Since 1886, New York City has honored politicians, generals, organizations, military veterans, athletes, and others with ticker-tape parades.[1] Parades are traditionally held along a section of Broadway, known as the "Canyon of Heroes", from the Battery to City Hall. Each of these 206 parades has been commemorated by the Alliance for Downtown New York City with a granite strip, installed in 2004.[2]
In 2017, then Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Twitter that he intended to have Marshall Pétain's plaque removed from the Canyon of Heroes.[9][10] This happened after a national debate over the propriety of Confederate monuments spilled over into a reassessment of monuments in general. Pétain was honored in 1931 for his service in World War I. After France's defeat by Germany, he advocated surrender rather than resistance; Pétain headed the Nazi collaborationist government of Vichy France from 1940–1944. France itself has largely removed all commemoration for Pétain; the last street named after him was renamed in 2010.[11]