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Staples St. businesses optimistic about new parade route

Posted at 9:26 PM, Feb 04, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-06 10:45:28-05

 

Construction of the new Harbor Bridge has already changed plenty of traffic patterns around the city.  The latest change: the route for the annual Buc Days Illuminated Night Parade.

“It’s just a little off for me,” said Gilbert Gomez.  “Hopefully everything works out good.”

Instead of the usual starting place at Miller High School’s Buc Stadium, this year’s parade starts at the American Bank Center.  From there it will make its way down Chaparral St. before turning right and heading up the hill at Schatzell St.

The parade then merges on to Leopard St., but goes the opposite way than it usually does towards City Hall.  That’s where it will turn left and onto Staples St. for the first time ever.

The parade will go right past Garibaldi Restaurant.

“Business will be good that day,” said Gomez, a manager at Garibaldi.

Gomez expects to work the night of the parade, and lots of customers in the restaurant.

“We’ll have customers, but at the same time we’ll have (the parade) blocking customers from coming into our restaurant that weekend,” said Gomez.

Gomez says he’s not worried about people camped out on Staples before the parade because Garibaldi’s entrance is on Blucher St.

Other businesses aren’t as lucky.

“We typically work on Saturdays, hopefully they won’t be camping out where we can’t get out of our parking places,” said Chuck Giffin, owner of Texas State Roofing.

Giffin moved his business to Staples St. last year; he wonders why organizers chose this route.

“It’s an interesting little neighborhood here,” said Giffin.  “We like it, it’s a great place to work, but it’s gonna be interesting to see what happens when the parade comes by.”

A big part of the Buc Days Parade is marking your spot and camping out ahead of time.  This year, marking will only be allowed from Schatzell to the end of the route at Staples and Buford St., starting the day before the parade; but you can’t start moving equipment to your spot until after 5:00 p.m.

As for Chaparral, there’s no pre-marking or camping out, but spectators can start lining up at 8:00 a.m. Saturday.

This year’s Buc Days Illuminated Night Parade is May 4th.  KRIS Communications will televise the parade.