This Year's Cleveland St. Patrick's Day Parade Could Be One of the Last Ones Downtown

The 2024 St. Patrick’s Day parade in Cleveland Credit: Photo by Emanuel Wallace

After years of planning, fundraising, public forums and revisions, the long-awaited Superior Midway will break ground in the spring of 2026.

The $25-million project will narrow Superior to four lanes — one bus lane and one all-purpose lane running in each direction totalling 24 feet in width — from Public Square to East 55th with a protected bike path running down the middle bordered by landscaping on each side.

Public reaction has been largely positive. Cleveland, after all, has been behind the curve in cyclist and pedestrian infrastructure, and Superior’s excessive width makes it a prime target for measures that will both increase safety and expand multi-modal corridors in a city lacking them. Concerns voiced so far have come from the usual suspects — businesses along the street and centered on questions about how long construction will take and how the project will affect parking.

But a surprise entrant into the nay category arrived this winter.

Organizers of the Cleveland St. Patrick’s Day parade say that the narrowed streets and surrounding landscaping will make it impossible to safely hold the annual tradition down its usual route. The parade could adapt to a road that’s 24-feet wide, they say, but the additional eight feet of landscaping bordering the bike path would make the parade unfeasible.

“We’ve been talking to the city since 2019 when we first learned about this,” Patrick Murphy, executive director emeritus of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee, told Scene. “We got no feedback for years, and then about a year and a half ago they agreed to sit down at the table with us. The changes that have been proposed don’t take into consideration the most important part for us, which is a wide enough roadway for a safe parade.”

The city, throughout those talks, agreed to eliminate trees and bushes on the north lane along the parade route, but Murphy said the parade organizers want the landscaping areas reduced altogether from eight feet to five feet. The city, however, has stood pat, arguing 12-foot lanes are the safest option.

St. Clair has been proposed as an alternative route, but Murphy said it’s a poor one from their perspective — it doesn’t connect to Public Square, it would take the parade away from bars and restaurants along the current route, and move the parade further away from public transit.

“The further you put us away from Public Square, the less people,” he said.

The 2026 parade won’t be affected by the groundbreaking schedule, but 2027’s location remains an open question, he said.

“There are a lot of suggestions being made. We have a couple of years,” he said, noting that leaving downtown is definitely an option.

As for whether the city should alter plans to accommodate a parade that happens once a year, Murphy said: “If we bring the amount of money and people every year that we do, why not?”

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