By Steve Plunkett
Did you find a parking space for the city’s Fourth of July celebration at Spanish River Athletic Complex at DeHoernle Park?
If you did, you may be trekking back there in November to watch the lighting of the city’s Christmas tree — if you can tear yourself away from the biggest shopping day of the year, that is.
City Councilwoman Constance Scott, who chairs the Community Redevelopment Agency, floated the idea of moving the tree-lighting to the park, noting that last year’s event drew 7,000 to 9,000 people to Mizner Park.
“It was a huge, just an abundance of people and activity,” Scott said at the June 25 CRA meeting.
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the largest shopping day of the year. Scott said that’s the scheduled date for the Christmas tree lighting and also for a grand opening-type event for Lord & Taylor department store.
“There are concerns about parking, there are concerns about congestion. We had a lot of issues last year,” Scott said.
The tree-lighting was moved in 2005 from City Hall to the amphitheater at Mizner Park.
Councilman Anthony Majhess preferred moving the date of the tree-lighting instead of moving the venue.
Mayor Susan Whelchel said changing either the date or the venue would require a lot of thought.
“You don’t want to continuously change venues, so if you’re going to change a venue, you better darn well pick the one that’s going to work, because you don’t want to be doing that again in a few years,” Whelchel said.
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