon puppets, and a slew of city and state elected officials arrived at Mott and Hester Streets on Feb. 20 to ring in the year of the tiger — but it wasn’t all smiles for a community that’s felt tremendous suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the pain of an array of violent anti-Asian attacks.
The parade route was peppered with locals decrying not only anti-Asian hate, but also a new jail set to be placed on the rubble of the Manhattan Detention Center and the plea to combat the mental health crisis.
