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He’s been running the Tompkins Square Dog Parade since 2020. Now, he’s ready to quit.
By
Ryan Kailath
Published Oct 18, 2024
Modified Oct 18, 2024
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Photo by Ryan Kailath / Gothamist
By
Ryan Kailath
Published Oct 18, 2024
Modified Oct 18, 2024
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The Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade returns to the East Village this Saturday. But it will look a little different from past iterations, and the parade's primary organizer says that this will be his last year putting it on.
“I’m done. No more,” said Joseph Borduin, a commercial photographer and volunteer at the Tompkins Square Park dog run who has been organizing the Halloween Dog Parade and costume contest since 2020. “I need another, bigger entity to take over this beast because it’s just too much for a small dog park to handle.”
When asked to explain his frustrations with the process, Borduin replied that any comment would be unprintable because of all the profanity. Later in the conversation, he pointed to his exhaustion with the planning and bureaucratic hurdles required to organize the event.
A dog at a previous year's parade.
Scott Lynch for Gothamist
In a sense, the parade is a victim of its own popularity. It has become the marquee event in a busy season of costumed dog parades across New York City, attracting thousands of spectators and international media.
This year’s parade, however, will not be allowed into the park at all, Borduin said, citing ongoing construction on the park’s field house.
Instead, the parade will proceed down a closed-off Avenue A from 14th to Seventh streets before it disperses. Its popular costume contest, which features canine contenders being judged on stage before cheering crowds, is gone this year.
Borduin, who lives in the neighborhood, said he never intended to become the parade's organizer. He would visit the park's dog run every day with his cockapoo Biscuit, and eventually began volunteering to clean up dog waste.
“People started noticing, and when COVID came around, the people that had been here for a while kind of got sick of things, and sick in general; we lost a lot of people,” Borduin said.
Borduin said he was tapped after the departure of the parade's founder and longtime organizer Garrett Rosso in 2020. Rosso had been complaining about rising costs and bureaucratic headaches associated with the event since before the pandemic, he said.
“I was just cleaning up the dog run, and then October came around and they were like ‘Hey, don’t forget about our annual Halloween parade,’” Borduin said, referring to Friends of the First Run, the official nonprofit that sponsors the dog run and parade’s activities.
The 2020 parade was virtual, and 2021’s edition returned to the amphitheater in East River Park, which offered ample room, Borduin said. But after a major flood-resilience renovation project began at that park, the event had to return to Tompkins in 2022.
“We got twice the crowd,” Borduin said. “It was not safe having that amount of people.”
At time of publishing, Borduin said he still hadn't received the final go-ahead from the several city agencies involved in permitting the parade. But he recognized that there was no stopping the event since its details had already been advertised — even if he were to announce the parade’s cancellation due to lack of permission, thousands of people would likely still show up on Saturday.
Borduin said he’s made clear to everyone involved, including local City Councilmember Carlina Rivera and state Assemblymember Harvey Epstein, that he will not be organizing the parade in the future. But he added that nobody has stepped up to take over.
“The other two in Friends of the First Run, they’re not interested,” Borduin said. “You gotta really love to do it.” He hopes someone in the community will step up.
Rivera said she looks forward to working with the community to find such a larger sponsor, though it’s not yet clear who that might be.
“Joseph’s been great, and he and the other organizers’ passion and authenticity has drawn people to this event,” Rivera said. “It’s gotten to the point where even the threat of cancellation seems to draw even more spectators – it’s appropriate for a larger entity to take over.”
The entire parade process has been so stressful, Borduin said, that he and Biscuit don’t even visit the park’s dog run anymore. His conversation with Gothamist marked the first time he and Biscuit had been back this year.
While Borduin said he is sad about stepping away from the parade, he added that he feels an overwhelming sense of relief.
“You get burned out,” Borduin said. “There’s only so much you can do.”
The Tompkins Square Dog Parade kicks off at 1 p.m. on Sat. Oct. 19 at 14th Street and Avenue A.
Tagged
manhattan
dog parade
Ryan Kailath
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