Mayor Bloomberg gets a friendlier reception from these parade-goers in Rockaway, Queens.. (Michael Hicks)
Mayor Bloomberg was booed today as he walked in the annual St. Patrick’s Parade in hurricane-hammered Rockaway, Queens.
The jeers grew so loud toward the end of the parade that mayoral candidate and Council Speaker Christine Quinn appeared to break away from the mayor to march separately.
A spokesman for Quinn later said she always intended to walk separately from the mayor.
Locals didn’t spare their ire over the area’s slow recovery, hoisting signs reading, “Mr. Mayor, we need jetties” and “Listen to the Rockaways.”
“We’ve been dying down here, up to our ears in muck trying to rebuild, get back to a regular life,” one heckler told The Post.
“For the politicians to come down here and try to take our celebration and make it their thing … it’s disgusting.”
At the end of the route, Bloomberg thanked the Sanitation Department, said, “This was a great day for the Rockaways,” and abruptly jumped in his car.
Bloomberg wasn’t the only politician crossed by parade-goers. .
Revelers heckled Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer after he cheered through a bull horn, “Let’s hear it for the Rockaways.”
“Send money, pal. Send money!” one heckler yelled back. “Talk is cheap!”
Public advocate and mayoral contender Bill de Blasio’s crew was also lashed after a staffer chanted through a megaphone, “Mission accomplished. Thanks, Bill de Blasio.”
Many Rockaway residents were happy to enjoy the parade, which they saw as a sign of their neighborhood’s recovery.
“This town really needed this parade today,” said Nick Muro, a 49-year-old plumber who was rescued by surfer Dylan Smith, who tragically died a month after ferrying people to safety during the hurricane.
“We’re looking forward to the bands, the bagpipers — they’re really just pumping us all back up,” he added. “We needed this parade just to show the world that this hurricane is not going to keep us down.”