City Puts Kibosh On Saturday’s “Broadway Bomb”; Possible Police Activity On UWS Tomorrow

Friday, October 19th, 2012

Posted back in July about the 3rd Annual Broadway Mini-Bomb, during which scores of skateboarders head down Broadway from 116th Street to the Financial District.

The “Mini-Bomb” was supposed to be a precursor to the much larger 10th Annual Broadway Bomb, featuring close to 2,000 skaters.

That event was scheduled to take place tomorrow (Saturday, 10/20), but yesterday the city secured a temporary retraining order banning the event and making participants subject to arrest.


Full coverage is available from Gothamist, Village Voice, DNAinfo, and Reuters.

At the heart of the matter is the fact that race organizers don’t have a parade permit.

I think it’s safe to assume they haven’t had one the previous nine years either, but now the city is cracking down on them.

While the event’s Facebook page notes that it’s “officially” canceled, it also details plans for a flash mob at 116th & Broadway at 11:50 am Saturday (for a 12:00 pm start).

BroadwayBomb.com has conflicting information, noting:

PLEASE BE ADVISED: 1.) Pursuant to Court order, the Broadway Bomb race and flash mob will not occur on October 20, 2012. 2.) Participants in any such event will be subject to arrest.

Hard to tell how many people are actually going to show up tomorrow, but given that the start line and first 2.5+ miles of the “race” are on the Upper West Side, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an increased police presence along Broadway tomorrow, especially in the northern part of the neighborhood.

The area around 116th & Broadway should be particularly interesting around noon, as I suspect at least a few dedicated souls will show up to see how serious the city and NYPD are about enforcing the ban. (NOTE: Testing the NYPD usually doesn’t end well)

When news about the court order first broke, numerous participants vowed to show up despite the threat of arrest.

With the benefit of 36 hours to digest the news, I think the reality of the situation will probably result in most people staying home.

Still, you never know — there may very well be a mini-riot tomorrow involving dozens of skateboarders and police, like some sort of 1980s angry/rebellious youth coming-of-age flick.

If that happens and you get pics or video, you’re pretty much guaranteed “UWS Photo/Video Of The Day” honors…

The video above is from the 2011 Broadway Bomb. It starts at Riverside & 116th, which serves as the rallying point before skaters rush to Broadway and start heading south.

The one below is from Push Culture News, which covered last year’s event, and the one below that is from last year’s start line and gives you an idea of just how many people were involved (there were supposed to be significantly more this year).


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Filed under: Crime, Events, Manhattan, New York City, News, NYC, Transportation, Upper West Side, Upper West Side Blog, UWS 3 Comments »
  • Andrea

    Saw them come down Columbus – it was about noon, I was at 77th and Columbus (at the Brownstone School event). I can’t tell you how many exactly but quite a lot (not as many as in the videos above) and the back of the group was followed by a force of police on motorcycles, large police vans and unmarked black cars. I think it was a breakout group because I saw a small group of 5 about skateboarders at 81st and Amsterdam at about 11:45 and asked them if the event was happening and they said it was canceled.

  • MyUpperWest

    Thanks, Andrea.

    Were the cops behind the group on Columbus “chasing” them, or did it look like they were just following them to ensure nothing happened?

    I saw a few boarders come down Broadway in the low 80s around 12:15ish.

  • Andrea

    It is hard to say… since the cops were as a group all in the back/behind the last boarders, they weren’t doing anything to protect boarders, pedestrians or drivers. I didn’t see anyone get stopped or apprehended, but the fact that there were so many cops (including the vans) makes me think perhaps when they got to the finish line, they might try to make some arrests. But I really don’t know. It was quite a sight though, like a parade of skate boarders!