No Fourth Of July East River Fireworks Viewing From Roosevelt Island For 2011 - On Hudson River Again But This Is What It Was Like In Past Years On Roosevelt Island - Happy Birthday America and 4th Birthday of Roosevelt Islander Blog

Image of John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence from ushistory.org

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA - JULY 4 IS INDEPENDENCE DAY.

Unfortunately, there will be no viewing of the July 4 Independence Day Fireworks celebration from the Roosevelt Island, Brooklyn or Long Island City waterfront again this year as the Macy's Fireworks Celebration will be set off from barges in the Hudson instead of East River for the third straight year. According to the NY Times:

For this year’s Fourth of July celebration, Macy’s had hoped to turn its massive fireworks show into a birthday party for the Statue of Liberty, which was dedicated in New York harbor 125 years ago. The show’s planners wanted to surround the statue with barges loaded with shells, fire some others off from the base of the statue and even have Beyoncé perform...

But city officials rejected that plan, saying that Lower Manhattan could not handle the throngs of spectators who would be drawn downtown. So Macy’s settled for a third consecutive year of staging its fireworks show on six barges in the Hudson River.

For those of you who have never seen the July 4 Fireworks from Roosevelt Island's Southpoint Park, or wish to see them again, here's what it was like in 2007

You Tube Video of 2007 Southpoint Park Fireworks Celebration

and 2008, the last time the Macy's July 4 Fireworks celebration took place on the East River.

You Tube Video of July 4 2008 Fireworks at Southpoint Park Roosevelt Island

 
There's more to the Fourth of July holiday than fireworks, bbq, burgers, beer and flag waving. What the Fourth of July is really about is the Declaration of Independence. This previous post has the text of the Declaration of Independence, a reading of it from then Senator John F. Kennedy and on a slightly less serious note,  South Park's version of the decision by American colonists to declare independence and go to war against England.

Independence Day is also the 4th Birthday of the Roosevelt Islander Blog. Roosevelt Island's Fourth of July Fireworks Celebrations holds a special place in the life of the Roosevelt Islander Blog because it was the subject of the first post and the reason it came into being - my objection (all in CAPS because I didn't know any better) to RIOC charging $18 to gain entry to a public park to view the fireworks when other public venues to do not charge a dime.

Happy Birthday America!!!!

UPDATE JULY 3 2012 - No viewing of July 4 fireworks from Roosevelt Island or East River for 2012 either.