Good Neighbor Day parade will be shorter, safer in 2020
by Melanie Jongsma
LANSING, Ill. (January 27, 2020) – Lansing’s traditional Good Neighbor Day Parade is always scheduled for the first Saturday in May. So this year’s event will kick off at 2:00pm on Saturday, May 2.
The 2020 Good Neighbor Day Parade will begin at the same location—Wentworth Avenue and Ridge Road—but it will end at TF South High School (18500 Burnham Avenue) rather than Lan-Oak Park.
In order to avoid traffic on Torrence, which has become increasingly oblivious to parade participants, Lansing Area Chamber Director Amy Todd began working with Lt. Scott Bailey of the Lansing Police Department to find a new route for parade day. After considering several alternatives, they decided to reroute the Good Neighbor Day parade south on Burnham instead of continuing west on Ridge. The TF South parking lot will have ample room for vehicles, floats, and marchers to convene, and Todd is hoping the Lansing Lions Club will serve hot dogs to participants just as they always have.
The new route is shorter by about a mile, and Todd believes that a shorter route helps with safety issues as well. The length of the previous route often caused large gaps, particularly toward the end of the route. Those gaps contributed to safety issues as Torrence drivers would pull out into the gaps, assuming the parade was over.
The new route also allows Lansing to keep one of the three main traffic arteries (Wentworth, Burnham, and Torrence) open on a busy Saturday afternoon, as Torrence will no longer be affected by the parade.
Though Lansing residents who live between Burnham and Torrence may have to change their parade-viewing traditions, residents who live along Burnham Avenue between Ridge and TF South have already expressed excitement about being able to watch the parade from their front lawns.
This year’s Good Neighbor Day Parade theme is Superheroes. Registration forms are available from the Chamber office at 18155 Roy Street in Lansing.
Entering Lansing’s Good Neighbor Day Parade is free for all members of the Lansing Area Chamber. Non-members may also join the parade for an entrance fee of $50.
