GRIDLOCK SAM: Thanks for 32 great years

Sunday, Dec. 18 – Saturday, Dec. 24

ALTERNATE SIDE PARKING RULES ARE IN EFFECT ALL WEEK

Dear Readers: All good things must come to an end, and so I write my last column for the Daily News after more than 32 years. My first column was written during Passover/Easter week in 1990. We have been through a lot together: from the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 and 9/11 in 2001, to the Blackout of ‘03 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012. I’ve seen you through 33 UN General Assembly sessions and more than a score of presidential visits. Through the column we have made the streets safer and provided a voice for the harried New York City commuter. I fully appreciate the well over 10,000 letters submitted to Gridlock Sam. While you may not find me on these pages in the future, check @gridlocksam for my next adventure (after a month-long vacation). For one final time, here’s the traffic forecast:

Gang Green Gridlock Alert for Thursday and Sunday: The Jets host the Lions Sunday, at 1 p.m. There will also be a rare Thursday night game this week, with the Jaguars taking on the Jets at 8:15 p.m. That means tail-gating fans will be hitting the Hudson River crossings around 6 pm just in time to collide with the evening crunch hour.

Happy Chanukah with the first candle lighting Sunday night! Two of the city’s largest menorahs are confusingly both at Grand Army Plaza (in Brooklyn and in Manhattan). There will be a 4 p.m. kickoff concert for Brooklyn’s just outside Prospect Park, affecting Flatbush Ave. Subsequent lighting times: 6 p.m. Monday-Thursday. Manhattan’s big menorah (Central Park at 59th/5th) will be lit at 5:30 p.m. for all 8 nights except next Saturday, when it will be lit at 8 p.m.

A reminder for Sunday: Fifth Ave. will be shut between 49th St. and 57th St. for the final holiday open street; avoid the area between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Wednesday Matinee-Lock! The city is asleep at the switch having not declared this Wednesday a Gridlock Alert Day (which I invented in 1982). West Midtown will be hard hit as theatergoers drive in for lunch before the 2 p.m. shows. Post theater everyone must go see the tree. Expect crosstown streets in the 40s and 50s, from 8th to 5th, to be moving at a crawl all afternoon.

At Madison Square Garden, we’ve got Billy Joel Monday at 8 p.m., the Warriors vs. Knicks 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, and the Rangers hosting the Islanders 7 p.m. Thursday.

The Nets host the Warriors at Barclays 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.