Changes are coming to Albany’s Memorial Day Parade this year to improve safety.

This comes in the wake of several tragic incidents across the country and across the world, including the terror attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day when a car plowed into a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street, killing 14 people.

Police Chief Brendan Cox said beefed-up security is nothing new for parades and other events in the Capital Region. It was done after 9/11. It was done after the Boston Marathon bombing.

Anyone who attended the Tulip Festival this past weekend probably noticed the huge dump trucks and the snow plows that were strategically placed at entrances to Washington Park.

The Memorial Day parade route this year will be several blocks east. shorter. It’ll step off at Lexington Avenue.

No parking will be in effect on Central Avenue in the staging area unless the vehicle is part of the parade.

Cox said the goal is to make sure that no vehicles or unexpected people can get into the route.

“Any city the size of Albany that hosts the amount of events and parades that they do is always going to assess people’s safety and what happens. So this is certainly something that everybody does. We always make sure we prescribe the best practices, and that is something that we’re doing as a matter of course,” he said.

Grand Marshals for Albany’s 2025 Memorial Day Parade will be Gold Star parents Jim and Jill Frankoski and Gold Star parents John and Judy Gracia.

Casey Frankoski, John Grassia II were killed in a deadly helicopter crash near the U.S.-Mexico border in March 2024.