There are few traditions in New York like the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Since 1924, it has delighted spectators and today it draws 3.5 million people from around the world.

But did you know there is another New York tradition involved in the parade? Lobbying! New York State has only released lobbying data back to 2009, so we don’t know how long it has truly been part of the tradition, but data from this time period shows $48,000 spent on lobbying about the parade by one group.

Who is doing the lobbying? Well it seems that George Lence from Nicholas & Lence Communications has been the lobbyist and firm behind this since records started. Each year, the lobbying involves the “location and route” of the parade.

Which brings me to the next question. Why are people lobbying over the parade route? Could it be safety concerns? Traffic? Doubtful. The client is always the Times Square Advertising Coalition, an organization that has a lot to gain given all the cameras on the parade route and all the billboards seen by those cameras.

And who exactly are they lobbying? The lobbying is directed at government offices including the Department of Transportation, the City Council and the Manhattan Borough President.

Lastly, where does Macy’s sit in all of this? Records show they seem to have more important things to lobby about. Since 2009, they have spent $65,193 on lobbying over zoning changes at their flagship store with the firm Akerman.

Well, is this all a lot of money? Here is a fun fact which puts these amounts into perspective. Columbia University, the local university that has spent the most on lobbying, paid $5.2 million over that same period.



So is the lobbying as big as those floats? No. But if you see the parade take a funny turn one day, you might just notice an extra billboard or two.

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Data can be found here on NY State Open Data Portal