On a beautiful autumn day, 60,000 runners took over the streets of New York City for the 50th time since the marathon was first run through all five boroughs. Both the women’s and men’s races featured close and exciting finishes. New Yorkers love our marathon and it’s always a joy to see people in every neighborhood come together for a celebration of running.
The New York Times called it “a show of defiance across the nation,” with estimates of 8 million protesters across the country in large cities, small towns, and red and blue states. The Manhattan march was considerably larger than the previous ones in 2025 and was massive, energetic, and peaceful.
The march was headed by Jumaane Williams, Letitia James, Robert De Niro, and the Rev. Al Sharpton
On March 7, protesters gathered in Union Square, New York City to rally against the American and Israeli attacks on Iran. A diverse crowd included several political groups, pro-Palestinian groups, and ultra-orthodox Jews opposed to the State of Israel. After listening to speeches, the protesters marched peacefully across 14th Street.
The 2026 Stand Up for Science rally was held in City Hall Park, New York City and around the country in a national day of action. Almost all of the protesters were MDs, PhDs, or both, with young researchers and PhD candidates also represented. Speakers included Michelle Ng Gong, MD, president-elect of the American Thoracic Society, who spoke forcefully of the need for the federal government to finance medical research and treatments for respiratory diseases. When one speaker asked the protesters to raise their hands if they had had loss of federal funding in the last 12 months, almost everyone raised a hand.
On January 11, 2026 protesters took to the streets across the country to protest recent government actions at home and abroad. In New York City, thousands of marchers walked peacefully from Grand Army Plaza down Fifth Avenue to 42nd Street.
It was a tumultuous year by any measure and a year that made us think about our values as a nation. I spent most of it in New York City, covering one demonstration after another. On a trip to France I thought about America’s past role as defender of democracy, and in New Mexico I learned about the history of the many Native American nations who made this state unique.
The day before the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the enormous balloons featured in the parade have to be inflated, secured with ropes and nets, and anchored with sandbags. What used to be a neighborhood tradition for children and their parents on the streets surrounding the American Museum of Natural History has become a major tourist attraction with an enormous police presence and security. This year, not for the first time, the New York City mayor and police commissioner held a news conference to assure the public that the parade will be safe and there is “no credible threat” to New York or the parade.
June 14, 2025: Protesters marched down Fifth Avenue as part of the national No Kings protests against the policies of the current administration. Crowd estimates vary, but some 50,000 people marched in New York on a rainy day and over 1 million marched nationwide.
The large protest march from the New York Public Library to Central Park was perhaps smaller than the massive protest two weeks earlier, but with its two main themes of immigration and climate there was no less energy among the many thousands of people who joined the nationwide protests.
On April 5, tens of thousands of people, possibly 100,000, marched in New York City as part of nationwide protests against the administration. The estimate is that people joined 1600 protests across the country. In New York, the protesters filled 20 blocks of Fifth Avenue for over 3 hours. Well organized, peaceful, and orderly, the protest included families with children, people in wheelchairs, the elderly, and the young. A frequent chant was “This is What Democracy Looks Like.”
